Researchers have published the first images showing the effects of LSD on the human brain, as part of a series of studies that are examining how the drug causes its characteristic hallucinogenic effects1. David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London who has previously examined the neural effects of mind-altering drugs such as the hallucinogen psilocybin — an active ingredient in magic mushrooms — was one of the study‘s leaders. He tells Nature what the research revealed, and how LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) might ultimately be useful in therapies.