Robert Leech
Neuroscientist
Data updated
Research Footprint
Robert Leech appears in 15 tracked papers (2012–2023), most studied alongside Psilocybin, LSD and DMT, across Neuroimaging & Brain Measures, Healthy Volunteers and Schizophrenia.
Most-cited paper: The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs (1269 citations).
Frequent co-authors: Robin Carhart-Harris, David Nutt and Leor Roseman.
Background & Research
Robert Leech is a neuroscientist whose work centres on applying neuroimaging methods to characterise how psychedelic compounds alter large‑scale brain dynamics and conscious experience. He has collaborated with leading teams in the field to study healthy volunteers administered LSD, psilocybin and DMT using fMRI, EEG–fMRI and connectivity analyses, and has helped link acute phenomenology (for example ego‑dissolution) to measurable changes in global functional connectivity. His methodological focus includes network and connectivity metrics and their interpretation in the context of altered states.
Leech's publications and collaborative projects have informed hypotheses about the neural basis of psychedelic states and their relevance to psychopathology and psychotherapy — for example work that connects psilocybin‑induced connectivity changes to models of early psychosis and studies that consider implications for psychedelic‑assisted psychotherapy. He is frequently listed as a co‑author on influential neuroimaging papers in the field and has contributed to efforts to integrate neurobiological, clinical and theoretical perspectives on consciousness and therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics.
Key Impact
Noted for applying advanced neuroimaging and functional‑connectivity analyses to characterize brain network changes induced by classical psychedelics and for contributions to theories of altered conscious states.
Collaboration Network
34 collaborators· click a node to visit their profile
Full network →Compounds
Topics
Top Collaborators
Affiliations
Institutions, companies, and organisations Robert Leech is associated with.
Imperial College London
academicThe Centre for Psychedelic Research, led by Professor David Nutt and Dr. David Erritzoe, focuses heavily on the action of psychedelic drugs in the brain and their clinical utility as aides to psychotherapy. Thanks to their extensive neuroimaging studies, this group has proposed vital mechanisms for how psychedelics work, including the Entropic Brain Theory and REBUS (RElaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics).
View stakeholder →King's College London
academicThe Centre for Mental Health Research and Innovation and the Psychoactive Trials Group are actively conducting clinical trials with various psychedelic compounds to develop new care models for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and anorexia nervosa.
View stakeholder →