Nature corrects 2026 psychedelics study on 5-HT2A receptor signaling

Nature issues correction to landmark psychedelics paper

The journal Nature has published a formal correction to a major 2026 study on how psychedelic drugs work in the brain. The correction, issued online on January 28th, 2026, fixes a series of typographical errors and incorrect chemical structures in the original paper.

The study, titled "Psychedelics elicit their effects by 5-HT2A receptor-mediated G i signalling," was a significant finding in neuropharmacology. It described the precise molecular mechanism by which compounds like psilocybin activate serotonin receptors.

Errors spanned text, figures, and labels

The list of corrections is highly technical but specific. In the text, several amino acid residue labels like "L22945.52" were missing superscript formatting and have been fixed. The term "alkane chain" was incorrectly used twice and has been corrected to "alkyl chain."

More substantially, several figures contained mistakes. In Fig. 1a, the published chemical structure for the psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT showed an erroneous extra bond on an oxygen atom. The structure for psilocybin also incorrectly showed "O–" on a phosphate group instead of the correct "OH."

Other figure errors included incorrect receptor subtype labels in a key and wrong amino acid codes in labels for Fig. 4h and Extended Data Fig. 5k. The colors for labels in Extended Data Fig. 4 were also wrong and have been amended.

The journal confirmed all corrections have been made to the HTML and PDF versions of the article available online.

Study involved large Chinese research collaboration

The original research was the product of a massive collaboration across numerous institutions in China. The paper lists over 50 authors from more than 15 different labs and centers.

The primary affiliations include:

• West China Hospital, Sichuan University
• Tianfu Jincheng Laboratory
• Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Huazhong University of Science and Technology
• Zhejiang University

Ten researchers are noted as having contributed equally to the work: Zheng Xu, Hongshuang Wang, Jingjing Yu, Yue Deng, Xiaowen Tian, Rongjun Ni, Fan Xia, Lingyi Yang, Chanjuan Xu, and Liting Zhang.

Correction follows standard scientific process

Publishing formal corrections or errata is a standard part of the scientific process when errors are discovered post-publication. The notice ensures the permanent record is as accurate as possible and that future researchers citing the work have the correct information.

The correction is linked to the original article via its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). The original paper's DOI is https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-10061-7, and the correction notice has its own DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10249-5.

Despite the errors, the core findings and conclusions of the influential study remain unchanged. The research continues to be a critical reference for understanding the 5-HT2A receptor, the primary target for classic psychedelics.