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Carla Mendes Soares is a psychologist Ph.D. candidate in Health Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra (FMUC). Currently, she is engaged in research at the Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT) within the Institute for Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS). Her overarching goal is to investigate the neuronal underpinnings behind the use of psychedelic substances, with the aim of deepening the understanding of the human brain and exploring innovative approaches to mental health and well-being.
Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Carla Soares

Citation names

  • Soares, Carla

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
E315-ED4F-9ADC
ORCID iD
0000-0002-1313-9365

Email addresses

  • casoares@icnas.uc.pt (Professional)
  • carlaalexandrasoares.psi@gmail.com (Personal)

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English Advanced (C1) Proficiency (C2) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1)
Education
Degree Classification
2021/11/12 - 2025
Ongoing
 Ciências da Saúde (Doutoramento)
Major in Ciências Biomédicas
Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
2019/11/15
Concluded
 Psicologia (Mestrado integrado)
Major in Psicologia do Comportamento Desviante e da Justiça
Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Portugal
""Take Existence as a Psychedelic Experience": Self-Care Practices with Psychedelics – The Users’ Perspectives" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
 17
Projects

Grant

Designation Funders
2022/01/01 - Current The Impact of Ayahuasca on Theory of Mind
2021.05025.BD
PhD Student Fellow
Universidade de Coimbra Instituto de Ciências Nucleares Aplicadas à Saúde, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
2022/01 - Current The Impact of Ayahuasca on Theory of Mind
2021.05025.BD
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
2023/03/01 - 2026/02/28 Neural mechanisms underlying visual hallucinations: a causal approach
2022.02963.PTDC
2022.02963.PTDC
10.54499/2022.02963.PTDC
Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing

Contract

Designation Funders
2021/01/01 - 2021/12/31 Spiritual States Induced by Ayahuasca and the Involvement of the Reward System
UID/4950/2020
Research Fellow
Universidade de Coimbra Instituto de Ciências Nucleares Aplicadas à Saúde, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Concluded
Outputs

Publications

Conference poster
  1. Lapo Pais, Marta; Soares, Carla; Teixeira, Marta; Lima, Gisela; Castelo-Branco, Miguel. "Reorganization of central visual population receptive fields in response to an inhaled psychedelic tryptamine". Paper presented in Federation of European Neuroscience Societies 2022, 2022.
  2. Texeira, Marta; Pais, Marta; Soares, Carla; Lima, Gisela; Machado, Sofia; Castelo-Branco, Miguel. "The neural basis for visual e!ects induced by inhaled psychedelics: DMT leads to activation of extrastriate cortex concomitantly with behavioural effects". Paper presented in Neuroscience 2021 - Society for Neuroscience, 2021.
  3. Soares, Carla; Leite, Ângela ; Pinto, Marta. "Taking psychedelics to take care of oneself?". Paper presented in Insight 2019, 2019.
Journal article
  1. Marta Lapo Pais; Marta Teixeira; Carla Soares; Gisela Lima; Patrícia Rijo; Célia Cabral; Miguel Castelo-Branco. "Rapid effects of tryptamine psychedelics on perceptual distortions and early visual cortical population receptive fields". NeuroImage (2024): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120718.
    10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120718
  2. Carla Soares; Gerardo Gonzalo; João Castelhano; Miguel Castelo-Branco. "The relationship between the default mode network and the theory of mind network as revealed by psychedelics – A meta-analysis". Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (2023): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105325.
    10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105325
  3. Carla Mendes Soares; Ângela Leite; Marta Pinto. "Self-Care Practices with Psychedelics – A Qualitative Study of Users’ Perspectives". Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (2022): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2022.2071134.
    10.1080/02791072.2022.2071134
  4. Castelhano, João; Lima, Gisela; Teixeira, Marta; Soares, Carla; Pais, Marta; Castelo-Branco, Miguel. "The Effects of Tryptamine Psychedelics in the Brain: A meta-Analysis of Functional and Review of Molecular Imaging Studies". Frontiers in Pharmacology 12 (2021): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.739053.
    Published • 10.3389/fphar.2021.739053
Activities

Oral presentation

Presentation title Event name
Host (Event location)
2022/07/29 Psychedelic Research Uma Volta ao Cérebro em 4 Dias
Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research
2021/03/19 Spiritual states induced by ayahuasca and the involvement of the reward system Invited presentation at CIBIT
2020/06/17 Cessation and reduction in alcohol consumption and misuse after psychedelic use, Garcia-Romeu et al, 2019 (article presentation)
Mental Health Professionals Section - MIND Foundation

Event participation

Activity description
Type of event 		Event name
Institution / Organization
2019/08/16 - 2019/08/18 Volunteer at a Cientific Conference
Conference
 Breaking Convention - 5th International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness
University of Greenwich, United Kingdom

Association member

Society Organization name Role
2019 - Current MIND Members Foundation (European Foundation for Psychedelic Research) Neuroscience Section, Mental Health Professionals Section, Blog Translation Group