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The use of minute doses of magic mushrooms and truffles containing psychedelic substances could induce an unconstrained state of thought that may give rise to new creative ideas. "Micro-dosing" in this way can allow people to experience the creative benefits of psychedelic drugs without the risk of "bad trips" that often accompany high doses of such substances. That's according to a new study in the Springer brand newspaper psychopharmacology which is the official journal of the European Behavioral Pharmacology Society (EBPS). The research was led by Luisa Prochazkova of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. This is the first study of its kind to experimentally study the effects of cognitive enhancement of microdosing on a person's brain functions in a natural environment.
Taking a tiny fraction of a normal dose of psychedelic substances is becoming a trend in some professional settings because it is thought to stimulate brain function and enhance mental flexibility and creativity. However, experimental research that departs from anecdotal evidence is still rare.
In this study, Prochazkova and colleagues studied the effects of a microdose of a psychedelic substance on the cognitive brain function of 36 people attending an event organized by the Psychedelic Society of the Netherlands. During the experimental phase, participants were assigned to three tasks before and after consuming an average of 0.37 g of dried truffles. The tests evaluated their convergent thinking (the identification of a unique solution to a problem), their fluid intelligence (the ability to reason and solve new problems) and their divergent thinking (the ability to recognize from many possible solutions). The researchers then analyzed the active substances present in the truffles consumed by the participants.
After taking the microdose of truffles, the researchers found that participants' convergent thinking skills were improved. The participants also had more ideas on how to solve a presented task and were more fluid, more flexible and more original in their possibilities. Microdosing with psychedelic substances thus improved participants' divergent and convergent thinking.
These findings are in line with previous studies that have shown that high doses of psychedelic substances can enhance creative performance. The fact that participants' intelligence scores and general analytical abilities have not changed suggests that the effect of truffles is rather selective and benefits more to a person's creative field.
"Together, our findings suggest that consumption of a microdose truffle allowed participants to create more original alternative solutions for a problem, thus providing preliminary support for the hypothesis that microdosing improves thinking." divergent, "says Prochazkova. "In addition, we also observed an improvement in convergent thinking, that is, an increase in performance on a task requiring convergence on a single correct or optimal solution."
Prochazkova hopes that these results will stimulate further research on the beneficial effects of psychedelics in microdosing. "In addition to its benefits as a potential cognitive enhancement technique, microdosing could be further investigated for its therapeutic efficacy in helping individuals with thought patterns or rigid behaviors such as individuals." suffering from depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder, "she explains.
Explore further:
How psychedelic microdosing could help relieve anxiety and improve concentration
More information:
Luisa Prochazkova et al, Exploration of the effect of psychedelic microdosants on creativity in an open natural setting, psychopharmacology (2018). DOI: 10.1007 / s00213-018-5049-7
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