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A popular modern trend involves taking tiny amounts of psychedelic mushrooms to boost brain power, but new evidence suggests the benefits may be largely imaginary. A rigorous scientific investigation found that consuming small amounts of psilocybin offered no measurable improvements in cognitive function or mood compared to a dummy pill. These results come from a comprehensive report published in the journal Neuropharmacology. The findings challenge the growing industry built around the alleged benefits of sub-perceptual psychedelic use.
Quelle surprise.
The practice is known as microdosing. It typically involves ingesting about one-10th to one-20th of a standard recreational dose of a psychedelic substance. Users aim to sharpen their minds or brighten their moods without experiencing the hallucinations or disorientation associated with a full trip. Proponents and media reports often claim this regimen enhances creativity, focus, and general productivity.
However, much of the existing praise for microdosing comes from personal stories rather than strict science. Past research often failed to account for the placebo effect. This occurs when people feel better simply because they expect a treatment to work. Without a control group, it is impossible to separate chemical effects from psychological expectations. Observational studies have reported benefits ranging from better social skills to reduced anxiety. Yet these studies relied on participants who knew they were taking a drug.
Luisa Prochazkova of Leiden University led a team to investigate these claims using a more skeptical approach. They designed their experiment around a concept known as the metacontrol state model. This psychological theory suggests the human brain balances two modes of processing. One mode is persistence, which allows a person to stay focused on a specific goal and ignore distractions. This is often called proactive control.
The other mode is flexibility. This mode helps a person switch tasks, adapt to new information, or think outside the box. Theoretical models suggest that pharmacological interventions often force a trade-off between these two styles. For example, a drug that improves focus might make a person less flexible. The researchers hypothesized that psilocybin might shift the brain toward flexibility. They suspected this shift might come at the cost of reduced focus. To test this, they needed to see if the drug changed how people solved specific types of problems.
[…] In the first experiment, participants consumed about 0.65 grams of fresh truffles. They followed a schedule of taking a dose every few days for roughly four weeks. During this time, they completed a battery of computer tests. These tests measured memory, the ability to ignore distractions, and social insight. One of the primary tools used was the AX-Continuous Performance Task.
The results from the first experiment revealed no consistent differences between the two groups. The microdosing group did not perform better on memory tasks. They showed no advantage in their ability to focus or switch between tasks. The researchers observed a slight improvement in recognizing emotions in the microdosing group during a social cognition test. However, this finding was not statistically significant after adjusting for the number of tests run. It was likely a random fluctuation in the data.
[…] There was one area where the groups differed. Participants taking the real truffles reported more negative physical sensations. These included feelings of nausea, temperature changes, or general bodily discomfort. The placebo group experienced these physical symptoms less frequently. This suggests the drug was pharmacologically active in the body, even if it did not change the mind.
A well-known side-effect of psychedelic drugs is known as “body load”.
Future research could focus on different populations. People suffering from depression or anxiety might respond differently than healthy volunteers. The researchers suggest that future studies should examine whether specific groups benefit more than others. They also recommend using more naturalistic assessments to measure daily functioning. For now, the scientific evidence suggests that for healthy people, microdosing psilocybin is unlikely to provide the cognitive boost that users seek.
Yep, doesn’t work, which is not surprising. It’s likely the same for microdosing other psychedelic drugs such as LSD.
Personally, I strongly believe that psychedelics are medicines, but medicines that you can’t just take once a morning and twice in the evening. They’re medicines that demand a lot of hard work – from preparing for a session, the actual session itself and then integration, which is probably the most important part. The best description of psychedelics I’ve heard is that they are strict masters but unruly servants. Or words to that effect.
All this is, of course, in a way, a 21st-century version of homeopathy – the belief that diluting a substance that causes symptoms in a healthy person allows it, in tiny doses, to treat those same symptoms in someone who is ill.
The twist here is instead of a substance that causes symptoms, it’s a psychedelic. But the principle is the same.
So sorry kids, magic mushrooms aren’t going to give you superpowers, no matter how you take them.
