Psychedelic psychotropics
Can magic mushrooms make you more creative?
At an event organized by the Psychedelic Society of the Netherlands, participants were asked to perform three creativity tests. Afterwards, the volunteers were given 0.37 g of dried magic truffles. The idea was to take just enough of the substance to heighten mental activity and create a feeling of calm energy, but not enough to hallucinate.
When they were tested for creativity again, the results were significant: a minute amount of truffles allowed participants to create more out-of-the-box solutions for a problem, providing preliminary support for the assumption that minuscule amounts of these drugs improve divergent thinking (thinking up many solutions).
The scientists also found an improvement in convergent thinking; that is, increased performance on a task that requires the convergence on a single correct or best solution.
This study was published in Psychopharmacology.
There is more
Several other studies suggest that low-dose psychedelics have potential benefits.
The Lancet reported that the symptoms of a group of depression treatment-resistant participants improved when they were given psilocybin (magic mushroom) along with supportive therapy.
At the University of Zurich, researchers found that psilocybin inhibits the brain's limbic system, an area associated with controlling emotions and instinctual urges. By slowing the amygdala, the drug repressed negative emotions in patients and improved their moods.
A Johns Hopkins University study suggests that magic truffles could weaken nicotine addiction and help smokers quit.
A study published in PNAS found that the compound inhibits not only the limbic system, but also the prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. These are areas associated with personality expression, filtering stimuli intake, and intrinsic control. The slowing of these areas could explain why psilocybins, in high enough dosages, leads to hallucinations and a feeling of oneness with the world.
In a Time interview, Robin Carhart-Harris, lead author of the PNAS study, said the study implies that a much of our brain activity is dedicated to keeping the world stable, ordinary, familiar, and unsurprising. "It shuts off this ruminating area and allows the mind to work more freely."
Preliminary studies
However, don't start looking for a local dealer yet! These studies have severe limitations, including small sample size, no control group, no control for the placebo effect, and not looking at long-term effects. These are therefore only preliminary studies, and much work must be done to confirm these results.
Sources in order of mention
Dickinson, K. (29 October 2018). Microdosing magic truffles makes you more creative, new study finds. Big Think. Retrieved 6 November 2018 from https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/magic-truffles-increase-creativity.
Prochazkova, L., Lippelt, P., Colzato, L.S., Kuchar, M. Sjoerds, Z., and Hommel, B. (2018). Exploring the effect of microdosing psychedelics on creativity in an open-label natural setting. Psychopharmacology. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s00213-018-5049-7.
Mithoefer, M.C., Grob, C.S., and Brewerton, T.D. (5 April 2016). Novel psychopharmacological therapies for psychiatric disorders: psilocybin and MDMA. The Lancet. DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00576-3.
Kraehenmann, R., Preller, K.H., Scheidegger, T.P., Bosch, OlG., Seifritz, E., and Vollenweider, F.S. (2014). Psilocybin-induced decrease in amygdala reactivity correlates with enhanced positive mood in healthy volunteers. Biological Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.04.010.
Khazan, O. (17 June 2016). Live every day like you're on mushrooms. The Atlantic. Retrieved 6 November 2018 from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/live-like-youre-on-mushrooms/487286/.
Carhart-Harris, R.L., Erritzoe, D., Williams, T. et al. (2012). Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(6). 2138-2143. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1119598109.