Departamento de Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA - CONICET), Pabellón I, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Montañeses 2325, C1428 CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Transl Psychiatry. 2022 Aug 2;12(1):307. doi: 10.1038/s41398-022-02039-0.
The use of low sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics ("microdosing") has gained popularity in recent years. Although anecdotal reports claim multiple benefits associated with this practice, the lack of placebo-controlled studies severely limits our knowledge of microdosing and its effects. Moreover, research conducted in standard laboratory settings could fail to capture the motivation of individuals engaged or planning to engage in microdosing protocols, thus underestimating the likelihood of positive effects on creativity and cognitive function. We recruited 34 individuals starting to microdose with psilocybin mushrooms (Psilocybe cubensis), one of the materials most frequently used for this purpose. Following a double-blind placebo-controlled experimental design, we investigated the acute and short-term effects of 0.5 g of dried mushrooms on subjective experience, behavior, creativity (divergent and convergent thinking), perception, cognition, and brain activity. The reported acute effects were significantly more intense for the active dose compared to the placebo, but only for participants who correctly identified their experimental condition. These changes were accompanied by reduced EEG power in the theta band, together with preserved levels of Lempel-Ziv broadband signal complexity. For all other measurements there was no effect of microdosing except for few small changes towards cognitive impairment. According to our findings, low doses of psilocybin mushrooms can result in noticeable subjective effects and altered EEG rhythms, but without evidence to support enhanced well-being, creativity and cognitive function. We conclude that expectation underlies at least some of the anecdotal benefits attributed to microdosing with psilocybin mushrooms.
近年来，低亚感知剂量的迷幻剂（“微剂量”）的使用变得越来越流行。尽管传闻报告声称这种做法有多种好处，但缺乏安慰剂对照研究严重限制了我们对微剂量及其作用的了解。此外，在标准实验室环境中进行的研究可能无法捕捉到参与或计划参与微剂量方案的个体的动机，从而低估了对创造力和认知功能产生积极影响的可能性。我们招募了 34 名开始使用裸盖菇素蘑菇（Psilocybe cubensis）进行微剂量的个体，这是最常用于此目的的材料之一。我们采用双盲安慰剂对照实验设计，研究了 0.5 克干蘑菇对主观体验、行为、创造力（发散思维和聚合思维）、知觉、认知和大脑活动的急性和短期影响。与安慰剂相比，活性剂量的急性影响明显更强烈，但仅对正确识别其实验条件的参与者如此。这些变化伴随着 theta 波段脑电功率的降低，同时保留了 Lempel-Ziv 宽带信号复杂度的水平。除了认知障碍的一些小变化外，微剂量对所有其他测量都没有影响。根据我们的发现，低剂量的裸盖菇素蘑菇可以产生明显的主观影响和改变的脑电图节律，但没有证据支持增强幸福感、创造力和认知功能。我们得出结论，期望至少可以解释一些归因于微剂量裸盖菇素蘑菇的传闻中的好处。
