5 ms·

Spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition during and after psilocybin (2021)

69 points by prismatic 3y ago

itsthecourier 3y ago
> Conclusion In conclusion, this study found that psilocybin induces a time- and construct-related differentiation of effects on creative thinking, suggesting that psychedelics could be a novel tool to investigate underlying neural mechanisms of the creative process1,24. In addition, these findings add some support to the historical claims that psychedelics can influence aspects of the creative process, reducing conventional, logical thinking, and giving rise to novel thoughts, but emphasizes the distinction between spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition, as well as acute and persisting effects of the drug.
Animats 3y ago
Read what Feynman had to say about that, in "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman."
- arcastroe 3y ago
  I read that book, but don't remember what he had to say about psilocybin. Could you provide a tl;dr? I only remember that Feynman consumed weed recreationally and liked to use it to enhance his creativity and thinking in sensory deprivation tanks, but he never tried LSD, fearing it would permanently damage his brain.
  - Animats 3y ago
    He tried LSD once, when it was still legal, at the urging of Dr. Timothy Leary. He then thought he'd solved a hard problem in physics he had been working on. While going to give a talk on the solution, he realized that he had not solved the problem, but had hallucinated that he had solved it. He was very angry. Never tried LSD again. "I like to think, and I don't want to break the machine", he wrote.
    - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
      As a dabbler myself, it seems like this was The Classic™ "user error."
      - nbrty 3y ago
        Imagine what Feynman could have produced if he had used LSD correctly! He could have been as productive as Jack Kerouac!
    - xeonmc 3y ago
      (source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27804592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27804592)
    - nameless_prole 3y ago
      [dead]
    - amelius 3y ago
      So how productive was he before and after the use of LSD?
    - zeteo 3y ago
      Instead of widening the perceptual horizons as traditionally believed, psychedelics rather seem to 'switch off' certain sections of the mind - particularly the cautious area that frets over the idea of dabbling with such compounds. Those that are household names have a knack for quieting this voice of doubt first. Paradoxically, the subjective experience of liberation is born from selective self-silencing.
htag 3y ago
> Following a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group design, we demonstrated that psilocybin (0.17 mg/kg) induced a time- and construct-related differentiation of effects on creative thinking. Can we please stop pretending that double-blind is remotely an option for psychedelic research. The purpose of subject blinding is that the subject will not know if they received the treatment so that both groups have equal placebo effect. Psilocybin is active in such a way that it is obvious to the subject if they received placebo or the treatment. I'd really like to see a psilocybin study where they give one group psilocybin, give another group an active placebo, and ask them if they think they are in the psilocybin group or active placebo group. I imagine people guess correctly >90% of the time. It's possible to do good medical science without double-blind. Pretending that you are doing double-blind when you actually are not just generates doubts in the methodology.
- ramraj07 3y ago
  I don’t see how double blind is impossible here. Perhaps another drug that also gives you a high, on a base that has never taken any recreational drugs, could be viable?
  - elevaet 3y ago
    But that wouldnt be a great control since we'd be comparing the effects of psilocybin to that other drug instead of some kind of baseline.
    - 111111IIIIIII 3y ago
      It would not be a control at all
      - uxp100 3y ago
        Wouldn’t it be an active control, which I believe is common in pharmaceutical research?
        deleted 3y ago
kaoD 3y ago
Anybody knows if psychedelic dosage is weight-dependent? In research I mostly see dosages per kg, while responsible use wikis list absolute dosages (which matches my experience of user-weight not changing much of the perceived strength). This seems natural to me since the brain does not grow with your weight and psychedelics unlike THC are not liposoluble AFAIK, but this is just me speculating and I have zero pharmaceutical-related education. If it is weight-dependent what mechanism affects the strength?

69 points by prismatic 3y ago

> Conclusion In conclusion, this study found that psilocybin induces a time- and construct-related differentiation of effects on creative thinking, suggesting that psychedelics could be a novel tool to investigate underlying neural mechanisms of the creative process1,24. In addition, these findings add some support to the historical claims that psychedelics can influence aspects of the creative process, reducing conventional, logical thinking, and giving rise to novel thoughts, but emphasizes the distinction between spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition, as well as acute and persisting effects of the drug.

Animats 3y ago

Read what Feynman had to say about that, in "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman."

arcastroe 3y ago
I read that book, but don't remember what he had to say about psilocybin. Could you provide a tl;dr? I only remember that Feynman consumed weed recreationally and liked to use it to enhance his creativity and thinking in sensory deprivation tanks, but he never tried LSD, fearing it would permanently damage his brain.
- Animats 3y ago
  He tried LSD once, when it was still legal, at the urging of Dr. Timothy Leary. He then thought he'd solved a hard problem in physics he had been working on. While going to give a talk on the solution, he realized that he had not solved the problem, but had hallucinated that he had solved it. He was very angry. Never tried LSD again. "I like to think, and I don't want to break the machine", he wrote.
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    As a dabbler myself, it seems like this was The Classic™ "user error."
    - nbrty 3y ago
      Imagine what Feynman could have produced if he had used LSD correctly! He could have been as productive as Jack Kerouac!
  - xeonmc 3y ago
    (source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27804592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27804592)
  - nameless_prole 3y ago
    [dead]
  - amelius 3y ago
    So how productive was he before and after the use of LSD?
  - zeteo 3y ago
    Instead of widening the perceptual horizons as traditionally believed, psychedelics rather seem to 'switch off' certain sections of the mind - particularly the cautious area that frets over the idea of dabbling with such compounds. Those that are household names have a knack for quieting this voice of doubt first. Paradoxically, the subjective experience of liberation is born from selective self-silencing.

htag 3y ago

> Following a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group design, we demonstrated that psilocybin (0.17 mg/kg) induced a time- and construct-related differentiation of effects on creative thinking. Can we please stop pretending that double-blind is remotely an option for psychedelic research. The purpose of subject blinding is that the subject will not know if they received the treatment so that both groups have equal placebo effect. Psilocybin is active in such a way that it is obvious to the subject if they received placebo or the treatment. I'd really like to see a psilocybin study where they give one group psilocybin, give another group an active placebo, and ask them if they think they are in the psilocybin group or active placebo group. I imagine people guess correctly >90% of the time. It's possible to do good medical science without double-blind. Pretending that you are doing double-blind when you actually are not just generates doubts in the methodology.

ramraj07 3y ago
I don’t see how double blind is impossible here. Perhaps another drug that also gives you a high, on a base that has never taken any recreational drugs, could be viable?
- elevaet 3y ago
  But that wouldnt be a great control since we'd be comparing the effects of psilocybin to that other drug instead of some kind of baseline.
  - 111111IIIIIII 3y ago
    It would not be a control at all
    - uxp100 3y ago
      Wouldn’t it be an active control, which I believe is common in pharmaceutical research?
      - deleted 3y ago

kaoD 3y ago

Anybody knows if psychedelic dosage is weight-dependent? In research I mostly see dosages per kg, while responsible use wikis list absolute dosages (which matches my experience of user-weight not changing much of the perceived strength). This seems natural to me since the brain does not grow with your weight and psychedelics unlike THC are not liposoluble AFAIK, but this is just me speculating and I have zero pharmaceutical-related education. If it is weight-dependent what mechanism affects the strength?