Effects of psilocybin microdosing on awe and aesthetic experiences: a preregistered field and lab-based study
In a preregistered combined field- and lab-based study, psilocybin microdosing increased self-reported awe in response to videos of funny animals and moving objects compared with placebo. However, about two-thirds of participants broke blind, and exploratory analyses suggest expectancy effects may largely drive these subjective benefits.
Authors
- Michal Kuchar
- Michiel Van Elk
Published
Abstract
There is an increased societal trend to engage in microdosing, in which small sub-hallucinogenic amounts of psychedelics are consumed on a regular basis. Following subjective reports that microdosing enhances the experience of nature and art, in the present study we set out to study the effects of psilocybin microdosing on feelings of awe and art perception. In this preregistered combined field- and lab-based study, participants took part in a microdosing workshop after which they volunteered to self-administer a psilocybin microdose or a placebo for three consecutive weeks, while the condition was kept blind to the participants and researchers. Following a 2-week break, the condition assignment was reversed. During each block, participants visited the lab twice to measure the effects of psilocybin microdosing vs. placebo. We used standardized measures of awe, in which participants reported their experiences in response to short videos or when viewing abstract artworks from different painters. Our confirmatory analyses showed that participants felt more awe in response to videos representing funny animals and moving objects in the microdosing compared to the placebo condition. However, about two-third of our participants were breaking blind to their experimental condition. Our exploratory findings suggest that expectancy-effects may be a driving factor underlying the subjective benefits of microdosing.
Research Summary of 'Effects of psilocybin microdosing on awe and aesthetic experiences: a preregistered field and lab-based study'
Introduction
Van Elk and colleagues situate their study within growing public and scientific interest in psychedelics, and in particular the popular practice of microdosing, in which sub-hallucinogenic amounts of substances such as LSD or psilocybin are taken repeatedly. They note that much of the evidence for beneficial effects of microdosing comes from anecdotal reports and uncontrolled self-report surveys, and that experimental findings to date are mixed; some controlled studies report subtle effects on cognition or brain connectivity, whereas others find little or no reliable benefit. The authors identify two additional problems in the literature: low ecological validity of many laboratory measures, and the difficulty of separating true drug effects from expectancy and breaking-blind effects in placebo-controlled designs. The present study therefore aimed to test whether psilocybin microdosing increases feelings of awe and alters aesthetic experience in a preregistered, placebo-controlled, combined field-and lab-based design. Building on prior work linking full-dose psychedelic experiences and awe to similar neural signatures (for example, decreases in default mode network activity) and on associations between absorption and responsiveness to psychedelics, Van Elk and colleagues hypothesised that microdosing would increase awe to awe-inducing videos and increase perceived profoundness and positive emotions in response to abstract artworks. The study also planned to examine moderators such as the trait absorption scale and to probe potential expectancy effects.
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Study Details
- Study Typeindividual
- Journal
- Compound
- Topics
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- APA Citation
van Elk, M., Fejer, G., Lempe, P., Prochazckova, L., Kuchar, M., Hajkova, K., & Marschall, J. (2022). Effects of psilocybin microdosing on awe and aesthetic experiences: a preregistered field and lab-based study. Psychopharmacology, 239(6), 1705-1720. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05857-0
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