Psychedelic drugs and perception: a narrative review of the first era of research
This historic review (2021) examines a series of studies conducted in the first and second eras of psychedelic research which examine the perceptual effects of psychedelic drugs and highlights certain commonalities, such as a shared interest in the perception of music. While most studies investigated how psychedelics affect vision across every level of visual processing (e.g., retinal, cortical, subcortical, low-level visual processing, complex visual imagery), other studies investigated its effect on auditory discrimination, the neural correlates of auditory processing, and auditory hallucinations restricted to a subset of participants. Some studies also demonstrated that psychedelics can distort representations of body schema, time perception, taste, olfaction, and synesthesia, but these areas still remain understudied.
Authors
- Jordan Aday
- Emily Bloesch
- Christopher Davoli
Published
Abstract
Psychedelic drugs are well-known for transiently altering perception, and in particular, for their visual effects. Although scientific interest into the substances' effects on perception increased during the first era of psychedelic research during the early to mid-20th century, there is currently no source where these findings have been synthesized. In addressing this gap, the current narrative review found that psychedelics were examined for their influences across all levels of the visual system (e.g., retinal, cortical, subcortical, simple visual processing, complex imagery, hallucinations). Psychedelics were also shown to affect auditory discrimination/generalization, neural correlates of auditory processing, and led to auditory hallucinations in subsets of participants. Several studies demonstrated that psychedelics can distort representations of body schema and time perception. Concerns regarding methodological standards of this era are a limitation to the findings and are discussed. Collectively, this review preserves and increases the accessibility of the work done by pioneering psychedelic/perception researchers, synthesizes findings, and critically analyzes areas of discrepancy to inform future studies.
Research Summary of 'Psychedelic drugs and perception: a narrative review of the first era of research'
Introduction
Aday and colleagues set out to synthesise research from the first era of psychedelic science (roughly 1895–1975) that investigated how classic psychedelics alter perception. The authors note that LSD, psilocybin, mescaline and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) produce pronounced alterations in perception—most prominently visual effects—and that extensive early-to-mid 20th century work explored these phenomena prior to regulatory closures of the field. Contemporary laboratories have recently renewed interest in perceptual effects and mechanisms (for example implicating 5-HT2A receptors in imagery and visual-evoked potentials), but there was no single source compiling the older literature. To address that gap, the study is a widespanning narrative review that collates human (and some animal) studies from the first research era examining perception. The authors organised the material into major perceptual domains—vision (subdivided into physiological changes, low-level processing, and complex imagery), auditory processing, body schema and tactile processing, time perception, and other modalities (taste, olfaction, synesthesia)—and emphasise that methodological standards varied widely across the period and are addressed in a dedicated limitations section.
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Study Details
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- APA Citation
Aday, J. S., Wood, J. R., Bloesch, E. K., & Davoli, C. C. (2021). Psychedelic drugs and perception: a narrative review of the first era of research. Reviews in the Neurosciences, 32(5), 559-571. https://doi.org/10.1515/revneuro-2020-0094
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