Reduced precision underwrites ego dissolution and therapeutic outcomes under psychedelics

This preprint (2021) argues that reductions to precision of belief updating underpin ego dissolution and that alterations to consciousness under psychedelics have a common mechanism of reduced precision of Bayesian belief updating. Connectivity changes in the cortex under the influence of psychedelics suggest that precision of Bayesian belief updating may be a mechanism to modify and investigate consciousness.

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Authors

Adeel Razi
Devon Stoliker
Gary Egan

Published

March 17, 2022

Frontiers in Neuroscience

meta Study

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Abstract

Evidence suggests classic psychedelics reduce the precision of belief updating and enable access to a range of alternate hypotheses that underwrite how we make sense of the world. This process, in the higher cortices, has been postulated to explain the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelics for the treatment of internalising disorders. We argue reduced precision also underpins change to consciousness, known as ego dissolution, and that alterations to consciousness and attention under psychedelics have a common mechanism of reduced precision of Bayesian belief updating. Evidence connecting the role of serotonergic receptors to large-scale connectivity changes in the cortex suggests the precision of Bayesian belief updating may be a mechanism to modify and investigate consciousness and attention.

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Research Summary of 'Reduced precision underwrites ego dissolution and therapeutic outcomes under psychedelics'

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βBlossom's Take

This commentary is useful because it gives a clear Bayesian account of two claims that are often discussed separately, ego dissolution and therapeutic change. It is not evidence on its own, but it helps keep the mechanistic story coherent by linking altered belief updating to both phenomenology and potential clinical effects.