This interventional trial (n=60), conducted by the University Maastricht (UM), investigates the effects of psilocybin (12mg/70kg) on cognitive flexibility, specifically divergent thinking and goal-directed behaviour.
Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel design in healthy volunteers (n=60) assessing a single oral dose of psilocybin (0.17 mg/kg) versus placebo on divergent thinking and goal-directed versus habitual behaviour with stress induction.
Outcomes include behavioural measures of divergent thinking and goal-directed behaviour, cortical–subcortical functional connectivity and neurotransmission (GABA and glutamate), subjective experience, pharmacokinetics and cortisol. Acute measurements up to 360 minutes post-dose and follow-up testing on day two (~150 minutes).
Single oral psilocybin dose
Dose per bodyweight (0.17 mg/kg)
Placebo comparator
Placebo capsule
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, psilocybin (0.17 mg/kg) produced time- and construct-specific effects on creativity: acutely it increased spontaneous creative insights while impairing deliberate task-based creativity, and seven days later it increased the number of novel ideas. Ultrahigh-field multimodal imaging showed these acute and persisting effects were predicted by within- and between-network connectivity of the default mode network, implicating DMN dynamics in psychedelic modulation of creative cognition.