LSD, afterglow and hangover: Increased episodic memory and verbal fluency, decreased cognitive flexibility

Wießner, Isabel; Olivieri, Rodolfo; Falchi, Marcelo; Palhano-Fontes, Fernanda; Maia, Lucas Oliveira; Feilding, Amanda; Araújo, Dráulio Barros de; Ribeiro, Sidarta; Tófoli, Luís Fernando

doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2022.01.114

Cited by 25 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…One might also hypothesise that so-called 'learning traps' and associated cognitive misadjustments may be impacted by psychedelics in a potentially useful way (Gopnik, 2020), potentially yielding performance benefits -similar to those that have been observed in children's healthy learning flexibility (Arán Filippetti, Krumm, 2020). Evidence of increased learning rate under LSD (Kanen et al 2021) and sub-acute cognitive flexibility after psychedelics (Wießner et al 2022) may be relevant in this regard. However, we wish to caution that performance may be vulnerable to generalised deficit confounds under psychedelics, meaning that any hypothesised performance enhancement is likely to be dose-dependent (i.e.…”

Section: Neuroscience Of Psychedelics: Psychedelics As Destabilisers ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pattern Breaking: A Complex Systems Approach to Psychedelic Medicine

Hipólito¹,

Mago²,

Rosas³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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There is growing evidence for the safety and efficacy of psychedelic therapy in mental health care. What is less understood however, is how psychedelics act to yield therapeutic results. In this paper we propose that psychedelics act as destabilisers — both in a psychological and a neurophysiological sense. Our proposed framework builds on the ‘entropic brain’ hypothesis, according to which psychedelics increase the entropy of spontaneous cortical activity and, in parallel, the richness or depth of content of psychological experience. The so-called ‘RElaxed Beliefs Under pSychedelics’ (REBUS) model is a predictive-coding inspired extension to this hypothesis, which states that psychedelics’ entropic action is paralleled by a relaxation of prior assumptions. Here we adopt a complex systems theory (CST) perspective, proposing that psychedelics act as destabilisers of excessively reinforced fixed points — or ‘attractors’ — which translates as the breaking of excessively reinforced or overweighted patterns of thinking or behaving. Our CST approach explains how psychedelic-induced increases in brain entropy destabilise neurophysiological set-points that are synonymous with overweighted priors, thereby augmenting and enriching the account given by REBUS. We believe that this perspective helps inspire conceptualisations of psychedelic psychotherapy — bearing relevance both to the peak psychedelic experience and subsequent sub-acute period of potential recovery. We discuss implications for risk mitigation and treatment optimization in psychedelic medicine.

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Section: Neuroscience Of Psychedelics: Psychedelics As Destabilisers ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pattern Breaking: A Complex Systems Approach to Psychedelic Medicine

Hipólito¹,

Mago²,

Rosas³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…In animal studies, chronic LSD treatment has been associated with improvements in learning [113,114,138]. In humans, LSD has improved frontal-dependent memory retrieval, and unpublished data suggests that it may also improve reinforcement learning, possibly by enhancing reward sensitivity [139,140] Based on data for synaptic density, it is assumed that rates of dendritogenesis and synaptogenesis also increase at 6 h post-treatment. See Table S1 for citations.…”

Section: Further Outcomes Possibly Explained By Enhanced Neuroplasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards an understanding of psychedelic-induced neuroplasticity

Calder

Hasler

2022

Neuropsychopharmacol.

116

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Classic psychedelics, such as LSD, psilocybin, and the DMT-containing beverage ayahuasca, show some potential to treat depression, anxiety, and addiction. Importantly, clinical improvements can last for months or years after treatment. It has been theorized that these long-term improvements arise because psychedelics rapidly and lastingly stimulate neuroplasticity. The focus of this review is on answering specific questions about the effects of psychedelics on neuroplasticity. Firstly, we review the evidence that psychedelics promote neuroplasticity and examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind the effects of different psychedelics on different aspects of neuroplasticity, including dendritogenesis, synaptogenesis, neurogenesis, and expression of plasticity-related genes (e.g., brain-derived neurotrophic factor and immediate early genes). We then examine where in the brain psychedelics promote neuroplasticity, particularly discussing the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. We also examine what doses are required to produce this effect (e.g., hallucinogenic doses vs. “microdoses”), and how long purported changes in neuroplasticity last. Finally, we discuss the likely consequences of psychedelics’ effects on neuroplasticity for both patients and healthy people, and we identify important research questions that would further scientific understanding of psychedelics’ effects on neuroplasticity and its potential clinical applications.

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“…Although these enhancements were mostly trends, some evidence in both humans and mice have found psychedelics to enhance familiarity-like memory when administered at consolidation. Specifically, one study found memory enhancements from LSD administered after multiple rounds of encoding and retrieving object locations (Wießner et al ., 2022), when memory performance may become more familiarity-dependent. Consistent with these findings, another study found post-encoding (4-bromo-3,6-dimethoxybenzocyclobuten-1-yl)methylamine (TCB-2), a psychedelic 5-HT 2A agonist, enhanced novel object recognition (Zhang et al ., 2013), an analogue of familiarity-based memory dependent on perirhinal cortex.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We limit the discussion of psychedelics to encoding and retrieval effects, as the reanalyzed data from studies of psychedelics in the present report only manipulated these two studies. Nevertheless, one study in humans (Wießner et al ., 2022) and one study in mice (Zhang et al ., 2013) found evidence for post-encoding psychedelics to enhance memory that may be particularly familiarity-based.…”

Section: Drug Effects On Episodic Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unique Effects of Sedatives, Dissociatives, Psychedelics, Stimulants, and Cannabinoids on Episodic Memory: A Review and Reanalysis of Acute Drug Effects on Recollection, Familiarity, and Metamemory

Doss

Samaha

Barrett

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Despite distinct classes of psychoactive drugs producing putatively unique states of consciousness, there is surprising overlap in terms of their effects on episodic memory and cognition more generally. Episodic memory is supported by multiple subprocesses that have been mostly overlooked in psychopharmacology and could differentiate drug classes. Here, we reanalyzed episodic memory confidence data from 10 previously published datasets (28 drug conditions total) using signal detection models to estimate 2 conscious states involved in episodic memory and 1 consciously-controlled metacognitive process of memory: the retrieval of specific details from one's past (recollection), noetic recognition in the absence of retrieved details (familiarity), and accurate introspection of memory decisions (metamemory). We observed that sedatives, dissociatives, psychedelics, stimulants, and cannabinoids had unique patterns of effects on these mnemonic processes dependent on which phase of memory (encoding, consolidation, or retrieval) was targeted. All drugs at encoding except stimulants impaired recollection, and sedatives, dissociatives, and cannabinoids at encoding impaired familiarity. The effects of sedatives on metamemory were mixed, whereas dissociatives and cannabinoids at encoding tended to enhance metamemory. Surprisingly, psychedelics at encoding tended to enhance familiarity and did not impact metamemory. Stimulants at encoding and retrieval enhanced metamemory, but at consolidation, they impaired metamemory. Together, these findings may have relevance to mechanisms underlying unique subjective phenomena under different drug classes, such as blackouts from sedatives or deja vu from psychedelics. This study provides a framework for interrogating drug effects within a domain of cognition beyond the global impairments on task performance typically reported in psychopharmacology.

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LSD, afterglow and hangover: Increased episodic memory and verbal fluency, decreased cognitive flexibility

Cited by 25 publications

References 65 publications

Pattern Breaking: A Complex Systems Approach to Psychedelic Medicine

Pattern Breaking: A Complex Systems Approach to Psychedelic Medicine

Towards an understanding of psychedelic-induced neuroplasticity

Unique Effects of Sedatives, Dissociatives, Psychedelics, Stimulants, and Cannabinoids on Episodic Memory: A Review and Reanalysis of Acute Drug Effects on Recollection, Familiarity, and Metamemory

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