Induction and Extinction of Psilocybin Induced Transformations of Visual Space
Richard Hill, Roland A. Fischer
Pharmacopsychiatry January 1, 1973 DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1094389
Summary
Our inherent ability to judge verticality is easily warped. A single dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin (160 µg/kg) profoundly amplified this spatial misjudgment in 16 college-age volunteers, a key finding for cognitive psychology and neuroscience. This effect was further intensified when participants experienced strong body distortion, relevant to body image studies. Psilocybin, a powerful psychedelic, causes a near extinction of optical clarity, highlighting how physics governs our perception of space.
Abstract
There is a “natural” tendency to misjudge the position of the visual as compared to the gravitational vertical. A 160 µg/kg psilocybin-induced accentuation of this misjudgment in 16 college-age volunteers, and a further augmentation in their accentuated drug response after exposure to strong body distortion is reported.