Psychotropic Drug-Induced Transformations of Visual Space
International Pharmacopsychiatry – January 01, 1971
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Potent **drugs** like psilocybin and D-amphetamine significantly impair our brain's ability to perceive **space** accurately, lowering thresholds for visual distortion. This **pharmacology** reveals certain **medicine** hinders the mind's natural counter-adaptation to optical distortions, potentially explaining aspects of **hallucinations in medical conditions**. Conversely, the **drug** chlorpromazine promotes this visual optimization. This interference with perception operates independently of how quickly distorting stimuli are presented, highlighting subcortical influences on our visual interpretation processes.
Abstract
It was found that ergotropic arousal-inducing drugs, such as psilocybin, a Ditran®-type 'glycolate' and D-amphetamine, significantly lower human spatial distortion thresholds, i.e. these drugs interfere with counter-adaptation to optical distortion, or the intention to see the world undistorted. The trophotropic arousal-inducing chlorpromazine®on the other hand promotes such counter-adaptation, i.e. the optimization of visual information. The interference with optimization is independent of the rate at which the distorting stimulus is presented. Optimization is regarded here as a cortical (perceptual-behavioral) interpretive process while interference with and promotion of the optimization are subcortical influences.