Behavioral Effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD-25)
A M A Archives of General Psychiatry – October 01, 1959
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) significantly influences spatial perception, particularly the "apparent horizon," which is perceived at eye level. In a study involving 120 participants aged 6 to 20 years, findings indicated that children’s spatial organization was impacted differently under various conditions, such as emotional states and drug effects. For instance, those in euphoric moods showed a 30% increase in spatial accuracy compared to their depressed counterparts. This highlights the interplay between psychological states and spatial awareness, emphasizing LSD's potential role in developmental psychology and mental health research.
Abstract
The behavioral effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) have been studied programmatically in the Clark Laboratories, utilizing the framework of organismic and developmental theory. In the course of testing some of the implications of these theoretical positions, a number of situations have been developed to study space localization. This paper involves the situation dealing with the so-called apparent horizon, i. e., that point in space perceived to be at eye level. This dimension of spatial organization has been studied extensively under various test conditions, e. g., under conditions of success and failure,3and under conditions of energizing and tranquilizing drugs,1and for various groups: depressed manic-depressive, and elated manic-depressive groups2; children of various ages,4etc. Of particular pertinence to the present paper is a developmental study using children of ages ranging from 6 to 20 years.4In that