Resetting the brain

Summary

Psychedelics may help 'reset' dysfunctional neural networks by disrupting high-level beliefs, allowing for cognitive revision. This chapter argues that while the hypothesis of psychedelics causing therapeutic benefits through such disruptions is valid, it should also consider the cognitive functions of these networks. The predictive processing theory suggests that the most commonly revised beliefs during successful psychedelic therapy are those related to the self.

Study at a glance

Abstract

‘Resetting the brain’ examines the hypothesis that (i) large-scale neural networks become stuck in dysfunctional configurations in pathology, and (ii) psychedelics cause therapeutic benefits by disrupting these configurations, providing an opportunity to ‘reset’ the relevant networks into a healthier state. This chapter argues that this view is correct but limited; per Chapter 5, it needs to be supplemented with an account of these networks’ cognitive functions. To this end, the chapter introduces the predictive processing (PP) theory of cognition, which views the brain as an organ for prediction error minimisation. One PP-based theory of psychedelic action claims that (i) the networks targeted by psychedelics encode high-level beliefs, and (ii) psychedelic disruption of these beliefs provides an opportunity to revise them. This is the cognitive process that corresponds to the ‘resetting’ of neural networks. The chapter concludes by proposing that the beliefs most often revised in successful psychedelic therapy are self-related beliefs.