December 28, 2023
Paweł Orlowski, Justyna Hobot, Anastasia Ruban et al.
1 citation
preprint
Regular, naturalistic use of classic psychedelics (15 or more lifetime experiences) does not appear to alter the brain's basic representation of self, as measured by the P300 event-related potential response to one's own name. In a cross-sectional study comparing 56 experienced psychedelics users with 57 non-users, no difference was found in P300 amplitude evoked by the participant's own name. However, psychedelics users showed a smaller increase in P300 amplitude when processing a task-relevant target name compared to non-users, suggesting that repeated psychedelic use might affect how attentional resources are allocated to task-relevant stimuli rather than changing the long-term neural representation of self.
October 9, 2023
Paweł Orlowski, Justyna Hobot, Anastasia Ruban et al.
preprint
People who regularly use psychedelic substances in naturalistic settings show reduced early neural responses to negative emotional faces compared to non-users. Electroencephalography measured event-related potentials while participants viewed faces expressing anger, sadness, happiness, or neutrality. Experienced psychedelic users (56 people) had significantly lower N200 amplitudes when processing fearful faces than non-users (55 people), indicating weaker automatic emotional reactivity. Differences also appeared in N170 and N200 components between groups for fearful faces. Later components related to attention (P200, P300) did not differ between groups. Naturalistic psychedelic use may dampen early, automatic processing of negative emotional stimuli.
Arabixiv (OSF Preprints)
September 23, 2021
Paweł Orlowski, Anastasia Ruban, Jan Szczypiński et al.
preprint
People who have used psychedelics more times over their lives report greater positive emotional reactions, less negative emotional reactivity, more reflection and internal self-awareness, and less rumination and concern about how others see them. These links are largely explained by how intense their past ego-dissolution and mystical experiences were. The findings suggest that regular naturalistic psychedelic use is associated with lasting, adaptive changes in emotional reactivity and self-consciousness, which may help explain why users often report higher well-being.