Acute effects of psilocybin on the dynamics of gaze fixations during visual aesthetic perception
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) November 1, 2023 Stephanie Müller, Federico Cavanna, L. de la Fuente et al. 3 citations preprint
High doses of psilocybin mushrooms cause people to explore paintings with more local, less random eye movements, making their gaze patterns less entropic. Participants also reported stronger emotional responses and a greater state of flow under the high dose. These effects are consistent with psilocybin altering the perception of low-level visual features like textures, shapes, and colors. The findings demonstrate that eye-tracking under naturalistic conditions can objectively measure psychedelic-induced perceptual changes, supporting greater ecological validity.