Famia Askari

2 papers in the library · 2 citations · publishing 2025-2026

Papers

Effects of psilocybin on personality, psychiatric symptoms, and values: Exploring mediating effects of the acute psychedelic experience

Journal of Psychopharmacology January 26, 2026 Jess Kerr-Gaffney, Samuel Myrtle, Famia Askari et al. 2 citations

A single dose of psilocybin, compared to an inert placebo, did not alter personality traits, psychiatric symptoms, or cognitive flexibility in healthy participants. However, both the 10 mg and 25 mg psilocybin groups reported greater changes in personal values at both short-term (day 8) and long-term follow-up (day 85). The acute psychedelic experience, particularly the feeling of oceanic boundlessness, partially explained these value changes, with auditory alterations also playing a role in one subscale. These exploratory findings are tentative and require replication in larger samples.

DOI: 10.1177/02698811251408769 Psilocybin Hallucinogen Placebo Psychiatry +4

The effect of psychedelics on associative learning: a systematic review

bioRxiv July 22, 2025 Alice Caulfield, Lorraine Li, Famia Askari et al. preprint

Psychedelics show potential for enhancing associative learning in animals, according to a systematic review of 31 studies (29 animal, 2 human). The review found that psychedelic administration improved learning across classical and operant conditioning paradigms, including fear extinction and reversal learning, though effects varied by dose, timing, training intensity, and sex. Possible mechanisms include increased prediction error sensitivity, serotonin receptor agonism, and structural plasticity. Learning enhancements may persist into the post-acute phase and depend on active environmental engagement. These findings have not yet been confirmed in humans, but suggest a window of enhanced learning that could inform psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

DOI: 10.1101/2025.07.21.665870 Neuroplasticity Cognitive enhancement Brain function enhancement Learning improvement +8