Effects of psilocybin on uncertain punishment learning.
Neurobiology of learning and memory September 1, 2024 David S Jacobs, Alina P Bogachuk, Chloé L Le Moing et al. 4 citations
Psilocybin alters how rats suppress actions when facing a conflict between seeking reward and avoiding punishment, but the effect depends on timing. During learning, psilocybin increased behavioral suppression in female rats as they learned that a risky action could lead to punishment. After the reward-punishment associations were already learned, psilocybin decreased behavioral suppression in both male and female rats. These divergent effects suggest that psilocybin's influence on approach-avoidance conflict changes depending on whether the conflict is being learned or has already been learned, which may relate to its therapeutic action in mood disorders.