INTRODUCTION: Taking microdoses (a mere fraction of normal doses) of psychedelic substances, such as truffles, recently gained popularity, as it allegedly has multiple beneficial effects including creativity and problem-solving performance, potentially through targeting serotonergic 5-HT2A receptors and promoting cognitive flexibility, crucial to creative thinking. Nevertheless, enhancing effects of microdosing remain anecdotal, and in the absence of quantitative research on microdosing psychedelics, it is impossible to draw definitive conclusions on that matter. Here, our main aim was to quantitatively explore the cognitive-enhancing potential of microdosing psychedelics in healthy adults. METHODS: During a microdosing event organized by the Dutch Psychedelic Society, we examined the effects of psychedelic truffles (which were later analyzed to quantify active psychedelic alkaloids) on two creativity-related problem-solving tasks: the Picture Concept Task assessing convergent thinking and the Alternative Uses Task assessing divergent thinking. A short version of the Ravens Progressive Matrices task assessed potential changes in fluid intelligence. We tested once before taking a microdose and once while the effects were expected to be manifested. RESULTS: We found that both convergent and divergent thinking performance was improved after a non-blinded microdose, whereas fluid intelligence was unaffected. CONCLUSION: While this study provides quantitative support for the cognitive-enhancing properties of microdosing psychedelics, future research has to confirm these preliminary findings in more rigorous placebo-controlled study designs. Based on these preliminary results, we speculate that psychedelics might affect cognitive metacontrol policies by optimizing the balance between cognitive persistence and flexibility. We hope this study will motivate future microdosing studies with more controlled designs to test this hypothesis.

• MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• halucinogeny aplikace a dávkování   MeSH
• inteligence účinky léků   fyziologie   MeSH
• inteligenční testy MeSH
• klinické zkoušky, fáze I jako téma MeSH
• kreativita * MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• motivace účinky léků   fyziologie   MeSH
• myšlení účinky léků   fyziologie   MeSH
• nootropní látky aplikace a dávkování   MeSH
• řešení problému účinky léků   fyziologie   MeSH
• světelná stimulace metody   MeSH
• vztah mezi dávkou a účinkem léčiva MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• klinické zkoušky, fáze I MeSH
• pragmatická klinická studie MeSH

• MeSH
• ketamin farmakologie   MeSH
• kognice fyziologie   účinky léků   MeSH
• krátkodobá paměť fyziologie   účinky léků   MeSH
• krysa rodu rattus MeSH
• psychomotorický výkon fyziologie   účinky léků   MeSH
• řešení problému účinky léků   MeSH
• skopolamin farmakologie   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• krysa rodu rattus MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• zvířata MeSH