Microdosing—the intermittent ingestion of minute, sub-hallucinogenic amounts of psychedelic substances, repeatedly and over time—has become a widespread, albeit largely understudied, phenomenon. Regulations around using psychedelics at any dose—micro, mini, macro, or mega—pose all sorts of difficulties for those who wish to systematically study the effects of Schedule I drugs, especially in the...
To date, the clinical and scientific literature has best documented the effects of classical psychedelics, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), in typical quantities most often associated with macrodosing. More recently, however, microdosing with psychedelics has emerged as a social trend and nascent therapeutic intervention. This variation in...
RationaleIs it possible to have a psychedelic experience from a placebo alone? Most psychedelic studies find few effects in the placebo control group, yet these effects may have been obscured by the study design, setting, or analysis decisions.ObjectiveWe examined individual variation in placebo effects in a naturalistic environment resembling a typical psychedelic party.MethodsThirty-three...
Hypnosis is a unique form of top-down regulation in which verbal suggestions are capable of eliciting pronounced changes in a multitude of psychological phenomena. Hypnotic suggestion has been widely used both as a technique for studying basic science questions regarding human consciousness but also as a method for targeting a range of symptoms within a therapeutic context. Here we provide a...
Alerte mentale : de la performance aux états modifiés de conscience et pratiques contemplatives. Pour certains chercheurs en science cognitive, la notion de vigilance renvoie au concept d’alerte mentale, c’est-à-dire, la capacité d’atteindre et de maintenir un niveau élevé d’attention pour compléter une tâche. Dans cet essai, nous explorons l’influence qu’exerce la vigilance sur la performance,...
Most researchers leverage bottom-up suppression to unlock the underlying mechanisms of unconscious processing. However, a top-down approach - for example via hypnotic suggestion - paves the road to experimental innovation and complementary data that afford new scientific insights concerning attention and the unconscious. Drawing from a reliable taxonomy that differentiates subliminal and...
Psychoanalysis proffers a wealth of phenomenological tools to advance the study of consciousness. Techniques for elucidating the structures of subjective life are sorely lacking in the cognitive sciences; as such, experiential reporting techniques must rise to meet both complex theories of brain function and increasingly sophisticated neuroimaging technologies. Analysis may offer valuable...
Hypnosis research binds phenomenology and neuroscience. Here we show how recent evidence probing the impact of hypnosis and suggestion can inform and advance a neurophenomenological approach. In contrast to meditative practices that involve lengthy and intensive training, hypnosis induces profound alterations in subjective experience following just a few words of suggestion. Individuals highly...
Cognitive scientists typically classify cognitive processes as either controlled or automatic. Whereas controlled processes are slow and effortful, automatic processes are fast and involuntary. Over the past decade, we have propelled a research trajectory investigating how top-down influence in the form of suggestion can allow individuals to modulate the automaticity of cognitive processes....