Language as a Window Into the Altered State of Consciousness Elicited by Psychedelic Drugs
Frontiers in Pharmacology March 22, 2022 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2022.812227 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Psilocybin Altered states of consciousness |
| Keywords | Consciousness Neurochemical Relevance law Cognitive psychology Window of opportunity Expression computer science Action physics Mechanism biology Psychotherapist Hallucinogen Epistemology |
| Citations | 20 |
| Key findings | Computational characterization of language production can partially predict therapeutic outcomes of psychedelic experiences and relate them to other altered states and psychiatric symptoms. |
Abstract
Psychedelics are drugs capable of eliciting profound alterations in the subjective experience of the users, sometimes with long-lasting consequences. Because of this, psychedelic research tends to focus on human subjects, given their capacity to construct detailed narratives about the contents of their consciousness experiences. In spite of its relevance, the interaction between serotonergic psychedelics and language production is comparatively understudied in the recent literature. This review is focused on two aspects of this interaction: how the acute effects of psychedelic drugs impact on speech organization regardless of its semantic content, and how to characterize the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs by analyzing the semantic content of written retrospective reports. We show that the computational characterization of language production is capable of partially predicting the therapeutic outcome of individual experiences, relate the effects elicited by psychedelics with those associated with other altered states of consciousness, draw comparisons between the psychedelic state and the symptomatology of certain psychiatric disorders, and investigate the neurochemical profile and mechanism of action of different psychedelic drugs. We conclude that researchers studying psychedelics can considerably expand the range of their potential scientific conclusions by analyzing brief interviews obtained before, during and after the acute effects. Finally, we list a series of questions and open problems that should be addressed to further consolidate this approach.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on psilocybin, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic psychedelics: An integrative review of epidemiology, therapeutics, mystical experience, and brain network function. General population | 2019 | Integrative review | |
| The pharmacology of psilocybin | 2002 | Review | |
| Serotonin research: contributions to understanding psychoses | 2008 | Review | |
| Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness | 2018 | Review | |
| The abuse potential of medical psilocybin according to the 8 factors of the Controlled Substances Act | 2018 | Review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 18
- Mystical and Affective Aspects of Psychedelic Use in a Naturalistic Setting: A Linguistic Analysis of Online Experience Reports Journal of Psychoactive Drugs November 3, 2023
- LSD and language: Decreased structural connectivity, increased semantic similarity, changed vocabulary in healthy individuals. European Neuropsychopharmacology March 1, 2023
- Quantitative natural language processing markers of psychoactive drug effects: A pre-registered systematic review Journal of Psychopharmacology February 16, 2025
- How to set up a psychedelic study: Unique considerations for research involving human participants. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews July 1, 2026
- A critical review of brain entropy as a biomarker of the psychedelic state. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews July 1, 2026
and 13 more in the library
Cites 60
- Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial Journal of Psychopharmacology November 30, 2016
- The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014
- Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 23, 2012
- Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences April 11, 2016
- Psychometric Evaluation of the Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale (OAV) PLoS One August 31, 2010
and 55 more in the library