A new investigation published in the journal Neuropharmacology offers a nuanced perspective on the popular practice of microdosing psilocybin. Researchers found that taking tiny amounts of magic truffles may improve the quality of creative thinking, but not the speed or quantity of ideas generated. This study, which pooled data from three separate clinical trials, suggests that while microdosing does not turn individuals into limitless generators of concepts, it might help them bypass conventional associations to reach more original solutions.
The practice of microdosing involves ingesting a fraction of a recreational dose of a psychedelic substance. Users often claim this regimen enhances productivity, mood, and creativity without causing hallucinations. Despite these anecdotal reports, scientific evidence has remained inconsistent. Many previous studies lacked proper control groups or failed to account for the placebo effect. To address these gaps, a team led by Luisa Prochazkova from Leiden University conducted a rigorous series of experiments to isolate the specific cognitive effects of psilocybin on creative potential.
Creativity is often treated as a single skill, but psychologists view it as a combination of distinct processes. The researchers focused on two primary modes of thought: convergent thinking and divergent thinking. Convergent thinking is the ability to narrow down multiple possibilities to find a single, correct answer. This is the type of logic used in standard intelligence tests or when finding the common link between three unrelated words. Divergent thinking, by contrast, involves generating many different ideas in response to an open-ended prompt. This is often tested by asking participants to list as many uses as possible for a common object, such as a towel or a brick.
The research team theorized that psilocybin acts on specific brain receptors to increase cognitive flexibility. This flexibility allows the brain to activate diverse mental representations simultaneously. While high doses of psychedelics can overwhelm cognitive control, the researchers hypothesized that a microdose might provide enough relaxation of rigid thought patterns to aid divergent thinking. They did not expect it to help with convergent thinking, which requires focused, top-down control.
To test this hypothesis, the investigators designed three separate double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. In each experiment, participants attended a workshop where they prepared their own capsules. Some capsules contained psilocybin truffles, while others contained a non-psychoactive placebo. Neither the participants nor the researchers knew who received the active dose until the study concluded. The trials took place in a semi-naturalistic setting, mimicking how people microdose in the real world, but with laboratory testing sessions scheduled during the peak effects of the drug.
The first experiment involved 59 participants who took a low dose of about 0.65 grams of fresh truffles over several weeks. The second experiment increased the dose to roughly 1 gram and extended the duration, involving 61 participants. The third experiment utilized a crossover design with 27 participants, meaning each person experienced both the placebo and the active condition in separate blocks, with the dose increased to 1.5 grams. To ensure the findings were robust, the authors combined the data from all three studies into a “mega-analysis,” resulting in a total sample of 171 individuals.
The results of this comprehensive analysis revealed that microdosing had no impact on convergent thinking. Participants were not statistically better at finding the single correct solution to logic problems when under the influence of psilocybin compared to placebo. Similarly, the drug did not increase the total number of ideas participants generated during the divergent thinking tasks, a metric known as fluency. The participants did not become faster or more prolific in their brainstorming.
However, a specific and subtle benefit emerged regarding the quality of the ideas. The researchers calculated an “originality-to-fluency ratio.” This metric assesses the proportion of unique or uncommon ideas relative to the total number of responses. In the combined analysis, participants in the active microdosing condition showed a higher ratio of original ideas compared to those taking the placebo. This effect was statistically sound even after the researchers controlled for the participants’ beliefs about which capsule they had taken.
This finding aligns with a concept known as the serial-order effect in creativity. When people are asked to list uses for an object, they typically exhaust the most obvious, conventional ideas first. These responses are drawn principally from memory. Only after these familiar associations are depleted do people start to generate more novel, abstract concepts. The results suggest that microdosing may help individuals navigate away from these conventional associations more efficiently. By relaxing the brain’s reliance on prior knowledge, the drug may allow users to access remote concepts earlier or more frequently in the thought process.
The study also highlighted the importance of body weight in determining the effectiveness of the dose. In exploratory analyses, the researchers found that the relative dose—the amount of psilocybin per kilogram of body weight—was a predictor of unweighted originality scores. This indicates that a standard microdose might be too low for heavier participants to experience any cognitive shift. This finding implies that future research and potential therapeutic applications may need to personalize dosing strategies to achieve consistent results.
These results diverge from some previous findings that reported no objective cognitive benefits from microdosing. The authors suggest that earlier studies may have been underpowered or relied on tasks that were too short to capture the emergence of original ideas. By pooling data from three trials, the current study achieved the statistical power necessary to detect these subtle shifts in cognition. The findings align with the broader theory that psychedelics relax the hierarchical constraints of the brain, a mechanism often described as “rebus” or relaxed beliefs under psychedelics.
Despite the positive findings regarding idea quality, the study includes several caveats. The effects observed were specific and limited. Microdosing did not enhance creativity across the board. It did not improve the ability to solve problems requiring a single, logical answer. Additionally, the second experiment, which used a mid-range dose, failed to replicate the statistically significant results of the first experiment on its own. This inconsistency highlights that the effects of microdosing may be fragile and influenced by factors such as the environment or the baseline characteristics of the participants.
The researchers also noted that blinding was a challenge, particularly in the third experiment involving the highest dose. In that trial, participants were eventually able to guess their condition better than chance, likely due to noticeable physical sensations. However, the main finding regarding the originality ratio remained present even when the researchers statistically adjusted for these correct guesses. This suggests the improvement in creative quality was not merely a placebo response driven by the expectation of feeling more creative.
Safety remains a consideration. While no serious adverse events occurred, the study focused on healthy individuals who were screened for mental health issues. The theoretical model used by the researchers suggests that increasing cognitive flexibility can be a double-edged sword. Moving too far toward flexibility can lead to distractibility or a lack of persistence. For individuals with a predisposition to psychosis or those who already have highly flexible cognitive styles, increasing this trait further could theoretically be detrimental.
Future research is needed to determine if these effects translate to real-world creative achievement. Generating a novel use for a brick in a laboratory task is a standard proxy for creativity, but it does not perfectly capture the complex process of artistic or scientific innovation.
The authors recommend that future studies employ standardized chemical doses rather than fresh truffles to ensure precision. They also suggest investigating whether these effects persist after the drug has cleared the system, as some evidence from high-dose studies suggests long-term changes in openness and flexibility.
The study, “Microdosing psilocybin and its effect on creativity: Lessons learned from three double-blind placebo controlled longitudinal trials,” was authored by Luisa Prochazkova, Josephine Marschall, Michiel van Elk, Ben D. Rifkin, Neil R. Schon, Donatella Fiacchino, George Fejer, Martin Kuchar, and Bernhard Hommel.
