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First Neuroimaging Study of Psilocybin Microdosing Underway

Evan Lewis-Healey
3 min readAug 16, 2021

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Researchers hope to establish whether the effects of microdosing are as profound as people say they are, or if it’s all a placebo.

Photo by Fakurian Design on Unsplash

Researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia are running a groundbreaking new study investigating the effects of psilocybin microdosing on the brain.

The first-of-its-kind study will use magnetoencephalography (MEG), which reads the magnetic fields generated by brain activity, to study the impact of small doses of psilocybin on the brain. In addition to this, participants will complete a battery of tasks assessing the effects of microdosing on cognition, mood, and memory.

What Is Microdosing?

The practice of microdosing involves taking tiny ‘sub-perceptual’ doses of psychedelic substances — doses so small they don’t induce any hallucinations. Over the past decade, there has been a flurry of public attention into the effects of microdosing. Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs have microdosed to boost their creativity and productivity, while parents have testified of its ability to heighten empathy while raising their kids.

However, this anecdotal evidence, where microdosing has been dubbed a miraculous cure for deficiencies in mood, creativity, and productivity, is not scientifically…

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Evan Lewis-Healey
Evan Lewis-Healey

Written by Evan Lewis-Healey

PhD candidate at Cambridge University. Studying the cognitive neuroscience of altered states of consciousness.

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