Psychedelic substances such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms and truffles), DMT (ayahuasca), LSA (Morning Glory), or LSD can alter the way we recognize negative emotions in others. According to recent research, these hallucinogens reduce the recognition of negative facial emotions by altering the activity of the amygdala. This brain region is known to be important for responses to threatening situations. The study was published in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology.
Therapeutic effects
“We have been studying the effects of ayahuasca on people for the past 15 years. It appears that its effects—and the effects of other serotonergic hallucinogens such as LSD and psilocybin—bring about changes in emotional processing that may contribute to the therapeutic effects on depression and anxiety,” says researcher Rafael Guimarães dos Santos. Various psychedelics have already been shown to inhibit the processing of certain negative emotions in the brain.
For the study, several existing studies on LSD and psilocybin were further examined. The seven studies in total all evaluated the recognition of facial expressions. “Our most consistent finding was that these drugs reduced the recognition of negative emotions and modulated amygdala activity in response to these stimuli. This effect was correlated with antidepressant effects in patients with depression, but because this was observed only in a single study with an open-label design, it is difficult to conclude whether this result has clinical relevance,” the researchers explained in their report.
Negative facial emotions
It is not entirely surprising that the researchers were curious about the potential effects of facial recognition. Previous research has already shown that individuals suffering from anxiety disorders and depression tend to have a preference for recognizing negative facial emotions. In other words: people with a negative outlook on life are more likely to recognize negative emotions in others. Reducing the recognition of negative facial emotions could, in theory, help treat these conditions. “Altering emotional processing by changing facial recognition may be one of the mechanisms involved in the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca and other serotonergic hallucinogens,” Santos explains in an interview.
“Indeed, the studies examined showed that a single dose or multiple doses of LSD or psilocybin were associated with a modified pattern of negative emotion recognition that could be interpreted as beneficial, as several of these studies demonstrated that these changes were correlated with increases in positive mood and/or anxiolytic and antidepressant effects,” the researchers wrote.
Psilocybin as a medicine?
Another study on the effects of psilocybin and emotions showed that the use of psilocybin might enhance the recognition of emotions. Patients who received treatment with this psychedelic substance were better able to categorize faces as happy, joyful, neutral, sad, angry, or afraid.
"Prior to treatment with psilocybin, depressed patients in this study appeared to have a general deficit in processing emotional faces compared to healthy controls, as evidenced by longer reaction times to identify all emotion types," the researchers stated in their study. "We observed an improvement in reaction time after treatment for all types of emotions in depressed patients."
