Psychedelics

Psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and LSD have re-captured the imagination of both popular society and modern science. We will briefly review the history of psychedelic research and sample current empirical knowledge regarding the acute effects of classic psychedelic drugs on perception, cognition, emotion, and brain function. We will then briefly review the potential therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic drugs. We will end with a discussion of potential mechanisms underlying acute and enduring effects of psychedelic drugs, and a reflection on what psychedelic drugs might be able to teach us about consciousness.