Tiny doses of magic mushrooms can improve a person's problem-solving skills, research suggests.

A study has found that 'microdoses' of psychedelics could induce a state of unconstrained thought without the so-called 'bad trips' that often come with high doses of such substances.

According to research, people who took a small amount of the substance had more ideas about how to solve problems and came up with more original ideas.

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Tiny doses of magic mushrooms can improve a person's problem-solving skills, research suggests (stock image)

The research was led by Luisa Prochazkova from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

It is the first study of its kind to experimentally investigate the cognitive-enhancing effects of microdosing.

Researchers looked at how a microdose of a psychedelic substance affected the cognitive brain function of 36 people.

During the experimental phase, participants were set three tasks before and after they consumed on average 0.37 grams of dried truffles - less than half the weight of a paperclip, which weigh around one gram on average.

The tests assessed their convergent thinking (the identification of a single solution to a problem), their fluid intelligence (the capacity to reason and solve new problems) and their divergent thinking (the ability to recognise many possible solutions).

After taking the microdose of truffles, scientists found that participants' convergent thinking abilities were improved.

Participants also had more ideas about how to solve a presented task, and were more fluent, flexible and original in the possibilities they came up with.

These findings are in line with earlier studies that found high doses of psychedelics can enhance creative performance.

Researchers looked at how a microdose of a psychedelic substance affected the cognitive brain function of 36 people (stock image)

HAVE SCIENTISTS UNRAVELED THE 'RECIPE' FOR 'MAGIC SHROOMS'? Research over the last few decades has suggested that the compound psilocybin may have a number of therapeutic benefits, with potential to help treat anxiety, depression, and even addiction. But until now, the ‘recipe’ for psilocybin has remained a mystery. In a new study, scientists have characterized the four enzymes mushrooms use to make this compound for the first time, setting the stage for pharmaceutical production of the ‘powerful psychedelic fungal drug.’ Scientists have characterized the four enzymes mushrooms use to make psilocybin After identifying and characterizing the enzymes behind psilocybin, the team from Friedrich Schiller University Jena was able to develop the first enzymatic synthesis of the compound, reports C&EN, a publication from the American Chemical Society. To get to the correct ‘recipe,’ the team in the new study sequenced the genomes of two mushroom species. Then, they used engineered bacteria and fungi to confirm gene activity and the order of the synthetic steps, according to C&EN. Their efforts revealed a new enzyme, dubbed PsiD strips carbon dioxide from the tryptophan, while another adds a hydroxyl group – or, oxygen and hydrogen. Another enzyme, known as PsiK acts as a catalyst for phosphotransfer. Then, an enzyme known as PsiM catalyzes the transfer of methyl groups. Based on their discovery, the researchers developed a 'one-pot reaction' to create psilocybin from 4-hydroxy-L-tryptophan, using three of the enzymes: PsiD, PsiK, and PsiM. According to the team, the results could now ‘lay the foundation’ for the production of pharmaceutical drugs based on psychedelic mushrooms. Advertisement

The fact that participants' intelligence scores and general analytical abilities did not change suggests that the effect of the truffles is rather selective.

Experts believe it has the most benefit on a person's creative domain.

'Taken together, our results suggest that consuming a microdose of truffles allowed participants to create more out-of-the-box alternative solutions for a problem, thus providing preliminary support for the assumption that microdosing improves divergent thinking,' said Dr Prochazkova.

'Moreover, we also observed an improvement in convergent thinking, that is, increased performance on a task that requires the convergence on one single correct or best solution.'

Prochazkova hopes that these findings will stimulate further research into the beneficial effects of microdosing psychedelics.

'Apart from its benefits as a potential cognitive enhancement technique, microdosing could be further investigated for its therapeutic efficacy to help individuals who suffer from rigid thought patterns or behavior such as individuals with depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder,' she said.