LSD advocates have long claimed that taking psychedelic drugs lead users to a fabled 'higher state of consciousness.'

Now, researchers are hoping to put this theory to the test, by pitting the human brain on LSD against an AI computer in a game of Go.

If the controversial study goes ahead, participants will have their brains scanned while playing the game, in the hopes of learning how the substance changes brain connectivity to enhance creativity and problem solving.

LSD advocates have long claimed that taking psychedelic drugs lead users to a fabled 'higher state of consciousness.' Pictured is the molecular structure of LSD

THE PROPOSED STUDY Due to strict regulations, the only evidence of the benefits of microdosing LSD bas been based on self-reports. Ms Feilding wants to change that, by leading the first ever scientific trial into LSD microdosing. She plans to give 20 participants low doses of LSD or a placebo, and scanning their brains while they perform a range of cognitive tasks, including the Wisconsin Card Sorting test, and a game of GO against an AI computer. Using an MRI scanner, Ms Feilding hopes to see how LSD affects brain connectivity to enhance problem solving and creativity. Advertisement

Amanda Feilding, a well-known researcher from the Beckley Foundation in Oxford, has long been an advocate for LSD microdosing.

Before it was made illegal in 1968, Ms Feilding would take LSD to boost her creativity, and even found that her performace in the ancient Chinese game of Go, improved.

Speaking to Motherboard, Ms Feilding said: 'I found that if I was on LSD and my opponent wasn't, I won more games.

'For me that was a very clear indication that it improves cognitive function, particularly a kind of intuitive pattern recognition.'

To test her theory, Ms Feilding is now planning to run a study in which participants will take small doses of LSD while playing Go against an artificial intelligence computer.

LSD microdosing involves taking tiny doses of acid that don't lead to any psychedelic effects, but claim to increase creativity, and lower depression.

But due to strict regulations, the only evidence of the benefits of microdosing LSD has been based on self-reports.

Ms Feilding wants to change that, by leading the first ever scientific trial into LSD microdosing.

Brain scans from a 2016 study showed the difference between the brain of someone on a placebo versus someone on LSD

THE DANGERS OF LSD The effects of LSD are unpredictable. Users often experience sleeplessness, tremors, a loss of appetite and extreme changes in mood. Other experiences include horrific thoughts and feelings as well as intense fear of insanity and death. Users struggle to work out which sensations are illusions created by the drug and which are real which means they often put their lives at risk without realising it. A 'bad trip' can last for up to twelve hours and some people never recover from the LSD-induced state. Users can also experience flashbacks long after taking the drug and it has been connected to long-term psychoses and even severe depression Advertisement

She plans to give 20 participants low doses of LSD or a placebo, and scanning their brains while they perform a range of cognitive tasks, including the Wisconsin Card Sorting test, and a game of Go against an AI computer.

Using an MRI scanner, Ms Feilding hopes to see how LSD affects brain connectivity to enhance problem solving and creativity.

But before the study can go ahead, Ms Feilding needs to raise £270,000 ($350,000) in funding.

She told Motherboard: 'It's frightening how expensive this kind of research is.

'I'm very keen on trying to alter how drug policy categorizes these compounds because the research is much more costly simply because LSD is a controlled substance.'

Another obstacle is obtaining the LSD itself, which will require extensive ethical clearance.

She plans to give 20 participants low doses of LSD or a placebo, and scanning their brains while they perform a range of cognitive tasks, including the Wisconsin Card Sorting test, and a game of GO (pictured) against an AI computer

Despite these hurdles, Ms Feilding is optomisitc about the study.

She added: 'I think the microdose is a very delicate and sensitive way of treating people.

'We need to continue to research it and make it available to people.'