Publications by authors named "Rotem Petranker"

Although several studies have well described the characteristics of people who use psychedelics alongside their motivations and beliefs, little research has examined the preferences surrounding the source of psychedelic substances. In an anonymous online survey, we collected data from 6,379 consumers of 11 different psychedelic substances from 85 different countries, exploring their preferences and perceptions on natural and synthetic psychedelics. There was a strong preference of natural sources over synthetic alternatives for psilocybin (75%), DMT (56%), and mescaline (56%).

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Despite psychedelic microdosing being a growing practice, the research on the topic is still in its infancy. While several studies have described the characteristics, motivations and practices of microdosers, the differences between individuals that only microdose and those that use both micro and macrodoses of psychedelics remain unexplored. In an online survey, we collected data of 6193 psychedelic consumers of which 2488 were microdosers of up to 11 different classical and atypical psychedelics.

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Introduction: The practice of taking small, sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelics, known as microdosing, has exploded in popularity over the last decade. Users claim benefits ranging from improved mood and enhanced creativity to an increased sense of meaning and connectedness in life. While research on microdosing is still lagging behind the shift in public opinion, several papers have been published in the last five years which attempted to assess the effects of microdosing.

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Psychedelic drugs have experienced an unprecedented surge in recreational use within the past few years. Among recreational users, the risks of psychedelic use by pregnant and breastfeeding women are severely understudied and there is little information on the potential teratogenic effects of these drugs. We provide an overview of the previous data on psychedelic teratogenicity from rodent studies and human surveys, discuss their limitations, and propose the utility of the zebrafish as a potential effective model for investigating psychedelic teratogenicity.

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The resurgence of psychedelic research explicitly targets treating mental health conditions largely through psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy. Current theories about mechanisms of change in psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy focus on mystical experiences as the main driver of symptom improvement. During these mystical experiences, participants report an enhanced sense of salience, connectedness, and meaning.

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Rationale: The use of psychedelics for medical and recreational purposes is rising. Contextual factors such as expectancy, intention, and sensory and social environment (set and setting) are widely recognized as moderating the effects of these substances. Nevertheless, clinical trials of microdosing - the ingestion of small, sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelics - rarely report their set and setting.

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A psychedelic industrial complex is emerging as new research on these substances and their effects is being approved. These substances show promise, but much remains unknown about their potential for both benefit and harm. Despite the paucity of reliable mechanistic evidence, some entrepreneurs have already begun to market psychedelic advice.

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Background: Sustaining attention for extended periods of time is associated with negative affect and this increase in negative affect is related to poorer task performance. Trait mindfulness has been shown to be associated with better sustained attention performance. This may be because trait mindfulness is associated with better attention ability or better emotion regulation ability.

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Article Synopsis
  • Microdosing involves taking small doses of psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin mushrooms and is gaining popularity, but research on people's motivations and effects is limited.
  • The study aimed to confirm previously noted benefits, see if participants test their substances, and understand if having a goal for microdosing affects reported outcomes.
  • Results showed that many felt enhanced mood and creativity, most didn't test their substances, and surprisingly, having a specific intention for microdosing was linked to fewer reported benefits, suggesting the need for more in-depth research.
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Science requires replicable tools to measure its intended constructs. Attention research has developed tools that have been used in mind-wandering research, but mind-wandering measures often rely on response-inhibition, which introduces speed-accuracy trade-offs that may conflate errors for mind-wandering. We sought to replicate three studies that used an improved mind-wandering measure: the Metronome Response Task (MRT).

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Psychedelics have a checkered past, alternately venerated as sacred medicines and vilified as narcotics with no medicinal or research value. After decades of international prohibition, a growing dissatisfaction with conventional mental health care and the pioneering work of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Science (MAPS) and others has sparked a new wave of psychedelic research. Positive media coverage and new entrepreneurial interest in this potentially lucrative market, along with their attendant conflicts of interest, have accelerated the hype.

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Rationale: Microdosing psychedelics - the practice of consuming small, sub-hallucinogenic doses of substances such as LSD or psilocybin - is gaining attention in popular media but remains poorly characterized. Contemporary studies of psychedelic microdosing have yet to report the basic psychiatric descriptors of psychedelic microdosers.

Objectives: To examine the practices and demographics of a population of psychedelic microdosers - including their psychiatric diagnoses, prescription medications, and recreational substance use patterns - to develop a foundation on which to conduct future clinical research.

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The social context-seeing people emotionally interacting-is one of the most common contexts in which emotion perception occurs. Despite its importance, emotion perception of social interactions from a 3rd-person perspective is poorly understood. Here we investigated whether emotion recognition of fear and anger is facilitated by mere congruency (the contextual figure exhibits the same emotion as the target) or by functional relations (the contextual figure exhibits a complementary emotion to the target).

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Background: Microdosing psychedelics is the practice of consuming very low, sub-hallucinogenic doses of a psychedelic substance, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or psilocybin-containing mushrooms. According to media reports, microdosing has grown in popularity, yet the scientific literature contains minimal research on this practice. There has been limited reporting on adverse events associated with microdosing, and the experiences of microdosers in community samples have not been categorized.

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Article Synopsis
  • Microdosing psychedelics, like LSD and psilocybin, involves taking small amounts to potentially gain mental health benefits without the hallucinogenic effects common with full doses.
  • A study investigated the relationship between microdosing and factors such as personality, mental health, and creativity among online forum respondents.
  • Results showed that those who microdose reported lower dysfunctional attitudes and negative emotionality, while scoring higher in wisdom, open-mindedness, and creativity compared to non-microdosers, indicating a need for further research on the safety and effectiveness of microdosing.
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The majority of emotion perception studies utilize instructed and stereotypical expressions of faces or bodies. While such stimuli are highly standardized and well-recognized, their resemblance to real-life expressions of emotion remains unknown. Here we examined facial and body expressions of fear and anger during real-life situations and compared their recognition to that of instructed expressions of the same emotions.

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