Effects of Psychedelic Drug Use on Neurocognitive Function and Mental Health: An International Online Study
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between psychedelic substance use and its potential impact on cognitive performance and mental health outcomes. While psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD and ketamine have gained renewed interest for their therapeutic potential in recent years, there remains a significant data gap regarding their effects on cognitive function. The purpose of this study was to explore possible acute, subacute, and long-term effects of psychedelic drug use on three cognitive domains: working memory, selective attention and visual/spatial perception. We conducted an international, naturalistic online study between 2022 and 2024 in collaboration with the Medical University of Vienna, the National Institute of Mental Health (USA), and the University of Zurich. Participants were recruited worldwide through various platforms, including social media, Reddit, and Amazon Mechanical Turk. All cognitive tasks and questionnaires were implemented via the online experiment builder Gorilla.sc. Participants completed five cognitive tasks: the N-back task and Digit Span Text Entry task to measure working memory, the Dotprobe task to assess selective attention, and the 2D Mental Rotation and Visual Search tasks to evaluate visual and spatial perception. Performance was measured by the number of correctly answered trials (accuracy) and mean reaction time for each task. Furthermore, participants completed four mental health questionnaires: the PHQ-9 to assess depressive symptoms, the WHOQOL-BREF for quality of life, the DES-B for dissociative experiences, and a symptom checklist designed to screen for Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD). We hypothesized that psychedelic drug use would be associated with altered cognitive performance, with recent users showing potential impairments, and lifetime users showing no long-term negative cognitive effects. Additionally, we expected mental health outcomes to differ between user groups.
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