Amazing recognition for a remarkable advancement that has fueled modern neuroscience. Congrats to all!

Schmitt: Did you attend a concert wearing an anti-Trump shirt? Smith: I wore a “No Kings” shirt. It used to be a bipartisan American sentiment.

it is unknown whether high doses of THC lead to the re-opening of critical periods

Indeed - these are reported in the paper. Similar ratings were provided between multiple THC conditions and 25 mg psilocbyin on the mystical experience questionnaire and the altered states of consciousness questionnaire.

Whether or not THC has neuroplastogenic effects is a separate issue from whether it can help address acute functional unblinding. If the right dose of THC can be mistaken for a classic psychedelic under the right conditions, participants may remain blind to their acute dosing conditions.

no idea yet - I'm not aware of anyone that really expects this yet, but it will be tested. The question of whether "the trip" is "the treatment" essentially boils down to this. My intuition is that both are necessary (the "trip", and the molecular action of psychedelics)

15/14 and shoutout to @jhcannabislab.bsky.social !!!!

i think you nailed it. I’ve always thought that folks see the value of LinkedIn as being overly polished and professional, but necessarily lacking the grit and grind of twitter and other platforms.

any suggestions for key papers?

Thank you, @bita137.bsky.social: you've unlocked the next few weeks of my academic diet!

Confirming THC as an active comparator that evokes mystical experiences (likely through dissociable molecular mechanisms in the brain) may also give us the chance to disentangle whether the "trip" is truly the "treatment" 13/14

This is a very small pilot, so caution is essential. But if these findings replicate, they could matter both for improving psychedelic clinical trial design and for understanding how cannabinoids alter consciousness under specific contextual conditions. 12/14

It also puts data behind something that folks already have a general sense for: drug effects aren’t just pharmacology. Set and setting may substantially shape whether an experience is interpreted as “psychedelic-like.” 11/14

This suggests that THC could potentially function as a more convincing active comparator in psychedelic trials than the usual options, which often fail to preserve blinding. 10/14

In some cases, THC wasn’t even identified as a cannabinoid. Notably, 25 mg dronabinol was mistaken for a classic hallucinogen by both a psychedelic-naive participant and a psychedelic-experienced participant. 9/14

The key preliminary finding: 25 mg oral THC produced subjective effects with notable overlap with 25 mg psilocybin. 8/14

In this pilot study, 4 healthy adults (2 w/o psychedelic experience, all with THC experience) completed double-blind sessions with placebo, psilocybin (25 mg), and oral THC (25 mg; 2 ppl also received 50 mg THC). THC was given as either dronabinol or cannabis distillate. 7/14