UC San Diego

Psychedelics have shown promise as a novel therapeutic, providing clinical benefits for a variety of conditions. Emerging evidence provides a promising cognitive-behavioral account for their therapeutic efficacy, specifically that psychedelics increase cognitive flexibility. However, work to date has yielded inconsistent results. In this dissertation, I overview several experiments utilizing modern cognitive science and computational methodology which test predictions for specific behaviors symptomatic of increased cognitive flexibility. These behaviors are gleaned from an unlikely source: children. In Chapter 2, I present a novel measure of problem solving under dynamic constraints which can be used to quantify search and sampling strategies. In Chapter 3, I present a pilot test of whether psychedelic treatment will result in (1) decreased influence of prior knowledge on inferences, (2) employment of broader, more exploratory, search strategies when sampling hypotheses, and (3) more diffuse exogenous attention. Finally, in Chapter 4, I examine whether these cognitive flexibility tasks are susceptible to practice effects. If differences in these behaviors can be identified between a control and psychedelic treated group, it would provide initial evidence for what the specific cognitive mechanisms underlying psychedelic therapy may be. With this, it would be possible to better identify who, and what clinical conditions, may be receptive to psychedelic therapy.