The participants are recruited from the Microdosing Insititute Workshop.
The team from the PANF study are not recruiting for this study.

WHAT IS THE AIM?

Mental abilities, such as executive functions, are crucial for the functioning of our everyday life and are especially needed when automatic routines are no longer appropriate to the situation.
In neurofeedback, participants are given a real-time image of their brain activity and use it to try to change their brain activity in different ways based on this feedback.

However, there are also large individual differences and approaches to improve neurofeedback may be included. As such, low doses of psilocybin may contribute to improved cognitive training.
With this study, we aim to scientifically investigate the effect of neurofeedback training on executive functions in participants starting microdosing with psilocybin.

WHY THIS RESEARCH?

Mental abilities, such as executive functions, are crucial for the functioning of our everyday life (e.g. for academic success) and are especially needed when automatic routines are no longer appropriate to the situation, for example in difficult and new situations.
In the context of neurological and mental disorders, it has also been shown that such cognitive functions are impaired and thus the functioning in everyday life is limited. The effects of currently available cognitive training are small to medium and therefore there is currently a need for new cognitive training and interventions.

Since the brain is responsible for the implementation of mental abilities, cognitive enhancement interventions can also directly target neural mechanisms. In neurofeedback, participants are given a real-time image of their brain activity and use it to try to change their brain activity in different ways based on this feedback. We use electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity.

A current challenge in neurofeedback research and application in practice is to obtain the highest possible benefit for all participants. However, large learning differences are currently observed between participants in the self-regulation of brain activity; while some achieve self-regulation very quickly, there are also participants who do not benefit at all from neurofeedback.
Various approaches are currently being investigated and developed to improve neurofeedback learning of self-regulation. In this study, microdosing with psilocybin is one such approach. For microdosing psychedelics, there is evidence that such a combination could be helpful.  This study contributes to our understanding of the potential benefits of low doses of psilocybin for neurofeedback to improve cognitive training and the development of clinical treatments.

What you will do:

 You will be asked to participate in our three-part study.

In the first part, the pre-measurements, you will be asked to fill out a questionnaire and a short behavioural experiment will be assessing your executive functions.
For the second part, the neurofeedback training, we will be inviting you to the EEG lab for three neurofeedback sessions and will take place after the self-microdosing. Neurofeedback will be performed with 6 blocks of 9-minute neurofeedback and will take place within one week, namely Mondays, Wednesdays,and Fridays.
The last part, the post-measurements, will be done after you have completed the neurofeedback sessions and will include an online meeting to perform another test battery measuring your executive functions.

The study duration is over 2-3 weeks

What you can expect:

• You are in touch with the most recent ongoing research in the field of neurofeedback and microdosing of psilocybin
• You will have free access to 3 sessions neurofeedback
• You can request to receive images of your brain waves
• and you help the field of neuropsychology and neuroscience

Interested?

Does this study sound interesting to you and you would like to contribute to the knowledge and research of psyilocybin assisted neurofeedback training? Sign up to participate to the workshop of the microdosing institute!


Otherwise, if you have any questions or inquires, you can reach us for via our email.