An Integrated theory of false insights and beliefs under psychedelics

. 2024 Aug 1;2:69. doi: 10.1038/s44271-024-00120-6

REBUS	FIBUS
• Psychedelics decrease precision weighting of priors via their diminishing of the default mode network. • This diminishing of the DMN results in the brains hierarchy being ‘flattened’, resulting in altered perceptions and inferences in a more flexible system. • Psychedelics can change beliefs because of the novel information being integrated, and because of the newfound flexibility afforded to the brain.	• Psychedelics decrease precision weighting of priors via their diminishing of the default mode network. • This diminishing of the DMN results in the brains hierarchy being ‘flattened’, resulting in altered perceptions and inferences and is more flexible. • Due to this flexibility the brain can arrive several new insights, and the altered and number of unusual perceptions increases. Psychedelics thus imbue a decreased ability to make sense of sensory data, leading to an increased number of insight moments and noetic feelings. • The trade-off in the precision of priors (decreased) and sensory data (increased) results in a heightened number of insight moments during the acute psychedelic experience, increasing dopamine. The insights and predictions errors are afforded higher precision due in part to the fact that priors are now diminished which in turn makes insights more likely to influence subsequent beliefs. Concurrently, increased fluency, and weighting of hippocampal and cortically dependent memories under psychedelics result in diminished constraint of the hippocampus, enabling increased flexibility to the cortex (see section on the Eureka Heuristic, and Alternate Pathways to Belief Revision Under Psychedelics for detail). • Psychedelics can change beliefs because of the novel information being integrated, and because of the newfound flexibility afforded to the brain. • Crucially, nothing about psychedelics preferentially selects for accuracy, but just the feelings of accuracy. This leaves the system vulnerable to misleading contextual information wherein one can feasibly feel confident in beliefs and insights arrived at under misleading contextual circumstances or cognitions.

REBUS

FIBUS

• Psychedelics decrease precision weighting of priors via their diminishing of the default mode network.

• This diminishing of the DMN results in the brains hierarchy being ‘flattened’, resulting in altered perceptions and inferences in a more flexible system.

• Psychedelics can change beliefs because of the novel information being integrated, and because of the newfound flexibility afforded to the brain.

• Psychedelics decrease precision weighting of priors via their diminishing of the default mode network.

• This diminishing of the DMN results in the brains hierarchy being ‘flattened’, resulting in altered perceptions and inferences and is more flexible.

• Due to this flexibility the brain can arrive several new insights, and the altered and number of unusual perceptions increases. Psychedelics thus imbue a decreased ability to make sense of sensory data, leading to an increased number of insight moments and noetic feelings.

• The trade-off in the precision of priors (decreased) and sensory data (increased) results in a heightened number of insight moments during the acute psychedelic experience, increasing dopamine. The insights and predictions errors are afforded higher precision due in part to the fact that priors are now diminished which in turn makes insights more likely to influence subsequent beliefs. Concurrently, increased fluency, and weighting of hippocampal and cortically dependent memories under psychedelics result in diminished constraint of the hippocampus, enabling increased flexibility to the cortex (see section on the Eureka Heuristic, and Alternate Pathways to Belief Revision Under Psychedelics for detail).

• Psychedelics can change beliefs because of the novel information being integrated, and because of the newfound flexibility afforded to the brain.

• Crucially, nothing about psychedelics preferentially selects for accuracy, but just the feelings of accuracy. This leaves the system vulnerable to misleading contextual information wherein one can feasibly feel confident in beliefs and insights arrived at under misleading contextual circumstances or cognitions.