Ayahuasca enhances creative divergent thinking while decreasing conventional convergent thinking

This study (n=26) found that ayahuasca decreased convergent thinking (a part of creativity) on very experienced participants in an ayahuasca ceremony. The conclusion about divergent thinking (increased) was found on only one of the measures (ratio).

Abstract

“Introduction Ayahuasca is a South American psychotropic plant tea traditionally used in Amazonian shamanism. The tea contains the psychedelic 5-HT2A receptor agonist N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), plus β-carboline alkaloids with monoamine oxidase-inhibiting properties. Increasing evidence from anecdotal reports and open-label studies indicates that ayahuasca may have therapeutic effects in treatment of substance use disorders and depression. A recent study on the psychological effects of ayahuasca found that the tea reduces judgmental processing and inner reactivity, classic goals of mindfulness psychotherapy. Another psychological facet that could potentially be targeted by ayahuasca is creative divergent thinking. This mode of thinking can enhance and strengthen psychological flexibility by allowing individuals to generate new and effective cognitive, emotional, and behavioral strategies. The present study aimed to assess the potential effects of ayahuasca on creative thinking.

Methods We visited two spiritual ayahuasca workshops and invited participants to conduct creativity tests before and during the acute effects of ayahuasca. In total, 26 participants consented. Creativity tests included the Bpattern/line meanings test^ (PLMT) and the Bpicture concept test^ (PCT), both assessing divergent thinking and the latter also assessing convergent thinking.

Results While no significant effects were found for the PLMT, ayahuasca intake significantly modified divergent and convergent thinking as measured by the PCT. While convergent thinking decreased after intake, divergent thinking increased.

Conclusions The present data indicate that ayahuasca enhances creative divergent thinking. They suggest that ayahuasca increases psychological flexibility, which may facilitate psychotherapeutic interventions and support clinical trial initiatives.“

Authors: Kim P. C. Kuypers, Jordi Riba, M. de la Fuenta Revenga, S. Barker, E. L. Theunissen & Johannes G. Ramaekers

Notes

“Ayahuasca intake significantly modified divergent and convergent thinking as measured by the picture concept task, PCT. While convergent thinking decreased after intake, divergent thinking increased.”

This is however, the paper notes, possibly confounded by the antidepressant effect of MAOIs (used in the Ayahuasca mixture) themselves.

It’s also interesting to note that the participants of the study were very experienced with Ayahuasca.

“Group 1 included 15 participants (10 women) with a mean ± SD age of 37.4 ± 5.8 and 15.5 ± 3.2 years of education. They all had prior experience with ayahuasca, having taken it on an average of 27.5 ± 33.4 occasions. Group 2 included 11 participants (7 women) with a mean ± SD age of 52.0 ± 13.0 and 18.4 ± 1.5 years of education. All had also prior experience with ayahuasca, having taken it on an average of 103.6 ± 152.9 occasions.“

The study is interesting as it studies the acute effects of ayahuasca, but the conclusions stated in the study title are stronger than the data suggest. See table 1 in the paper for all the correlations.

Summary

Abstract

Ayahuasca is a South American psychotropic plant tea traditionally used in Amazonian shamanism. A recent study found that ayahuasca reduces judgmental processing and inner reactivity, classic goals of mindfulness psychotherapy, and could potentially be targeted by ayahuasca for the enhancement of creative divergent thinking.

Introduction

Ayahuasca is a South American psychotropic plant tea that contains the serotonergic 2A receptor agonist N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). It has been shown to have short-term and long-term effects on psychological and mental health, and cognitive abilities.

Psychedelic drugs have gained a renewed interest as potential tools in therapy. Ayahuasca might be useful in the treatment of substance use disorders because it enhances mindfulness-related capacities, a classic goal of certain psychotherapeutic interventions. Psychedelics stimulate creative, divergent thinking, which is an important aspect of cognitive therapy. Divergent thinking allows many new ideas to be generated, while convergent thinking emphasizes speed and relies on high accuracy and logic.

Ayahuasca may enhance creative divergent thinking by decreasing functional connectivity in parts of the default mode network and by allowing individuals to generate new and effective cognitive, emotional, and behavioral strategies on their own.

Participants

Investigators visited two spiritual ayahuasca-using groups and invited 26 participants to enter the current study. The participants were Caucasian individuals of European and American (North and South American) and middle-Eastern descent.

15 participants (10 women) with a mean SD age of 37.4 5.6 years took ayahuasca on an average of 27.5 33.4 occasions. 11 participants (7 women) had prior experience with ayahuasca.

All participants gave their written informed consent to participate in the study, which was approved by the Sant Pau Hospital Ethics Committee.

Study procedure

The assessment of each participant group was conducted separately. Ayahuasca was taken in a non-religious setting, and participants remained in dimly lit rooms with recorded music played throughout the sessions.

Creativity tests were administered twice: before and after ayahuasca. Alkaloid concentrations were determined using a previously described method implementing liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry.

Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca tea used by group 1 contained the following amounts of alkaloids: 0.65 mg/ml DMT, 0.84 mg/ml harmine, 0.76 mg/ml tetrahydroharmine, and 0.10 mg/ml harmaline.

Ayahuasca tea used by group 2 contained 0.96 mg/ml DMT, 0.48 mg/ml harmine, 0.69 mg/ml tetrahydroharmine, and 0.10 mg/ml harmaline. Participants ingested an average of 44.5 ml.

Creativity tasks

Two verbal creativity tasks were used with non-verbal stimuli, the Pattern/Line Meanings Task (PLMT) and the Picture Concept Task (PCT). The PCT was composed of stimuli from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence and the PCT. We asked participants to provide as many alternative answers as possible in order to assess divergent thinking. The mean originality scores and ratio originality scores weighed for fluency were used as measures of divergent thinking.

The PLMT was used to measure divergent thinking, where participants had to give meaning to a configuration of patterns or lines and generate as many explanations for it as possible.

Subjective effects—visual analog scales

Participants rated the intensity of various aspects of their acute ayahuasca experience using visual analog scales. These items included visual effects with eyes closed and open, bodily sensations, auditory phenomena, modifications of affect, bibliographic memories, emotional memories, detachment from own thoughts, fear, and overwhelm.

Statistics

Data were analyzed by means of the statistical package IBM SPSS version 21. A mixed factorial general linear repeated measures model was conducted.

Subjective effects of ayahuasca were analyzed separately for each group using one-sample t tests. Potential differences in VAS scores between groups were analyzed using independent samples t tests.

Sociodemographic variables

Independent sample t tests showed significant differences between groups on age and years of education, but not on the number of times participants had used ayahuasca.

Subjective effects—visual analog scales

Ayahuasca increased mean scores on all VAS items in groups 1 and 2 relative to 0, but there were no differences between groups.

Divergent thinking

The PCT showed that fluency and originality scores were higher in group 1 compared to group 2, while ratio was higher in group 2 compared to group 1. Ayahuasca had an interaction effect on fluency, but not on originality scores.

Convergent thinking

Statistical analysis showed that ayahuasca decreased convergent thinking compared to baseline performance in the PCT.

Discussion

Ayahuasca causes a decrease in conventional convergent thinking and an enhancement of creative divergent thinking, as measured by the PCT. The ayahuasca-induced enhancement of divergent thinking could potentially be linked to the effects ayahuasca exerts on brain regions involved in creativity. Previous research has shown that ayahuasca reduces thalamic gating of sensory and cognitive information, which could lead to an increase in information fed into the salience network. This is also consistent with the increased blood perfusion in the SN after ayahuasca ingestion.

Ayahuasca may enhance divergent thinking by loosening the cognitive grip exerted by frontal regions responsible for executive control, and by increasing bottom-up information transfer. However, the precise neurobiological underpinning of how psychedelics may enhance divergent creative thinking remains largely unknown.

Ayahuasca caused a deterioration in convergent thinking, possibly due to the decrease in thalamic gating and loosened cognitive control described by Alonso and colleagues (2015 ). However, research with other psychedelics showed an increase in functional connectivity between the DMN and the task-positive network or CEN.

Ayahuasca affected performance in the PCT but not in the PLMT. The more complex and colorful stimuli in the PCT elicited more novel thoughts while the simple black-and-white line drawings in the PLMT elicited less input into the system involved in the generation of new ideas.

Ayahuasca improves divergent thinking by improving positive mood, and lowers convergent thinking by improving negative mood. Further research could test whether ayahuasca improves the usefulness of ideas generated in the divergent thinking task.

Ayahuasca induces an intense modified state of consciousness, lasting approximately 4h, during which divergent thinking is enhanced and convergent thinking distorted. 24 h after ayahuasca intake, mindfulness-related capacities are enhanced. It is suggested that ayahuasca might be suitable for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, because the acute phase helps patients relive events, recall various associations without feeling inhibited, and the sub-acute phase helps them cope with intense emotions.

Ayahuasca promotes divergent thinking, which is an important aspect in cognitive therapy, but impairs convergent thinking during the acute phase. Additional research is warranted to investigate whether this effect profile changes over time.