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Giuseppe Riva

3 papers in the library · 10 citations · publishing 2023-2026

Papers

A predictive coding approach to psychedelic virtual-induced hallucinations and creative cognition in aging

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience July 7, 2023 Giulia Magni, Cosimo Tuena, Giuseppe Riva 9 citations

Psychedelic substances may enhance creativity by inducing cognitive flexibility, allowing a wider range of associations and possibilities to be explored. Virtual Reality can simulate psychedelic perceptual and cognitive effects without associated risks. The Bayesian brain approach, rooted in predictive coding, offers a framework for understanding how psychedelic hallucinations affect cognition. Cognitive flexibility is linked to creative thinking and depends on prefrontal cortex and networks supporting executive functions, memory, attention, and spontaneous thought. Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment involve declines in creative processing and divergent thinking. The paper suggests that VR-induced psychedelic hallucinations may help optimize the balance between top-down expectations and bottom-up sensory information, potentially maintaining cognitive functions and preventing pathological conditions in aging.

DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1219052 Cognition Creativity Executive functions Perception +2

AI-generated virtual psychedelics bridge digital and therapeutic frontiers in mental health research

Nature Mental Health February 1, 2026 Giuseppe Riva, Giulia Brizzi, Clara Rastelli et al. 1 citation

Psychedelic-assisted therapy holds potential for treating mental health conditions but is hindered by regulatory, methodological, and safety issues. The authors propose using artificial intelligence and virtual reality to simulate experiences akin to those from traditional psychedelic compounds, offering a novel approach to psychedelic-assisted therapy that could bypass some of these challenges.

DOI: 10.1038/s44220-025-00576-3 Full text

Immersive exposure to simulated visual hallucinations modulates high-level human cognition.

Consciousness and cognition February 1, 2025 Antonino Greco, Clara Rastelli, Andrea Ubaldi et al.

Exposure to simulated psychedelic hallucinations in virtual reality increased cognitive flexibility, as shown by reduced task-switching costs, compared to naturalistic VR exposure. No significant differences were found in linguistic automatic association tasks at word or sentence levels. Visually grounded high-level cognitive processes were modulated by the simulated hallucinations. The findings offer insights into bottom-up and top-down cognitive processes in altered states of consciousness without drugs, potentially informing neuroscience and clinical applications.

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103808 Full text Altered perception Deep neural networks Deepdream Human cognition +3