Resetting the brain

Psychedelics may help treat mental disorders by disrupting large-scale neural networks stuck in dysfunctional configurations, allowing them to reset into healthier states. This chapter argues that this neural resetting hypothesis is correct but incomplete; it must be supplemented by an account of the cognitive functions of those networks. The predictive processing theory of cognition, which describes the brain as minimizing prediction errors, provides this account. One theory holds that psychedelics target networks encoding high-level beliefs, and disrupting these beliefs enables revision. The chapter proposes that the beliefs most often revised in successful psychedelic therapy are self-related beliefs.

Study at a glance

Abstract

‘Resetting the brain’ examines the hypothesis that (i) large-scale neural networks become stuck in dysfunctional configurations in pathology, and (ii) psychedelics cause therapeutic benefits by disrupting these configurations, providing an opportunity to ‘reset’ the relevant networks into a healthier state. This chapter argues that this view is correct but limited; per Chapter 5, it needs to be supplemented with an account of these networks’ cognitive functions. To this end, the chapter introduces the predictive processing (PP) theory of cognition, which views the brain as an organ for prediction error minimisation. One PP-based theory of psychedelic action claims that (i) the networks targeted by psychedelics encode high-level beliefs, and (ii) psychedelic disruption of these beliefs provides an opportunity to revise them. This is the cognitive process that corresponds to the ‘resetting’ of neural networks. The chapter concludes by proposing that the beliefs most often revised in successful psychedelic therapy are self-related beliefs.