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This Is Awkward: Mushrooms That Cause 'Tiny Human' Hallucinations Don't Contain Psychedelics (www.sciencealert.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] 36 points 4 months ago (14 children)

Regardless of the actual metabolite responsible, this does raise the question of whether, if any other species consume them and are susceptible, they see tiny versions of their own species?

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  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    I always wonder if the cows get high. On the right day it's like daisies in summer and they're just munching grass all day.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    Now that's a question. How to test it?

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    Monkeys seem like a good place to start. Similar enough to us to see if it’s unique to humans, small enough to not start ripping someone’s face off if it goes badly.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    Yeah but how do you get an experimental result from them?

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    Mackaques love touchscreens, amd can be trained to do complex tasks on tablets placed in their enclosures.
    You make a test where they need to press a button when and only when they see tiny monkeys that you can project on a screen or on their floor.
    Then you give the drug at various concentrations and placebo, and see if there is a dose dependent increase in the monkeys indicaions of mini monkeys.
    Then you can repeat the experiment after treatment with antipsychotic, if it prevents the mini monkey reporting, you already have a hint at the mechanism.
    Any nonhuman primate lab can do this from 1-2 million dollars, should we start a go fund me?

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    I think you could watch pupil response, body temp, sweating, brain scans, etc and get a good idea.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I thought we were trying to see if the hallucinations of the tiny men changed to match your species' body shape

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    Monkey brain scan will change depending on what it sees. Monkey sees humans vs monkey sees monkey is a very different looking scan result.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Trying to scan a monkey's brain, while it's awake and interacting is not a trivial task. MRI scanners are uncomfortable for humans, and we know what is going on with the big scary machine.

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