PMID- 29844496
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20191125
LR  - 20191210
IS  - 2045-2322 (Electronic)
IS  - 2045-2322 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 1
DP  - 2018 May 29
TI  - Psilocybin and MDMA reduce costly punishment in the Ultimatum Game.
PG  - 8236
LID - 10.1038/s41598-018-26656-2 [doi]
LID - 8236
AB  - Disruptions in social decision-making are becoming evident in many psychiatric 
      conditions. These are studied using paradigms investigating the psychological 
      mechanisms underlying interpersonal interactions, such as the Ultimatum Game 
      (UG). Rejection behaviour in the UG represents altruistic punishment - the costly 
      punishment of norm violators - but the mechanisms underlying it require 
      clarification. To investigate the psychopharmacology of UG behaviour, we carried 
      out two studies with healthy participants, employing serotonergic agonists: 
      psilocybin (open-label, within-participant design, N = 19) and 
      3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; placebo-controlled, double-blind, 
      crossover design, N = 20). We found that both MDMA and psilocybin reduced 
      rejection of unfair offers (odds ratio: 0.57 and 0.42, respectively). The 
      reduction in rejection rate following MDMA was associated with increased 
      prosociality (R(2) = 0.26, p = 0.025). In the MDMA study, we investigated 
      third-party decision-making and proposer behaviour. MDMA did not reduce rejection 
      in the third-party condition, but produced an increase in the amount offered to 
      others (Cohen's d = 0.82). We argue that these compounds altered participants' 
      conceptualisation of 'social reward', placing more emphasis on the direct 
      relationship with interacting partners. With these compounds showing efficacy in 
      drug-assisted psychotherapy, these studies are an important step in the further 
      characterisation of their psychological effects.
FAU - Gabay, Anthony S
AU  - Gabay AS
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-6946-1046
AD  - Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, 
      King's College London, London, United Kingdom. anthony.a.gabay@kcl.ac.uk.
FAU - Carhart-Harris, Robin L
AU  - Carhart-Harris RL
AD  - Psychedelic Research Group. Neuropsychopharmacology Unit. Centre for Academic 
      Psychiatry, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
FAU - Mazibuko, Ndaba
AU  - Mazibuko N
AD  - Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, 
      King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
FAU - Kempton, Matthew J
AU  - Kempton MJ
AD  - Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, 
      King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
AD  - Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & 
      Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
FAU - Morrison, Paul D
AU  - Morrison PD
AD  - Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & 
      Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
FAU - Nutt, David J
AU  - Nutt DJ
AD  - Psychedelic Research Group. Neuropsychopharmacology Unit. Centre for Academic 
      Psychiatry, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
FAU - Mehta, Mitul A
AU  - Mehta MA
AD  - Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, 
      King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Randomized Controlled Trial
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20180529
PL  - England
TA  - Sci Rep
JT  - Scientific reports
JID - 101563288
RN  - 2RV7212BP0 (Psilocybin)
RN  - KE1SEN21RM (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Altruism
MH  - Community-Based Participatory Research
MH  - *Decision Making
MH  - Emotions
MH  - Games, Experimental
MH  - Healthy Volunteers
MH  - Humans
MH  - *Interpersonal Relations
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine/*administration & dosage
MH  - Psilocybin/*administration & dosage
MH  - Psychopharmacology/methods
MH  - Punishment/*psychology
MH  - Rejection, Psychology
MH  - Reward
MH  - *Social Behavior
MH  - Socialization
MH  - Young Adult
PMC - PMC5974271
COIS- The authors declare no competing interests.
EDAT- 2018/05/31 06:00
MHDA- 2019/11/26 06:00
PMCR- 2018/05/29
CRDT- 2018/05/31 06:00
PHST- 2018/03/29 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2018/05/15 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2018/05/31 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2018/05/31 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2019/11/26 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2018/05/29 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1038/s41598-018-26656-2 [pii]
AID - 26656 [pii]
AID - 10.1038/s41598-018-26656-2 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Sci Rep. 2018 May 29;8(1):8236. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26656-2.