We know some mushrooms that contain psilocybin can send you on a magical journey through your subconscious and the cosmos, but why they can do that is less understood. Some researchers have suggested that the psychedelic compound helps spread spores by altering animal behavior. Others say it’s simply to deter predators. Bet that beetle will think twice about munching on a mushroom after it has its brain circuits scrambled.
A new, not-yet-peer-reviewed study posted to BioRxiv sought to understand the why of psilocybin mushrooms by answering a more fundamental question: why do mushrooms expend so much energy producing psilocybin in the first place when it offers no obvious benefit to the fungus itself?
The researchers primarily focused on the idea that psilocybin likely evolved to deter invertebrates that eat mushrooms.
Fruit Flies Were Dosed With Magic Mushrooms for Science. Here’s What Happened.
To test that, scientists fed powdered psilocybin mushrooms to fruit fly larvae. The results were not great for the flies. Compared to controls, exposed larvae were less likely to survive to adulthood, developed smaller bodies and wings, and showed impaired movement. They spent less time moving, and when they did, they were slow, often changing direction as they flew, suggesting a disruption to their basic physiology.
It’s funny to imagine a fruit fly going on a wild hallucinatory trip, but what was actually happening here was probably closer to its brain short-circuiting. Psilocybin mimics serotonin, a neurotransmitter found across many species. It seems like the psilocybin was interfering with those systems, actively harming the insects instead of opening their mind to the universe, maaaan.
Her consciousness seemed intact, but, as lead author Kirsty Matthews Nicholass explained, the chemical seemed to disrupt core bodily functions instead. In other words, the compound is doing its job of deterring animals, but it didn’t foresee humans coming along and finding its effects trippy and/or therapeutic.
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