​The aim of this open-ended question is to critically examine whether our standard toolkit is an adequate means of characterizing the psychedelic substances and highlighting pitfalls in the empiric understanding of their effects. To discuss these issues, we invite the wider research community to contribute their perspective via live discussion and by submitting constructive ideas in a written format. The formal goal of the Open Call is to synthesize these ideas in a joint publication that is to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.
Livestreamed Lecture

Title: How should we study the effects of psychedelic drugs?

A lecture by Dr. Enzo Tagliazucchi followed Q&A.

10th of February 2022 at 17:00 UTC // 18:00 CET // 14:00 AST // 12:00 EST // 9:00 PST

Livestream:  https://youtu.be/kKUEVW77opg

Abstract:
The paradigm of cognitive neuroscience is the most widely adopted to investigate the relationship between the human brain and behavior. We build theories around functions such as "attention", "memory", "decision-making", and design experiments to investigate how they could be computed by networks of interconnected neurons. But is it possible to study psychedelic drugs and their effects from this perspective? In the next few years, shall we expect to develop a cognitive neuroscience of the psychedelic state? I will present some of my thoughts on this matter, discussing topics such as correlations between neuroimaging data and subjective reports, the potential scientific uses of microdosing, natural language processing as a tool to investigate the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs, the need to develop new and original methods for the quantitative characterization of human behavior, and the possibility of replacing concepts from cognitive science with the computational analysis of very complex human behaviors, among others. 

Participation
If you would like to attend the discussion, we ask that you preregister here: https://forms.gle/3QNxCfHuMLk5TUBB6
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS
If you want to submit an original idea (after the live discussion) please read the following guidelines carefully.

ALIUS offers a platform to critically discuss the outlined research question. As an interdisciplinary research network that is dedicated to studying all aspects of consciousness, we are primarily interested in submissions that examine fundamental research questions about psychedelic substances. Most of all, we value interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from different fields and are thus open to topics ranging from how brain activity is measured up to epistemological issues enshrined within our current paradigms.

Selection Criteria
Each submission consists of at least: (1) one critical issue in the domain of research of psychedelic substances (2) and constructive suggestions on improving it.

Submissions will be pre-processed by the editorial team, who will review submissions based on their originality, and synthesize the first draft of a publishable article. Subsequently, it will undergo further redactions via the authors.

Length of the commentary 
Each submission must include the following:
-A title
-An abstract: 100 - 250 words
-Main text: 500 - 1500 words
-References: no limit on the number of references; but the style used should be the 7th edition of the APA (if you use Zotero, this citation style can be downloaded at the following link: https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id%3Aapa).
-Addresses and affiliations of the authors for correspondence
-Font: Times New Roman; size: 12

Content of the commentary
Submissions should be formulated in an academic writing style. It is not intended to be an attack of any positions or a polemic commentary, but a constructive discourse for improving future research efforts. Critique should be understandable to other scholars who are non-specialists. For example, an anthropologist should easily understand a discussion led by a neuroscientist and vice versa. However, it is more than welcome to submit ideas related to issues that are specific to certain methods, such as neuroimaging or animal research, which may require specialized knowledge. There is no a priori preference towards any one discipline.

Modus operandi and Deadlines
  • 10th of February, 2022 – Opening lecture by Enzo Tagliazucchi with special emphasis on interactive Q&A
  • 15th  of March – Deadline for commentary submission
  •  Selection of submissions by the editorial team are announced as soon as possible 
  • 15th of April; First draft is prepared by the editorial team
  • 15th of May; Second draft revised by the authors.
  • Submission for publication upon approval by the authors

Publication
  • Every submission that is included in the outcome guarantees that the author is included in a joint publication.
  • Every author has the right to make revisions of the text and contribute to the final outcome.
  • Every contributor (including the editorial team) is included as a first author of the publication listed in alphabetical order.
  • The journal designated for publication is decided collectively (e.g. via vote) by the authors.
Submissions
Please submit your ideas as a text document to the following mail address : aliusresearchgroup@gmail.com

Editorial team
For any further questions, feel free to reach out to the editorial team.
Daniel Friedman (danielarifriedman@gmail.com) ; Matthieu Koroma (matthieu.koroma@gmail.com) ; George Fejer (gyorgyf@live.com)