Drugs and Intelligence - Dr Maria Balaet - Zoom

Drugs and Intelligence: Associations between recreational drug use and cognitive ability in the general population

The Great British Intelligence Test recruited over 500,000 individuals between late 2019 and 2020, then longitudinally monitored 135,000 participants. The study involved comprehensive cognitive assessments alongside detailed surveys of lifestyle choices, including recreational drug use. Previous population studies indicated associations between prolonged or heavy use of certain illicit drugs, such as stimulants and cannabis, and impaired cognitive performance. In contrast, emerging evidence suggests that specific substances, like psychedelics, may be associated with enhanced performance in particular cognitive domains, including creativity, cognitive flexibility, and emotional processing. The current presentation focuses on the results from the large-scale analysis from the Great British Intelligence Test designed to address a decades-long debate about the associations between recreational drug use and cognitive function. It describes a distinctive cognitive profile—or "fingerprint"—that characterise recreational drug users, remaining consistent despite potential influences from alcohol or tobacco consumption, psychiatric, or neurological conditions. Particular attention is given to discussing nuanced associations between distinct drug classes, notably psychedelics, and specific cognitive abilities.

Speaker Bio

Dr Maria Balaet holds a PhD in Clinical Medicine and Computational Neuroscience from Imperial College London, which was funded by a prestigious award she received from the UK Medical Research Council. She is currently a Research Associate at the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. With over a decade of research experience, her work focuses on human intelligence and altered states of consciousness. Most notably, she has developed precision cognitive testing technology as part of the Cognitron Team and has led one of the largest longitudinal study arms in the world studying how naturalistic drug use including use of psychedelics associates with cognitive ability and mental health as part of the Great British Intelligence Test (which recruited over 500,000 participants). Outside of academic work, Maria has a passion for science communication and is a regular public speaker, podcast guest and panelist at a wide range of events. https://mariabalaet.com/

Curated and hosted by

Maya Bracknell Watson is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, retired cult leader and psychedelic researcher.

Her background is in psychedelic parapsychology research with Greenwich University, specialising in exceptional human experience and entity encounters on psychedelics, and as an artist. She has studied shamanism for 10 years, working closely with Amerindian indigenous shamanic cultures of Mexico and Peru and western neoshamanic groups, focusing on the introduction and integration of indiginous and animistic knowledge and perspectives to westerners and western ontologies.

She publicly lectures on the subjects of psychedelics and shamanism, and produces art on the subjects informed by her research and experience, including films, performances, writing and immersive worlds. She has performed and exhibited at the Tate Britain and Breaking Convention and is the creator and host of Psychedelicacies, an online lecture series.

Walking between the worlds of art, psychedelic science and shamanism she works to bridge them and uses each as investigatory tools to inform and articulate each other.

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