Most psychedelic research focuses on the trip itself. This new study, out of the University of Bern, asks what’s still going on in your brain and body once the drug has worn off, in the hours, the next day, and a full week later.
Forty-three healthy adults each took both a real dose of LSD (100 micrograms, a solid full dose) and a placebo, on two separate visits at least a month apart. Because everyone experienced both conditions, researchers could compare each person against themselves rather than against a different group, which makes the results more trustworthy than a lot of psychedelic research out there.
Here’s what they found.
You might learn a new skill faster the next day
Participants practiced typing a short number sequence with their non-dominant hand, then came back and tried it again after resting for 10 minutes, and again after 80 minutes. The people who’d taken LSD the day before showed almost a third more improvement after the longer rest, compared to those who’d had the placebo. Their accuracy was the same, they just got noticeably faster.
That kind of “rest and suddenly you’re better at it” improvement is a hallmark of neuroplasticity, the brain’s capacity to strengthen the connections it just used. It’s the same basic process behind all learning and memory: use a pathway, and it becomes easier to use again. Picture it like a trail through a forest floor: walk it once and it’s faint, walk it with reinforcement and it becomes easier to follow. This study suggests LSD might temporarily make that strengthening happen more easily, at least for this kind of motor skill, the day after.
Your brain’s response to sound and touch changed too, but it’s complicated
The researchers also used scalp electrodes (EEG) to measure brain responses to repeated tones, and magnetic pulses (TMS) to measure how strongly the brain signals to a hand muscle. On the day of dosing, LSD changed both: the brain’s response to sound got quieter, and its signal to the hand muscle got faster and stronger. Some of these changes were still showing up a day later.
The researchers were hoping these tests would directly capture the brain getting “more plastic,” using two classic lab tricks designed to provoke that exact effect. But nither trick worked the way it was supposed to, in this study or in several other recent psychedelic trials using the same methods.
This doesn’t mean LSD has no effect on the brain’s flexibility. It more likely means these particular lab tests aren’t a reliable enough yardstick for measuring it in humans yet. Worth knowing if you see other coverage of this paper claim psychedelics show “no effect on neuroplasticity,” as that’s not quite the full story.
A week later: less stress, more flexible thinking
A full week after dosing, people reported feeling less stressed and said they were better at coming up with multiple solutions to a problem, compared to after the placebo.
One caveat is that everyone in the study correctly guessed when they’d gotten the real drug (it’s hard to mistake), so some of this could be expectation at work rather than a pure drug effect. Still, it lines up with what plenty of psychedelic research keeps finding.
The takeaway
One dose of LSD seemed to help people consolidate a new physical skill better the next day, and feel calmer and more mentally flexible a week later. This is one solid study, but it adds to a growing pile of evidence that the days after a psychedelic experience aren’t just a comedown to wait out. Something in the nervous system is still settling into a new shape.
Which is the whole premise behind AfterGrow, a 6-week directed neuroplasticity program for lasting change.
