this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
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[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 26 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Regardless of the actual metabolite responsible, this does raise the question of whether, if any other species consume them and are susceptible, they see tiny versions of their own species?

[–] magnue@lemmy.world 10 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I always wonder if the cows get high. On the right day it's like daisies in summer and they're just munching grass all day.

[–] Donkter@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

The psylocibin mushroom specifically grows on cow shit so some of them have to be getting dosed at some point.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Now that's a question. How to test it?

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Monkeys seem like a good place to start. Similar enough to us to see if it’s unique to humans, small enough to not start ripping someone’s face off if it goes badly.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 5 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

Yeah but how do you get an experimental result from them?

[–] DougPiranha42@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Mackaques love touchscreens, amd can be trained to do complex tasks on tablets placed in their enclosures.
You make a test where they need to press a button when and only when they see tiny monkeys that you can project on a screen or on their floor.
Then you give the drug at various concentrations and placebo, and see if there is a dose dependent increase in the monkeys indicaions of mini monkeys.
Then you can repeat the experiment after treatment with antipsychotic, if it prevents the mini monkey reporting, you already have a hint at the mechanism.
Any nonhuman primate lab can do this from 1-2 million dollars, should we start a go fund me?

[–] Danarchy@lemmy.nz 1 points 5 hours ago

Get one of them sign language moneys and see if they start asking for tiny bananas

[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

Can't you just ask them? Like train them to show what they are seeing by pointing to one of multiple pictures.

[–] Gerudo@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I think you could watch pupil response, body temp, sweating, brain scans, etc and get a good idea.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 5 points 7 hours ago

I thought we were trying to see if the hallucinations of the tiny men changed to match your species' body shape