MDMA makes people cooperative, but not gullible

New research from King's College London has found that MDMA, the main ingredient in ecstasy, causes people to cooperate better - but only with trustworthy people. In the first study to look in detail at how MDMA impacts cooperative behaviour the researchers also identified changes to activity in brain regions linked to social processing. Problems with social processing are recognised as a fundamental difficulty in a range of psychiatric conditions and are not treated effectively by current medications. The results of the study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience , may be relevant for psychiatric conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MDMA is used by recreational users due to its profound social and emotional effects and is known to release neurotransmitters - chemical messengers in the brain - linked to behaviour and mood. However, scientists know little about how different neurotransmitter systems in the brain contribute to complex social behaviour. Twenty healthy adult men were either given a typical recreational dose of MDMA or a placebo pill and completed several tasks while in an MRI scanner, including the Prisoner's Dilemma.