Rate My Professor Vince Polito

Dr. Vince Polito is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He earned his PhD in Cognitive Science from Macquarie University in 2014, with a doctoral thesis titled 'Sense of Agency and Hypnosis.' Polito is the Principal Investigator of the MicroDep Trial, examining low doses of psilocybin as a treatment for moderate depression. He is also a member of the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre. His research investigates cognitive and neurological changes in altered states of consciousness, including self-representation—specifically monitoring feelings of control over actions (sense of agency) and tracking bodies in space (body representation). Additional areas encompass clinical applications of low-dose psychedelics, attentional capacities in meditation, psychiatric symptoms of disturbed control, states of flow in expertise, hypnotic suggestions, and body representation alterations in virtual reality. Polito's work aims to understand how altered states can improve mental health and enhance cognition.

Polito has received several awards, including the 2022 NSW Young Tall Poppy Award for research on altered states of consciousness and mental health, the Ernest Hilgard Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Hypnosis (2014), the Australian National Finalist in the British Council’s Famelab Competition (2014), the Award for Higher Degree Research Excellence from Macquarie University’s Faculty of Human Sciences (2011), the Crasilneck Award for the Best First Paper Presented by a Graduate Student or Young Scientist (2011), and Finalist in ABC Radio National's Top 5 Under 40 Competition (2015). Key publications include 'A systematic study of microdosing psychedelics' (PLOS One, 2019), 'The emerging science of microdosing: a systematic review of research on low dose psychedelics (1955-2021)' (Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2022), 'Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers' (Scientific Reports, 2021), 'Developing the Sense of Agency Rating Scale (SOARS): An empirical measure of agency disruption in hypnosis' (Consciousness and Cognition, 2013), and 'Is microdosing a placebo? A rapid review of low-dose LSD and psilocybin research' (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2024). His research has garnered over 2,280 citations on Google Scholar and received media coverage from outlets such as Buzzfeed, Nine News, and ABC News24.