Some people see tiny people after eating a wild mushroom. These little figures are not real, but they can look very clear. People often describe dozens or hundreds of them. They seem to walk around things, climb over objects and sometimes fall off tables.
Scientists at the University of Utah studied mushrooms from south-west China and the northern Philippines. They tested their DNA: the information inside living things. Both places had the same mushroom, called Lanmaoa asiatica. Local people eat these mushrooms. The strange sights can happen after people eat them without cooking them well enough.
The scientists looked for chemicals in the mushroom. They found none of the known mushroom chemicals that make people see things. They think an unknown chemical causes the effect. Their next aim is to find it. It could help them understand how the brain creates what we see.
The team also studied a wider group of mushrooms. They looked at 53 samples and found 17 different kinds. Four were new to science. Two of these new kinds were already in collections in the United States. Scientists only discovered the differences when they tested their DNA.
