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★★☆Single study — solid evidence, such as one good trial or a large observational dataset, but not replicated at the top tier.
Eating mushrooms tracks with sharper thinking; the trials are mixed
Across 24 observational studies, diets containing mushrooms of any species tracked with better thinking and mood. The 10 trials in the same review came out mixed.
What the study found
People who eat mushrooms score better, and the trials come out mixed
Across 24 observational studies, diets containing mushrooms of any species tracked with better cognition and mood, in healthy and impaired groups alike. The ten intervention trials in the same review, most of them on lion's mane, produced mixed results.
The caveat · Diet, income and exercise differ too
People who eat mushrooms differ from people who do not in diet quality, income and how much they move, and any of those could be doing the work. The observational half covers all mushroom species, so none of that signal belongs to lion's mane in particular.