Three promising studies featuring psilocybin, LSD and MDMA have shown signs of improved brain function.
At the 2022 ICPR conference in Amsterdam, mycologist Paul Stamets gave a keynote talk addressing a microdosing study.
Stamets described a study conducted using Quantified Citizen where they studied the effects of microdosing psilocybin and measured finger tapping as a motor-cognitive measurement. Their results showed improved finger tapping in adults over 55 who took micro-doses of psilocybin.
Amanda Feilding, English drug policy reformer and often called the ‘Queen of Psychedelics’, reiterated this point in her talk, where she described a study which documented improved neuroplasticity and increased levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in response to microdosing LSD.
Brain Green, Reggie Watts, Rick Doblin and Dr Gul Dolen sat down for recorded conversation on Psychedelics, Chemicals, Consciousness and Creativity.
Dr Dolen described her groundbreaking discovery that MDMA can reopen a novel critical period in brain plasticity in mice.
As the brain matures, we go through these periods of time when we are extremely sensitive to stimuli and the environment and these are called “critical periods.”
In the documentary Gul explains this around minute 58, using the example of geese imprinting on their mothers within the first 48 hours of hatching and forming a deep connection.
Humans also have similar critical periods for language, motor learning, vision, and more. For many years, neuroscientists have been looking to find a way to reopen these critical periods, and now Dr Dolen’s lab is working to test hypotheses that psychedelic drugs can reopen multiple critical periods across the brain and that this property can be harnessed for therapeutic benefit.
