38. Psychedelic Research Update with Gül Dölen, MD, PhD

Dr. Gül Dölen, MD, PhD is a Professor and the Bob & Renee Parsons Endowed Chair in the Department of Neuroscience and the Department of Psychology at UC Berkeley, is the senior science advisor at the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and is an Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience and Neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Most importantly, she is a groundbreaking neuroscientist, with her lab's work showing that psychedelics such as MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin, LSD and ibogaine can reopen critical periods of brain plasticity. The brain has multiple critical periods, which are windows in infancy and childhood where the brain is very open to learning new things, and once these close it may be difficult to learn, or relearn new functions. There are critical periods for emotional development, but also for physical motor skills. These are being investigated in stroke patients by Dr. Dölen through the PHATHOM Stroke trial, which has just started recruiting study subjects at Johns Hopkins. We have a great conversation discussing the new Presidential Executive Order's implications for psychedelic researchers, why we're all so interested in ibogaine, and yes, what happens when you give an octopus MDMA!  

Find her at:

www.dolenlab.org

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Music courtesy of Zach Effron, MD