#667: Dr. Gül Dölen on Rethinking Psychedelics, New Applications (Autism, Stroke, and Allergies), The Neurobiology of Beginner’s Mind, Octopuses on MDMA, and The Master Key of Metaplasticity

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Apr 19, 2023

Join Dr. Gül Dölen, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University and a trailblazer in psychedelic research, as she explores groundbreaking applications for psychedelics. She discusses how these substances could reopen critical periods in the brain for disorders like autism and stroke, revealing their potential as therapeutic 'master keys.' Fascinating insights into octopuses under the influence and the intricate link between the brain and immune response further highlight the transformative power of psychedelics in health and learning.

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INSIGHT

Critical Periods

Critical periods are developmental windows where learning is highly effective.
These periods close, making adult treatment of brain disorders more challenging.

INSIGHT

Social Learning

Teenagers prioritize learning from their social environment more than adults.
Dr. Dölen's lab discovered a critical period for social reward learning in mice, mirroring human development.

ANECDOTE

MDMA and Social Critical Periods

MDMA, unlike other psychedelics, has strong prosocial effects, leading Dr. Dölen to investigate its role in social critical periods.
Surprisingly, all psychedelics tested reopened the social critical period, not just MDMA.

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Dr. Gül Dölen is an associate professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a pioneer and world leader of psychedelics research. Her laboratory has discovered a novel mechanism that could account for the broad range of therapeutic applications that psychedelics are currently being tested for. Her lab has discovered a novel critical period for social reward learning and shown that this critical period can be reopened with psychedelic drugs, such as MDMA, LSD, psilocybin, ketamine, and ibogaine. Building on this discovery, she has formulated the hypothesis that psychedelics may be the long sought “master key” for unlocking critical periods across the brain. To test this hypothesis, she has initiated a nationwide collaborative effort to determine whether psychedelics reopen critical periods for ocular dominance plasticity, bird song learning, anatomical plasticity in the barrel cortex, serotonergic neuronal regeneration, dendritic spinogenesis, and motor learning.

Importantly, understanding psychedelics through this framework dramatically expands the scope of disorders (including autism, stroke, and allergies) that might benefit from adjunct therapy with psychedelics, an approach she has dubbed the PHATHOM project (Psychedelic Healing: Adjunct Therapy Harnessing Opened Malleability).

Dr. Dölen earned her MD, PhD at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she carried out seminal work on critical periods, learning and memory, and the pathogenesis of autism.

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[06:25] How Gül designed her own major as an undergrad.

[09:03] Philosophy of mind and theory of mind.

[13:33] What theory of mind in non-human species suggests.

[16:45] The origin of Gül's interest in autism.

[21:37] Autism facts vs. fiction.

[28:31] Critical periods.

[37:59] How critical periods apply to therapies for autism.

[43:37] Why might psychedelics allow us to reopen shut critical periods?

[49:25] MDMA and the octopus.

[52:40] Challenging popular notions about psychedelic research.

[54:52] Plasticity.

[1:00:26] Favorite neurotransmitter receptors.