The Ecstasy of an Open Brain

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Nov 8, 2024

Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist from UC Berkeley, dives into the fascinating world of critical periods in brain development. She reveals how certain life stages allow for rapid learning, akin to a sponge soaking up knowledge. Dölen discusses the groundbreaking potential of psychedelics like MDMA to reopen these critical windows, offering hope for PTSD recovery and even stroke rehabilitation. She makes captivating connections between childhood learning and adult mystical experiences, sparking curiosity about the brain's hidden abilities.

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ANECDOTE

Teenage Struggles

Gül Dölen recalls struggling to fit in during her teenage years, facing bullying and social isolation.
This personal experience influenced her later scientific work on social behavior and critical periods in the brain.

INSIGHT

Critical Periods

Critical periods are developmental windows when the brain is highly sensitive to environmental input, facilitating rapid learning.
These periods exist for various skills and behaviors, including language, vision, and social interaction, and typically close as we mature.

INSIGHT

Adult Learning vs. Childlike Sponge

While adults can still learn, they lack the sponge-like absorption of children.
Closing critical periods is adaptive, promoting efficient, habit-based behavior for navigating complex environments.

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As we grow up, there are little windows of time when we can learn very, very fast, and very, very deeply. Scientists call these moments, critical periods. Real, neurological, biological states when our brain can soak up information like a sponge. Then, these windows of learning close. Locking us in to certain behaviors and skills for the rest of our lives. But … what if we could reopen them? Today, we consider a series of discoveries that are reshaping our understanding of when and how we can learn. And what that could mean for things like PTSD, brain disease, or strokes. And cuddle puddles. It’s a mind-bending discussion. Literally and figuratively.

This is the second episode in an ongoing series hosted by Molly Webster, in conversation with scientists and science-y people, doing work at the furthest edges of what we know. More to come!

Previous episodes in the series:
Up in Smoke (https://zpr.io/zrN5fgZwiWiR)

Special thanks to Gül Dölen, at the University of California, Berkeley, along with researcher Romain Nardou. Plus, Charles Philipp and David Herman.

We have some exciting news! In the “Zoozve” episode, Radiolab named its first-ever quasi-moon, and now it's your turn! Radiolab has teamed up with The International Astronomical Union to launch a global naming contest for one of Earth’s quasi-moons. This is your chance to make your mark on the heavens. Vote on your favorites starting in November: https://radiolab.org/moon

EPISODE CREDITS:
Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
Produced by -Sindhu Gnanasambandan
with help from - Timmy Broderick and Molly Webster
Original music and sound design contributed by - Dylan Keefe
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger
and Edited by - Soren Wheeler

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Science Articles -

Gul’s 2019 paper: Oxytocin-dependent reopening of a social reward learning critical period with MDMA (https://zpr.io/wfQjeA6PGCBv) on the feel-good brain chemical oxytocin, and how it reopens social reward learning when combined with MDMA.

Gul’s 2023 paper: Psychedelics reopen the social reward learning critical period (https://zpr.io/TKDKEwiLwGRN) on the role of psychedelics in social reward learning.

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Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.