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In this episode, Melanie Pincus, Ph.D. and Manesh Girn, Ph.D. once again take over hosting duties, this time interviewing G\\xfcl D\\xf6len, MD, Ph.D.: Associate professor of Neuroscience and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, and head of the D\\xf6len lab.

D\\xf6len largely researches the neuroscience behind social behaviors and is most known for her work in establishing how psychedelics reopen critical periods of learning, and that the true benefit of psychedelics could be in learning how best to reopen those critical periods, how long they\\u2019re open for, and which therapeutic frameworks and integration practices could best take advantage of them. Her most recent research was giving MDMA to otherwise very asocial (and violent) octopuses to prove that a drastically different species would exhibit typical MDMA-inspired prosocial behavior. And, after discovering that all the classic psychedelics worked to reopen critical periods \\u2013 that psychedelics are apparently the master key to opening these periods \\u2013 she\\u2019s now researching why, through the PHATHOM project (Psychedelic Healing: Adjunct Therapy Harnessing Opened Malleability).

You will likely learn a ton in this episode: why critical periods close as we get older and what may impede them from opening more often; how plasticity and metaplasticity relate to each other and why increased neuroplasticity isn\\u2019t always a good thing; how the length of different psychedelic experiences relates to efficacy; why the different results of MAPS\\u2019 and Compass Pathways\\u2019 studies show the importance of therapy; how autism could be related to critical periods; why repeated psychedelic use may make it harder for one\\u2019s brain to reset; and how important context is in the ability to reopen critical periods \\u2013 especially around social learning.

Click here to head to the show notes page.\\xa0