Neuroplasticity on Acid: How Psychedelics Reshape the Brain

Psychedelic neuroplasticity is revolutionizing our understanding of the mind. It turns out this is your brain on drugs. So what happens in our brains when we take psychoactive substances? Let's explore.

Applying Neuroscience for Effective Psychedelic Integration

Integration is the process of assimilating insights and experiences from a psychedelic journey into one's daily life. By understanding the neuroscience behind psychedelics, you can enhance your integration process, making it more effective and transformative. Here's how:

🫨 Harness Neural Plasticity

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. After a psychedelic experience, the brain is in a heightened state of plasticity. This means that it's more receptive to forming new patterns and breaking old ones.

In this way, psychedelics can act as destabilizers, both psychologically and neurophysiologically. They break reinforced patterns, leading to increased brain entropy and the potential for profound personal transformation¹.

By engaging in reflective practices like journaling, meditation, or therapy, you can solidify the insights gained during a psychedelic journey, creating lasting neural pathways for permanent change.

🤩 Recognize the Role of the 5HT2A Receptor

The 5HT2A receptor is a type of protein found on the surface of your brain cells, primarily involved in the neurotransmission of serotonin (a neurotransmitter that regulates mood, cognition, and perception).

Many psychedelic compounds, such as LSD and psilocybin, have been found to bind to and activate the 5HT2A receptor. When activated, this receptor can lead to a cascade of neural events, resulting in altered states of consciousness characteristic of psychedelic experiences.

Clinicians and researchers are interested in the therapeutic potentials of the 5HT2A receptor² for its potential to facilitate profound shifts in perception, emotion, and thought patterns.

When combined with psychotherapy, psychedelic use that activates this receptor can aid  one in confronting and processing deeply rooted traumas, re-frame negative thought patterns, or achieve insights that might be difficult to access in traditional therapeutic settings.

Moreover, understanding the role of the 5HT2A receptor can aid in optimizing dosages, predicting therapeutic outcomes, and ensuring the safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies.

To make the most of 5HT2A activation, it is beneficial to engage in activities post-experience that continue to stimulate this receptor. This includes mindfulness practices or exposure to novel environments.

👶 Embrace the Reopened Critical Periods

In the context of the brain, a critical period is when your neural circuits are particularly malleable and can be shaped by external experiences.

For example, early childhood is a critical period for language acquisition. Children can learn multiple languages with ease during this time, but as they grow older, the ability diminishes.

Psychedelics can reopen critical periods in the brain. By doing so, they offer a unique opportunity for one to re-learn, unlearn, or reshape certain behaviors, beliefs, or thought patterns³.

You can make the most of a re-opened critical period post-journey, by using the days and weeks following to introduce positive habits, learn new skills, or even unlearn detrimental patterns.

Whether it's picking up a musical instrument, adopting a new exercise routine, or practicing a new language, leveraging these reopened critical periods can lead to accelerated learning and growth.

🧐 Engage in Meaning-Making Activities

You may find that during a psychedelic journey you encounter profound metaphors or symbols. You may experience visitations or messages. Sometimes the meaning of these is clear in the moment, and sometimes they can be a bit mind-boggling.

It can be helpful to engage in activities after your journey that help you explore and make sense of your experiences. These are often considered 'meaning-making' activities and can include art therapy, dream analysis, and group sharing circles.

Additional Neuroscientific Findings of Psychedelic Interest

• Neuropsychological Modification of Memory Traces: Memory traces, often referred to as engrams, are the theoretical neural representations of memories within the brain. They are the physical changes or imprints that occur in the brain when a new memory is formed.

  Psychedelics have been shown to facilitate the brain in modifying memory traces, allowing one to re-frame traumatic or negative memories⁴.

• Neurobiology of Attachment Theory: The way we form attachments, especially during our early years, has profound implications for our mental health. Recent studies have indicated that psychedelics can influence the neural pathways associated with attachment, potentially offering healing for those with attachment disorders⁵.

• Cognitive Mechanisms in Psychopathology: Understanding the cognitive mechanisms that underlie various mental health disorders helps us treat them. Many researchers and clinicians are excited for how psychedelics can help us target and view different cognitive mechanisms in laboratory settings. This can pave the way for targeted therapeutic interventions.

• Neurophysiology of Human Empathy: Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Discoveries have shown that psychedelics can enhance neural circuits related to empathy^6,7, making them valuable in therapies aimed at improving interpersonal relationships or emotional intelligence.

• Neuroimaging Evidence of Psychotherapeutic Treatment: Modern neuroimaging techniques have allowed scientists to visualize the brain's activity during psychedelic experiences. These images have revealed that psychedelics can activate and connect diverse brain regions⁸, leading to heightened creativity, insight, and emotional release.

• Somatoform Disorders and the Brain-Body Connection: Somatoform disorders are characterized by physical symptoms that can't be explained by medical conditions. Recent research suggests that psychedelics can influence the neural pathways that bridge the brain and body⁹, offering potential treatments for these disorders.

• Shared Intentionality in Bioengineering Systems: Imagine you and a friend are working on a puzzle together. You both look at a piece and, without speaking, know exactly where it should go. This silent understanding, where both of you are on the same page without talking, is a bit like "shared intentionality." It's like two people sharing a thought or goal.

  Researchers are trying to understand how our brains work during these silent moments of understanding. This knowledge can be particularly useful in "bioengineering systems," which is a fancy term for designing machines or technologies that can work with or even inside our bodies.