{"id":234389,"date":"2025-04-28T15:09:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T13:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/?p=234389"},"modified":"2025-04-28T15:09:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T13:09:35","slug":"one-dose-of-psychedelic-boosts-brain-flexibility-for-weeks-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/blog\/one-dose-of-psychedelic-boosts-brain-flexibility-for-weeks-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"One Dose of Psychedelic Boosts Brain Flexibility for Weeks, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent study, scientists found that mice given just one dose of a psychedelic drug called 25CN-NBOH, which specifically targets serotonin 2A receptors (just like psilocybin!),<\/em> showed major improvements in cognitive flexibility. That\u2019s the brain\u2019s ability to adapt and switch gears when things change, something that\u2019s often impaired in conditions like depressione<\/a>, PTSD, and malattie neurodegenerative<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Dose of Psychedelic Boosts Brain Flexibility for Weeks, Study Finds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Published in the journal Psychedelics, the study, titled “Single-dose psychedelic enhances cognitive flexibility and reversal learning in mice weeks after administration<\/a>,” <\/em>showed that two to three weeks after a single dose, these mice outperformed untreated mice in tasks designed to measure learning adaptability. Basically, the mice who\u2019d been given a psychedelic were smarter, quicker, and more mentally flexible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Psychedelic Caused Lasting Positive Changes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

“What makes this discovery particularly significant is the sustained duration of cognitive benefits following just one psychedelic dose,”<\/em> said Professor Omar J. Ahmed, the senior and corresponding author from the University of Michigan\u2019s Department of Psychology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We observed enhanced learning adaptability that persisted for weeks, suggesting these compounds may induce lasting and behaviorally meaningful neuroplasticity changes in the prefrontal cortex,”<\/em> ha spiegato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How They Tested It<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Researchers set up a clever experiment using an automated system. In one task (called the SEQFR2-forward protocol)<\/em>, mice had to poke a left button and then a right button within 30 seconds to earn a treat. Later, the rules flipped (in the SEQFR2-reversal protocol) <\/em>\u2014 now they had to poke right first, then left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reversal is a classic test of cognitive flexibility, and the psychedelic-treated mice crushed it: they adapted to the rule change much better than the control group. They completed tasks more efficiently, made more correct moves, and snagged more reward pellets during the tricky reversal phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What This Means for Brain Science<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This study is exciting because it adds to earlier cellular research showing that psychedelics can physically reshape parts of the brain like the prefrontal cortex. But here\u2019s the new twist: this isn\u2019t just a short-term boost. The benefits lingered long after the “high” was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the buzz around psychedelic medicine grows, this raises some big questions. Could psychedelics like psilocybin help reopen \u201ccritical periods\u201d of brain plasticity \u2014 the windows when learning and adaptability are at their peak? What are the exact molecular changes making this happen? And how does the timing or number of doses change the long-term effects?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Foto di Moritz Kindler su Unsplash<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“The current study focused on the long-term effects of a single psychedelic dose,”<\/em> said Dr. Ahmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A key question is what happens with two, three, or even twenty doses taken over several months. Is every additional dose increasingly beneficial for flexible learning, or is there a plateau effect\u2014or even a negative effect of too many doses? These are important questions to answer next in the quest to make psychedelic medicine more rational and mechanistic.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Results Were the Same for Both Males and Females<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

One more interesting thing: the study found that both male and female mice showed big improvements, suggesting that psychedelic treatments could potentially work across sexes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The most striking aspect of our findings is that these cognitive benefits were measured 15\u201320 days after a single psychedelic administration,” <\/em>said Elizabeth J. Brouns, the study\u2019s first author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This suggests that a single dose of a psychedelic isn’t just temporarily altering perception, but potentially inducing lasting beneficial changes in brain function.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another cool piece: the team\u2019s automated behavioral task could be a game-changer for future research. It makes it way easier (and faster)<\/em> to evaluate how different compounds affect flexible thinking, hopefully speeding up the development of targeted psychedelic therapies for various cognitive challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get Inspired and Learn Something New?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Sure, you may not be a mouse, but why not try out a new skill, or practice something new, post-shroom-viaggio<\/a> or as part of a routine di microdosaggio<\/a>? By helping our brains out of their well-worn ruts we become more adaptable, more open \u2014 in a way, our brains can become \u2018young\u2019 again.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like this? Check out our article ‘Uno studio rivela che la psilocibina funziona stravolgendo temporaneamente il nostro cervello<\/a>‘<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A single dose of a psychedelic compound might just give your brain a serious boost \u2014 and not just for a few hours, but for weeks, according to new research from the University of Michigan.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":234406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-234389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-and-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234399,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234389\/revisions\/234399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234389"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholecelium.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=234389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}