Psychedelics & Neural Plasticity

There's a old saying in the field of neuroscience, "Neurons that fire together, wire together." In short, this is referencing the brain's way of strengthening synaptic connections (aka connections between neurons) over time. What this means is, the more you run a neural-circuit in your brain, the stronger that circuit becomes. When psychedelics enter the brain however, precedent is broken. Neurons that normally fire together in a non-hallucinating state fail to do so . And at the same time, some of the neurons which do not usually fire together become synchronized.

Interestingly, this phenomenon could lead to the development and strengthening of new circuit. According to both in vivo and in vitro research across multiple species, serotonergic psychedelics promote cortical neurite-genesis, aka the development of new neurites, or projections from the cell bodies of neurons in the cortex. Additionally, spinogenesis, and synaptogenesis, the development of dentritic spines and synpases between neurons occur as well . This means new neurons wire together, so that in future, they can fire together!

To read about this further, check out: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging