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Neural Connections Boosted by Single Dose of Psilocybin
A single dose of psilocybin given to mice produced an immediate and long-lasting increase in connections between neurons in the brain in a recent study conducted by researchers at Yale University.
Findings from the project were published in the journal Neuron earlier this month.
Previous research has found that chronic stress and depression reduce the number of such neural connections in the brain. When administering a single dose of psilocybin to mice, however, researchers observed an increase in the density of dendritic spines on nerve cells, which aid the transmission of information between neurons. The changes were observed within 24 hours of psilocybin administration and were still present a month later. Further, mice who had been subjected to stress demonstrated both behavior improvement and increased neurotransmitter activity after receiving psilocybin.
In a news release announcing the findings, Alex Kwan, Yale associate professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, said the changes observed were “a real surprise.”
“We not only saw a 10% increase in the number of neuronal connections, but also they were on average about 10% larger, so the connections were stronger as well,” Kwan, the study’s senior author, said in a news release.
