Psychedelic Brain Science

In this episode of YBOS, Zarmeen speaks with PhD candidate Jason Day about his thesis work which looks to understand the phenomenology of the psychedelic experience. Jason theorizes a change in attention as a crucial aspect of the psychedelic experience. In this episode he explains his theory and also introduces a more controversial take on attention! Listen for more and be sure to check out the a...

In this episode of YBOS, Alaina and Zarmeen talk about harm reduction! From the origins of these programs, to different forms of harm reduction across the board, to considerations for psychedelic assisted therapy… they’ve covered it all! Do you have any tips, tricks or favorite harm reduction groups? Let us know in the comments! All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors a...

This week on YBOS, Alaina is joined by cannabis and psychedelic patent lawyer, Graham Pechenik. Here they'll discuss the big news in the world of psychedelics, clear up some misunderstood notions of patent law, and discuss how the psychedelic industry can potentially influence policy and what it all means moving forward to legalization (whatever that means) of psychedelics.  The content of YB...

This week on Your Brain on Science, Alaina is joined by two fellow pharmacologist and activists, Lindsey Galbo-Thomma and Elijah Ullman. Join them as they talk about general concerns and ongoing discussions with the space of drug policy including decriminalization, harm reduction and more.  The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affil...

Join Zarmeen and Alaina as they discuss the first paper for Journal Club 2023! This is one of the first 2023 clinical trial publications and focuses on a different kind of placebo, for the randomized placebo-controlled trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for Major Depression Disorder. This study is super cool and has a lot of results that will (we think) propel the field forward. Check out our bl...

Welcome back to the official second season of Psychedelic Brain Science with Zarmeen and Alaina! This episode we're answering some listener questions and talking about some of the latest and greatest psychedelic news. We can't wait to bring you more content and get into some interesting topics this season! Stay tuned and reach out to us via email (yourbrain.science@gmail.com) or via our we...

Join Alaina and Zarmeen in the final episode of Season 1!! They are jumping right into all things microdosing. They'll get into methodology, clinical data, preclinical data and considerations for the field moving forward. Get ready for some strong opinions by self-identified "Microdosing Skeptic" Alaina. Catch the gals on the airwaves again in January for Season 2! The content of YBOS is the opini...

Alaina is joined this week by Dr. Lindsay Cameron, a PhD graduate from University San Diego and current post-doc at Stanford. This episode is all about that funny word, psychoplastogens, and how creating new compounds is kind of like taking a part a puzzle and using the pieces to make something new. Dr. Cameron talks about her work as a PhD student and the future directions of the field of psyched...

In this weeks episode Zarmeen kicks off the plasticity mini series with a dive into functional plasticity and current literature in the field. She talks about what exactly plasticity is (we know its been a psychedelic buzzword!) and how it intersects with psychiatric disorders. She also talks about different experimental measures of plasticity and of course, what we know of psychedelics and functi...

In this weeks episode Zarmeen talks to you about the Default Mode Network and its utility in theories of psychedelic action. This episode features special guest Haley Dourron a PhD student in psychology who talks about her Self Entropic Broadening theory which attempts to identify a mechanism for ego dissolution and separate the action of psychedelics from the historical belief that they are only...

Join Alaina and Zarmeen this week as they celebrate Zarmeen's birthday by diving into the recently published report of a phase 2 clinical trial of psilocybin for treatment resistant depression. They go over some background, methodology and results surrounding the study and what it means moving forward. Of course, they also give their interpretations and discuss thoughts about sensationalism, l...

This week Alaina and Harrison continue their discussion about structure, function and some of the ways we figure out the pharmacological profiles of psychedelic drugs. As Harrison puts it, these drugs are beautiful in their structural simplicity but have some of those most interesting subjective effects. Join the duo and dive into why phenethylamine psychedelics are different from tryptamines and...

Join Alaina as she jumps into her favorite topic - how drugs work! She's going to discuss the basics of biology and how the structural and functional characteristics of compounds can determine how psychedelics work. Dr. Harrison Elder, a pharmacologist and Senior Manager of Clinical Development at DeFloria Biosciences, joins Alaina to talk about the difference between tryptamines and ergolines...

Join Alaina and Zarmeen as they discuss the paper titled "Bespoke library docking for 5-HT2A receptor agonists with antidepressant activity" by Kaplan et al., 2022. A very topical paper in which researchers identified new drugs based on structural similarities to LSD that are selective at the 5-HT2A receptor. These compounds show promising antidepressant activity in mice, but seem to have no hallu...

Alaina and Zarmeen finally share their thoughts on the How to Change Your Mind Docuseries. The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

In this episode of Your Brain on Science, Zarmeen talks about the Hope in psychedelic research! She goes through some landmark clinical studies in psychedelic science, including those investigating the potential therapeutic effect of psychedelics to treat depression and substance use disorders. She also briefly talks about some important concepts like neuroplasticity and entropy, which will be cov...

This episode of Your Brain on Science, Alaina breaks down the sensationalist hype in the psychedelic science field. She talks about what these drugs are, how to understand the potential caveats to their therapeutic effects and safe practices when getting into psychedelics (take a shot or eat a m&m for every time she says caveat). Alaina will also discuss the Panacea in the room... why does it...

Have you ever read an article and been extremely confused by all the jargon? Have you ever questioned how the media was portraying findings from scientific articles? Have you ever wondered what exactly is going on? Welcome to Your Brain On Science Episode 2! This week, Alaina and Zarmeen (A to Z get it?) dive into the daunting world of understanding research articles in an attempt to breakdown the...

Hey everyone!! This is the first ever episode of YBOS and we really hope to introduce you all to what this is going to be about. We both really wanted to be able to share our knowledge and expertise in our fields within psychedelic science and help educate the public on some of the topics we've struggled with. We are both PhD students who are passionate about science, communication and giving peop...