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Join this FREE WEBINAR presented by Dr Gül Dölen (USA).

TOPIC: Reopening critical periods with psychedelics (and why we gave octopuses MDMA)

Psychedelics are a broad category of compounds that induce altered states of consciousness. These drugs have shown remarkable promise for the treatment of debilitating disorders ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to depression and addiction. Although early studies focused on linking binding targets of psychedelics to their therapeutic effects, these pharmacological and biochemical explanations fail to account for the diversity, durability, and context dependence of psychedelics’ clinical and acute subjective effects. More recently, research from the Dölen lab offers fresh insights and demonstrates that a unifying property of psychedelics is that these compounds reopen critical periods, induce metaplasticity, and reorganize the extracellular matrix. Dr. Dölen will review this evidence and argue that the neurobiological and therapeutic effects of psychedelics challenge the biochemical imbalance model that has dominated translational neuroscience since the 1950’s, and favor instead, a learning model that better accounts for psychedelics’ unique therapeutic profile.

EVENT DETAILS

DATE: 17th June 2026
TIME: 11:55am (AEST) for 12:00pm start, finishing at 1:15pm
DURATION: 75 minutes (incl Q&A)
LOCATION: Online - a link will be emailed to you with the viewing details

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Dr Gül Dölen (USA)
Neuroscientist and Professor of Neuroscience & Psychology

Dr. Gül Dölen is a Professor and the Bob & Renee Parsons Endowed Chair in the Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Psychology, the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr Dölen also maintains an Adjunct Professorship in Neuroscience and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. Dr. Dölen is the recipient of several prestigious awards including: the Joukowsky Family Foundation Outstanding Dissertation Award, the Conquer Fragile X Rising Star Award, the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Society for Social Neuroscience Early Career Award, the Searle Scholars Award, and the Johns Hopkins University President’s Frontier Award.

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MEDICINAL PSYCHEDELIC TREATMENTS

Psychedelic-assisted treatments offer enormous potential in providing a meaningful alternative to current treatments for mental illness. PTSD is a debilitating condition that affects tens of millions of people worldwide, with many more trauma victims diagnosed with comorbid conditions such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders. In recent clinical trials, MDMA has been shown to produce reliable clinical improvements, restoring patient safety and self-agency even for individuals who have suffered with PTSD for many years, and for whom many treatments have failed.

The wave of clinical psychedelic research and regulatory support is rapidly building, with experts forecasting the availability of psychedelic-assisted treatments in the US and EU within the next 2 to 5 years, subject to positive clinical outcomes in large trials that are currently underway.

SUPPORT PSYCHEDELIC RESEARCH AND THERAPY DEVELOPMENT

Your donation to Mind Medicine Australia will help us accelerate the availability and best practice of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in Australia. We are a small organisation doing big things – we need your support. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation.

DISCLAIMER

Mind Medicine Australia does not encourage or facilitate illegal use of psychedelics or plant medicines. MMA focus is focused on clinical and legal use only supported by the emerging science and legislative processes. Mind Medicine Australia reserves the right to record and publish webinars on various social media platforms. You agree that you will not discuss any names, locations or specific details of illegal use of psychedelics both verbally or via any written forms of communication via Mind Medicine Australia social media platforms i.e. Facebook, Instagram or zoom private and public chat forms during the webinar. Breaches of these guidelines may result in not being able to participate in the event. We thank you for support and cooperation on these matters. Mind Medicine Australia is focused specifically on the clinical application of medicinal psilocybin and medicinal MDMA for certain mental illnesses.