Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to rewire itself, is at the heart of learning, healing, and growth. This article delves into how psychedelics like ayahuasca and psilocybin help tap into this profound adaptability, offering groundbreaking potential for mental health improvements.
The human brain is truly a masterpiece, constantly adapting and reshaping itself in response to new experiences, challenges, and insights. Like a living map, we are capable of charting a more positive course for ourselves provided the right circumstances.
However, what happens when we introduce psychedelics into our nervous system? These substances are not only catalysts for profound—sometimes even ineffable—experiences, they may also hold the key to unlocking the brain’s innate ability to “rewire” itself.
From sparking neural connectivity to dissolving entrenched patterns, psychedelics have the potential to increase the brain’s malleability, for better or worse, and revolutionize how we approach mental health treatment.
In this article, we explore neuroplasticity, how psychedelics can be used as a tool to achieve it, and how you can use self-directed neuroplasticity as a game-changing and accessible tool for your mental health strategy.
Key Takeaways:
Neuroplasticity (NP) as the Foundation of Growth
NP is essential for learning, healing, and adapting to new experiences. Psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca enhance this natural capacity, offering opportunities for profound mental and emotional transformation across all ages.
The Role of Psychedelics in Brain Rewiring
Psychedelics trigger a state of heightened neural plasticity, dissolving entrenched thought patterns and promoting the creation of new, healthier neural pathways. This makes them powerful tools for mental health therapies, provided users engage in safe, informed practices that reinforce positive changes during the neuroplasticity window.
The Potential of Self-Directed Neuroplasticity (SDN)
SDN allows individuals to intentionally shape their brain’s structure and function through conscious effort. By combining psychedelics with mindfulness, therapy, and integration practices, users can take control of their mental health journey, turning the brain’s malleability into a force for lasting personal growth.
The Power of Neuroplasticity: So What Is It? Neuroplasticity Defined
Neuroplasticity (NP), also called brain plasticity, refers to the brain’s remarkable ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. It allows the brain to adapt to changes in the environment, learn new skills, recover from injuries, and adjust to new experiences. This dynamic process is essential for learning, memory, and emotional resilience.
Our brain’s adaptability is the foundation of growth and healing. It’s what allows us to overcome challenges, develop new habits, and even improve mental health. It involves two primary processes:
Synaptic Plasticity: Also called “neuronal regeneration” (Puderbaugh & Emmady, 2023), refers to change in the strength or efficiency of synaptic connections between neurons.
Structural Plasticity: Also known as “functional reorganization” (Puderbaugh & Emmady, 2023), refers to the brain’s ability to change its physical structure, such as forming new neurons (neurogenesis) or reorganizing neural networks.
This adaptability underpins many therapeutic interventions, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychedelic-assisted therapy, which aim to “rewire” maladaptive patterns with healthier ones.
As Hebb’s Law is commonly summarized, “Cells that fire together, wire together” (Zhao & Willing, 2018). Neural plasticity is a double-edged sword, however. It can drive positive changes, like recovery from trauma or brain damage, but it can also reinforce negative thought patterns, such as in chronic anxiety and depression.
As this quote from The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, MD, eloquently puts it, “Ironically, some of our most stubborn habits and disorders are products of our plasticity.” There is a lot to consider in light of the brain’s ability to rewire.
If the brain is capable of becoming more malleable, for better or worse, the most important thing we can do is use this phenomena as a tool to ensure those changes are for the betterment of our lives and ensure that we reduce the risk for the perpetuation of harmful cycles.
The Brain and Neuroplasticity: Neuroscience Discoveries in Mental Health
“The history of neuroplasticity research is one of surprises. Decades ago, large-scale reorganization of the adult brain was considered impossible. We now know differently. Similarly, it was also long thought that no new neurons were born in an adult brain. We now know that in at least some areas of the human brain, new neurons are born. Progress in the creation and manipulation of neural stem cells, in combination with advances in molecular biology, may mean that developmental plasticity once thought to be confined to early development may in the future have relevance for adulthood, senescence, and perhaps some disease states.” — Power & Schlagger, 2016
Our brains are constantly evolving. Once thought to be fixed after childhood, neuroscience has revealed that the brain is far more adaptable than previously believed. While the adult brain retains this capacity for plasticity, it tends to decrease with age.
Eriksson and colleagues in their analysis on neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus concluded “that the human hippocampus retains its ability to generate neurons throughout life” (Eriksson et al., 1998).
This groundbreaking discovery has transformed our understanding of the brain and plasticity, mental health treatments and therapies. Brain neuroplasticity, once primarily associated with children’s ability to rapidly learn languages and acquire new skills, is now recognized as a promising opportunity for adaptation and healing across all ages.
Along with neuroplasticity in childhood and adulthood, it also plays a vital role in recovery from brain-related injuries, such as strokes. It enables other brain regions to take over lost functions, demonstrating the brain’s extraordinary ability to adapt. This is an example of structural plasticity.
This process, also often referred to as “functional reorganization,” is complemented by mechanisms like “neuronal regeneration” or “collateral sprouting,” where new connections form to replace those that are damaged or lost. Such mechanisms are essential for regaining function and restoring health after significant neurological events.
In their analysis on brain plasticity in relation to health treatment—and more specifically digital treatment approaches—Puderbaugh and Emmady concluded that for “good outcomes,” a patient’s team of health professionals should be able to “identify the most appropriate treatment options to utilize neuroplasticity” (2023).
This points to the importance of personalized and targeted approaches when it comes to optimizing neuroplasticity, whether through physical therapy, cognitive exercises, or cutting-edge methods like digital and psychedelic therapies. Regardless, increasing awareness around neuroplasticity means that we can undoubtedly improve health approaches and outcomes.
Self-Directed Neuroplasticity, Psychedelic Therapy, & Other Mental Health Tools
Psychedelics have the power to deconstruct the architecture of our minds, asking us to reconsider what we build and why. If our health systems intend to integrate psychedelics into their frameworks, are they ready to undergo a similar deconstruction?
We need mental health care which reflects our diverse and complex needs as humans living in our modern world. That is why our mission is to optimize the use of all technologies available to us, both ancient (in the case of psychedelics) and modern (in the case of digital tools.)
When it comes to psychoactive substances like psilocybin and DMT, their ability to trigger neuroplasticity of the brain offers a unique opportunity. Psychedelics facilitate the brain’s capacity to form new neural connections and rewire old patterns by increasing synaptic plasticity and neural connectivity.
This heightened neuroplastic state creates a window of opportunity for individuals to actively reshape thought processes, behaviors, and emotional responses, and this process is known as self-directed neuroplasticity (SDN).
Self-directed neuroplasticity specifically refers to the intentional and targeted change of an individual's brain structure and function through conscious effort. The term refers to neuroplasticity that is either self-initiated or utilized for intended mental health outcomes.
In the case of SDN, the person makes active choices in how they are giving value to their thoughts, not necessarily accepting them all as useful or important or as having positive value or basis in reality.
By consciously choosing how we value our thoughts and phenomena of the mind, we are able to influence the structure of the brain, and vice versa. This is why engaging with psychedelic therapy, we are utilizing both the placebo effect and heightened neuroplasticity, creating an intentional feedback loop between the mind, brain, and conscious decisions.
This means that psychedelics are one primary avenue for both catalyzing deep, therapeutic opportunity for change, and allowing the user to intentionally decide when, how, and where this takes place.
Through the psychedelic experience and the integration after, one can actively implement new thought patterns, habits, and beliefs. Of course, being in a state of enhanced neuroplasticity means that what gets reinforced can be healthy or unhealthy to the person. That is why informed and safe psychedelic practices are of the utmost importance.
“This represents an interesting possibility as the intense preparation and support included into psychedelic sessions may contribute to the apparently more effective antidepressant response to psychedelics than to conventional antidepressants treatment that is typically not combined with any supporting therapy.” — Grieco et al., 2022
When it comes to psychedelic-induced neuroplasticity, this element is rarely if at all being utilized in current psychedelic support strategies. While there is a focus on preparation and integration in most reputable substance-assisted therapies, they fail to fully optimize the entire opportunity.
When it comes to stroke survivors, there is a “3- to 6- mo[nth] ‘critical window’ of heightened neuroplasticity poststroke” (Ballester et al., 2019), and in the case of psychedelics and neuroplasticity, the timeline has been touted as ranging anywhere from two weeks to months after.
“Psychedelics induce changes in processes that persist beyond their initial administration, sometimes for up to 6 months” (Rogers, 2022). Having accessible and ongoing neuroeducation and integration tools might be one opportunity that’s being starkly under-provided and under-utilized.
Rogers also states that “a property of many psychedelics is that they are psychoplastogens: they are exogenously administered therapeutic drugs that promote long-lasting neuroplasticity after a single dose…evidence of promoting structural or functional plasticity has been shown for several psychedelics or psychedelic-like drugs.”
Grieco and colleagues in their thorough 2022 analysis on drugs and neuroplasticity noted that even antidepressants and SSRIs “induce juvenile-like plasticity in the adult brain” and that the “promotion of neural plasticity is the central mechanism through which ketamine and other antidepressants bring about their clinical effects on mood recovery.”
“In vitro studies reveal that psychedelics promote dendritic growth and increase synaptic connections,” they said. “In vivo studies reveal that psychedelics promote dendritic growth and increase synaptic connections as well.”
The exact length of the neuroplasticity window is likely subject to many factors, including which substance was taken, how much was taken, the individual’s preexisting condition, as well as environmental factors afterward that could further increase one’s state of malleability.
It’s safe to say that, with the window of enhanced neuroplasticity lasting anywhere from two weeks to 90 days long (and the experiential changes lasting up to 6 months), the importance of controllable factors like practices, environment, level of support and tools, one’s own thoughts and habits, and exposure to stressors have a meaningful and lasting impact.
Without the proper care and education, we risk either the reinforcement of old maladaptive patterns or, scarily, the implementation of worse ones. Most important is the accessibility of proper psychedelic education, neuroeducation, resources, and support to people undergoing neuroplasticity-enhancing practices, including psychedelic use.
Other tools for enhancing neuroplasticity aside from psychedelics are meditation, learning new skills, engaging in therapy, and challenging our thoughts and assumptions. If you’d like more extensive tips on how to engage in self-directed neuroplasticity, sign up for our newsletter to receive our neuroplasticity guide!
Pioneers in Neuroplasticity Psychology: Resources & Book Recommendations for Teens & Adults
A few trailblazers have been instrumental in uncovering the potential of neuroplasticity and self-directed neuroplasticity:
Michael Merzenich: A neuroscientist known for his groundbreaking work on brain plasticity, particularly in the areas of auditory and somatosensory systems. Merzenich has conducted extensive research on the mechanisms of brain plasticity and its potential applications in learning, memory, and rehabilitation.
Norman Doidge: A psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Doidge has written widely on neuroplasticity, specifically on how the brain can change and heal itself. His books, The Brain That Changes Itself and The Brain's Way of Healing, have popularized the concept of neuroplasticity and self-directed neuroplasticity among the general public.
Richard Davidson: A neuroscientist and psychologist, Davidson is known for his research on the neural basis of emotion and the effects of meditation on the brain. He has studied the impact of mindfulness and other contemplative practices on brain function and structure, demonstrating that these practices can lead to self-directed neuroplastic changes.
Jeffrey M. Schwartz: A psychiatrist and researcher, Schwartz has focused on the intersection of neuroscience, psychiatry, and neuroplasticity. His work on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has demonstrated the potential of self-directed neuroplasticity in treating mental health conditions. Schwartz has developed a cognitive-behavioral therapy approach called "The Four Steps" to help patients with OCD rewire their brains and reduce symptoms.
Dr. Rick Hanson: A renowned psychologist and bestselling author, Hanson has been a pioneer in the field of self-directed neuroplasticity, offering groundbreaking insights into how individuals can reshape their brains for greater well-being, resilience, and happiness. His work, particularly in books like Hardwiring Happiness and Buddha’s Brain, integrates cutting-edge neuroscience with practical mindfulness techniques, empowering people to cultivate positive mental states and habits. By emphasizing the science of how repeated thoughts and experiences can physically alter neural pathways, Dr. Hanson has illuminated how intentional practices such as gratitude, compassion, and mindfulness can rewire the brain for long-term transformation.
Why Self-Directed Neuroplasticity Matters in Psychedelic Therapy
Self-directed neuroplasticity (SDN) gets to be a practical tool that you can use everyday to improve your own health outcomes:
Empowerment & Inclusivity: SDN places you at the center of your own mental health journey and care, enabling you to take control of your healing and growth, no matter your age or circumstances.
Mental Health Applications: Neuroplasticity of the brain and mindfulness, CBT, and psychedelic therapy integrate these principles of neurological plasticity to foster change. It can be utilized in conjunction with nearly every other treatment protocol.
Trauma Recovery: By leveraging neuroplasticity and pain processing, individuals can heal emotional wounds and build resilience for neuroplastic pain relief.
Integration with Psychedelics: Brain neuroplasticity is enhanced by psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms, creating a unique opportunity for profound, self-directed transformation.
Practicality: SDN will happen for various reasons throughout your life. You might as well use it intentionally as a tool for growth!
By understanding and applying self-directed neuroplasticity, we can unlock the brain’s potential to heal, grow, and thrive. Whether through mindfulness, therapy, or skill learning, this concept empowers us to reshape our mental landscapes and achieve greater well-being.
Together, these findings underscore the brain’s lifelong ability to adapt and change.
Neuroplasticity isn’t just a fascinating phenomenon—it’s a cornerstone of recovery, learning, and innovation in medicine. Its potential continues to inspire research and offers hope for improving treatment outcomes across a wide range of neurological conditions.
Personalized, Digital Health Tools & Neurodiversity-Informed Psychedelic Education for You
Thank you for exploring this topic with us! We hope the insights resonate with your goals for personal growth, healing, or professional development. To dive deeper into neuroplasticity, psychedelic therapy, and how neurodiversity intersects with these fields, visit our blog for cutting-edge articles, our practical tools for personalized support, and stay up to date on our latest releases!
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