Your Brain on Science

For the last episode of season 2, Alaina & Zarmeen are joined by journalist Sasha Sisko to discuss their public call for the resignation of Rick Doblin from The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Please note that part of our discussion is on suicidal ideation and sexual assault and takes place at 39 to. 50 minutes. Tune into Sisko's livestream podcast with full commentary and perspective will take place on Sunday (4/30) at 7 pm EST/4 pm PST.

Rick Doblin's next speaking event is at Mind Medicine Australia is on Tuesday the 25th at 11 pm EST/8 pm PST. https://mindmedicineaustralia.org.au/events/mma-free-webinar-series-issues-involved-in-drug-development-with-mdma-assisted-therapy-for-ptsd-with-dr-rick-doblin-usa/

*When discussing Cover Story, Sisko misstated that that Mel was in the MAPS Phase 2 trial and that Leah was in Phase 3, but in reality, both were in Phase 3.

*We use the term Executive Director due to the time of recording, but recently Doblin's title has been changed to President.

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties. 

Happy 420! Join Alaina and Zarmeen for this special episode about cannabis, where they discuss how its different and similar from classical psychedelics both in pharmacology and subjective effects.

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

Happy Bicycle Day!!! To celebrate, A & Z have brought you a very special episode of Your Brain on Science. Join them both as they talk with Leonard Pickard about the current state of psychedelics, his fascinating past and his new book: The Rose of Parascelsus: On Secrets & Sacrements.

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

Alaina & Zarmeen do a crash course in LSD, discussing the pharmacology, subjective effects and history of the drug.

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

Join A & Z as they discuss a recent journal article focused on the safety and tolerability of LSD microdosing in a naturalistic setting. This research was funded by MindBio Therapeutics and is the peer-reviewed version of what we discussed on our previous microdosing episode.

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

In this episode, Zarmeen speaks with Russell Hausfeld of Psymposia about psychedelics and the corporate world. Their conversation dives into the current corporate landscape and the implications of corporatization into every aspect of psychedelic field growth. Check out our website for more on this episode! psychedelicbrainscience.com

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

Alaina is joined today by Dr. Jacob S. Aday, first author of a recent publication surveying psychedelic therapists about their use of psychedelics. This paper raised the question to many: Should therapists providing psychedelic-assisted therapy be required to have a psychedelic experience? Whatever your answer may be, this episode dives into the paper and the pros and cons of having experience with psychedelics as a mental health provider.

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

Alaina sits down with Dr. Neşe Devenot, a psychedelics and bioethics researcher to talk about their work with understanding different aspects of phenomenon associated with ego-dissolution and self-concept. Dr. Devenot & colleagues recent paper, analyzing outcomes and the research manual from the Johns Hopkins smoking cessation study, identifies some common themes of self-concept or identity shift. They also discuss the intersections between hypnosis, psychedelic-therapy and morality.

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties. 

In this weeks episode Zarmeen tackles predictive coding! She chats about what this neuroscientific framework is and how it relates to evidence in the psychedelic field. 

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

This week Alaina is joined by Dr. Natalie Gukasyan, a psychiatrist and clinical researcher at Johns Hopkins University. They discuss the common factors of psychotherapy and how they are affected in the psychedelic-assisted therapy models. From the "myth" or rationale of the treatment to the ritual of the practice, they cover all things related to the double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Dr. Gukasyan also discusses the risks and benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy and provides insight on the true placebo in these studies.

CW: suicide and self-injury at 26 minutes

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

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 adjoining blog post. 

All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

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 and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties.

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 YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.  

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 affiliations.

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 blog post with a link to the paper and let us know what you think! 

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 psychedelics.

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 functional plasticity!

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 useful as psychotomimetics. 

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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, limitations and the things they liked about the study. TW: suicidal ideation and self-injury.

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 these drugs are different from tryptamines and why they act kind of like amphetamines on this week of Your Brain on Science.

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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. Harrison Elder, a PhD student and behavioral pharmacologist at Virginia Commonwealth  University joins Alaina to talk about the difference between tryptamines and ergolines, and how we can measure the function of these different psychedelics. Thanks for listening and as always, subscribe and let us know what you think!

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 hallucinogenic activity. They discuss the methods, key findings, and takeaways of this incredible paper!

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 covered in more detail later. Let us know what you're feeling hopeful for as psychedelic science continues to move forward. As always, like our content, subscribe and share with your friends!

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 seem like psychedelics work for everything?! Check out the website for a reading list regarding today's content and some questions to consider. As always, thanks for listening and please subscribe and share!

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 tough stuff into skimming, reading and interpreting. Check out our blog on psychedelicbrainscience.com for an example of how we work through research articles.

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.

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 people a platform and voice to share their knowledge. We hope you follow along with us on this journey and check out our website, psychedelicbrainscience.com and interact with us! 

The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations.