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Neuroplasticity research published in 2023

45 studies whose primary subject is neuroplasticity were published in 2023, up from 24 in 2022. Newest first. Back to the neuroplasticity overview

Studies

Engaging Mood Brain Circuits with Psilocybin (EMBRACE): a study protocol for a randomized, proof-of-principle, placebo-controlled and crossover, neuroimaging trial in depression

Research Square December 28, 2023 Joshua M. Poulin, Gregory E. Bigford, Krista L. Lanctôt et al. 1 citation preprint

Abstract Background: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide across domains of health and cognition, affecting overall quality of life. Approximately one third of individuals with depression do not fully respond to treatments (e.g., conventional antidepressants, psychotherapy) and alternative strategies are needed. Recent early phase trials suggest psilocybin...

Psilocybin facilitates fear extinction in mice by promoting hippocampal neuroplasticity.

Chinese medical journal December 20, 2023 Yingjie Du, Yunfeng Li, Xiangting Zhao et al. 71 citations

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are highly comorbid. Psilocybin exerts substantial therapeutic effects on depression by promoting neuroplasticity. Fear extinction is a key process in the mechanism of first-line exposure-based therapies for PTSD. We hypothesized that psilocybin would facilitate fear extinction by promoting hippocampal neuroplasticity. First, we assessed the...

DOI: 10.1097/cm9.0000000000002647 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Psychedelics Mental health PTSD Treatment Fear response

Effects of web-based mindfulness training on psychological outcomes, attention, and neuroplasticity.

Scientific Reports December 19, 2023 María Guadalupe Mora Álvarez, Britta Karen Hölzel, Benno Bremer et al. 19 citations

Mindfulness meditation training (MMT) reliably reduces stress and anxiety while also improving attention. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between MMT, stress and anxiety reduction, and its impact upon improvements in attention on the behavioral and neuronal levels. As a second aim, we sought to explore any relationship between MMT, attention, and modified...

Ketamine treatment modulates habenular and nucleus accumbens static and dynamic functional connectivity in major depression

medRxiv Preprint Server December 1, 2023 Brandon Taraku, Joana R Loureiro, Ashish K Sahib et al. 1 citation preprint

Dysfunctional reward processing in major depressive disorder (MDD) involves functional circuitry of the habenula (Hb) and nucleus accumbens (NAc). Ketamine elicits rapid antidepressant and alleviates anhedonia in MDD. To clarify how ketamine perturbs reward circuitry in MDD, we examined how serial ketamine infusions (SKI) modulate static and dynamic functional connectivity (FC) in Hb and NAc...

Mindfulness-based therapy improves brain functional network reconfiguration efficiency

Translational Psychiatry November 11, 2023 Wan Lin Yue, Kwun Kei Ng, Amelia Jialing Koh et al. 32 citations

Mindfulness-based interventions are showing increasing promise as a treatment for psychological disorders, with improvements in cognition and emotion regulation after intervention. Understanding the changes in functional brain activity and neural plasticity that underlie these benefits from mindfulness interventions is thus of interest in current neuroimaging research. Previous studies have...

The Effects of Psychedelics on Neuronal Physiology.

Annu Rev Physiol November 6, 2023 Cassandra J. Hatzipantelis, David E. Olson 28 citations

Psychedelics are quite unique among drugs that impact the central nervous system, as a single administration of a psychedelic can both rapidly alter subjective experience in profound ways and produce sustained effects on circuits relevant to mood, fear, reward, and cognitive flexibility. These remarkable properties are a direct result of psychedelics interacting with several key neuroreceptors...

The potential of psychedelics for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

European Neuropsychopharmacology November 1, 2023 Michael James Winkelman, Attila Szabo, Ede Frecska 26 citations

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a currently incurable but increasingly prevalent fatal and progressive neurodegenerative disease, demanding consideration of therapeutically relevant natural products and their synthetic analogues. This paper reviews evidence for effectiveness of natural and synthetic psychedelics in the treatment of AD causes and symptoms. The plastogenic effects of serotonergic...

Novel treatments for anorexia nervosa: Insights from neuroplasticity research

European Eating Disorders Review October 12, 2023 Johanna Louise Keeler, Carol Kan, Janet Treasure et al. 36 citations

Abstract Objective Treatment for anorexia nervosa (AN) remains challenging; there are no approved psychopharmacological interventions and psychotherapeutic strategies have variable efficacy. The investigation of evidence‐based treatments has so far been compounded by an underdeveloped understanding into the neurobiological changes associated with the acute stages of AN. There is converging...

DOI: 10.1002/erv.3039 (opens in new tab) Neuroplasticity Anorexia nervosa Eating disorders Psychotherapist +1

Psilocybin-assisted neurofeedback for the improvement of executive functions: a randomised semi-naturalistic-lab feasibility study

October 11, 2023 Stefanie Enriquez‐geppert, Jaroslav Krc, Fiachra O'Higgins et al. 1 citation preprint

Executive function deficits, common in psychiatric disorders, hinder daily activities and may be linked to diminished neural plasticity, affecting treatment and training responsiveness. In this pioneering study, we evaluated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of psilocybin-assisted frontal-midline theta neurofeedback (NF), a neuromodulation technique leveraging neuroplasticity, to improve...

Cortical structural differences following repeated ayahuasca use hold molecular signatures

Frontiers in Neuroscience October 5, 2023 Pablo Mallaroni, Lilian Kloft, Natasha L. Mason et al. 8 citations

Introduction Serotonergic psychedelics such as ayahuasca are reported to promote both structural and functional neural plasticity via partial 5-HT 2A agonism. However, little is known about how these molecular mechanisms may extend to repeated psychedelic administration in humans, let alone neuroanatomy. While early evidence suggests localised changes to cortical thickness in long-term...

Within-Person Modulation of Neural Networks following Interoceptive Awareness Training through Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT): A Pilot Study.

Brain Sciences September 30, 2023 Cynthia J Price, Gunes Sevinc, Norman A. S. Farb

Interoception, the representation of the body's internal state, is increasingly recognized for informing subjective wellbeing and promoting regulatory behavior. However, few empirical reports characterize interoceptive neural networks, and fewer demonstrate changes to these networks in response to an efficacious intervention. Using a two-group randomized controlled trial, this pilot study...

Psychoplastogens: A Novel Therapeutic Approach for Neurological Diseases and Disorders.

ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters September 14, 2023 Robert B. Kargbo 3 citations

Neurological diseases often involve changes in synaptic connectivity and plasticity. Psychoplastogens, substances that stimulate neuronal growth and enhance neural structures, show promise in mitigating these changes. They activate key biological targets, including AMPA receptors, TrkB, and mTOR. Substances like ketamine, scopolamine, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, and rapastinel have...

Biological embedding of early trauma: the role of higher prefrontal synaptic strength

European Journal of Psychotraumatology August 29, 2023 Lihong Jiang, Amanda J. F. Tamman, Christopher L. Averill et al. 8 citations

Background: Early trauma predicts poor psychological and physical health. Glutamatergic synaptic processes offer one avenue for understanding this relationship, given glutamate's abundance and involvement in reward and stress sensitivity, emotion, and learning. Trauma-induced glutamatergic excitotoxicity may alter neuroplasticity and approach/avoidance tendencies, increasing risk for...

Psilocybin's Emerging Role in Combating Depressive Disorder

Journal of Education, Health and Sport August 8, 2023 Anna Jaremek, Joanna Kępa, Norbert Kandefer et al.

In this review paper, we delve into the potential applicability of psilocybin - a naturally synthesized psychedelic substance found within select species of fungi, as a prospective avenue for depression treatment. Depression, a widespread psychological malady affecting countless individuals across the globe, often proves stubborn against existing treatment modalities, necessitating exploration...

Δ9 -Tetrahydrocannabinol self-administration induces cell type-specific adaptations in the nucleus accumbens core.

Addiction Biology August 2023 Constanza Garcia-Keller, Madeline Hohmeister, Kailyn Seidling et al.

Drugs of abuse induce cell type-specific adaptations in D1- and D2-medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the nucleus accumbens core (NAcore) that can bias signalling towards D1-MSNs and enhance relapse vulnerability. Whether Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) use initiates similar neuroadaptations is unknown. D1- and D2-Cre transgenic rats were transfected with Cre-dependent reporters and trained to...

Reelin Rescues Behavioral, Electrophysiological, and Molecular Metrics of a Chronic Stress Phenotype in a Similar Manner to Ketamine.

eNeuro August 2023 Jenessa N Johnston, Josh Allen, Irene Shkolnikov et al.

Over the past decade, ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, has demonstrated fast-acting antidepressant effects previously unseen with monoaminergic-based therapeutics. Concerns regarding psychotomimetic effects limit the use of ketamine for certain patient populations. Reelin, an extracellular matrix glycoprotein, has shown promise as a putative fast-acting antidepressant in a model of...

5-MeO-DMT modifies innate behaviors and promotes structural neural plasticity in mice.

Neuropsychopharmacology August 1, 2023 Sarah J. Jefferson, Ian Gregg, Mark Dibbs et al. 57 citations

Serotonergic psychedelics are gaining increasing interest as potential therapeutics for a range of mental illnesses. Compounds with short-lived subjective effects may be clinically useful because dosing time would be reduced, which may improve patient access. One short-acting psychedelic is 5-MeO-DMT, which has been associated with improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms in early phase...

Therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics and entactogens.

Neuropsychopharmacology July 24, 2023 Boris D. Heifets, David E. Olson 66 citations

Recent clinical and preclinical evidence suggests that psychedelics and entactogens may produce both rapid and sustained therapeutic effects across several indications. Currently, there is a disconnect between how these compounds are used in the clinic and how they are studied in preclinical species, which has led to a gap in our mechanistic understanding of how these compounds might positively...

Effects of psychedelics on neurogenesis and brain plasticity: A systematic review

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) July 20, 2023 Rafael V Lima Da Cruz, Richardson N. Leão, Thiago C. Moulin preprint

In the mammalian brain, new neurons continue to be generated throughout life in a process known as adult neurogenesis. The role of adult-generated neurons has been broadly studied across laboratories, and mounting evidence suggests a strong link to the HPA axis and concomitant malfunctions in patients diagnosed with mood disorders. Psychedelic compounds, such as phenethylamines, tryptamines,...

The Intersection of Psychedelics and Neuroplasticity: Rethinking Therapeutic Approaches for Mental Health

Journal of Addiction & Addictive Disorders July 17, 2023 Kargbo Rb

The expanding field of psychedelic-assisted therapy presents innovative treatment avenues for various mental health disorders. This review explores the potential role of psychedelics in enhancing neuroplasticity, a key mechanism underlying recovery from mental health conditions.