Neuroscience JUST Did the IMPOSSIBLE

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Link to original paper)013054

A neuroscience paper published in Cell just days ago answers a question researchers have been trying to solve for years: what actually changes in the brain during a psilocybin experience—and why those changes can last.

Using a genetically modified rabies virus as a neural tracer, researchers were able to map—cell by cell—how psilocybin alters brain connectivity. This allowed them to see, for the first time, which brain regions gain connections, which lose them, and how those changes depend on what the brain is doing during the experience itself.

The findings help explain long-standing observations discussed by neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and researchers often referenced on platforms like Huberman Lab:

• Why psilocybin can reduce depression and anxiety

• Why the default mode network quiets during psychedelic states

• Why sensory perception feels intensified

• Why context and mental state during a trip matter so much

• Why a single experience can lead to lasting psychological change

One of the most important results from the study is this:

only brain regions that are active during the psilocybin experience undergo lasting rewiring.

Inactive regions do not change.

That finding has major implications for mental health treatment, psychotherapy, and our understanding of how perception, mood, and identity are shaped at the neural level.

In this video, I walk through:

• How the rabies tracer virus works and why it was used

• What changed in sensory, emotional, and self-referential brain networks

• How this relates to depression, anxiety, PTSD, and trauma

• What this discovery means for future psychedelic research