“Psychoplastogen” combines psyche and plasticity. The chemist David Olson described psychoplastogens in 2018 as a relatively new class of fast-acting compounds that rapidly promote structural and functional neural plasticity, naming psychedelics, ketamine and several experimental fast-acting antidepressants as examples (Olson, 2018).
The idea grew out of lab work by the same group. A 2018 study found that many psychedelics, including psilocin, DMT and LSD, promoted the growth of neuron branches and spines in cultured rat neurons, and that DMT raised spine density in rat prefrontal cortex 24 hours after one dose (Ly et al., 2018).
The word frames compounds as potential medicines, so it carries a hypothesis. Its evidence base is cells and rodents. A 2026 paper by researchers in the field cautions against leaping from a plasticity marker to better mental health, since plasticity can also entrench unhelpful patterns (Carhart-Harris et al., 2026). No psychoplastogen has been shown to rewire a human brain.
Sources
- Olson, 2018, Journal of Experimental Neuroscience: Psychoplastogens
- Ly et al., 2018, Cell Reports
- Carhart-Harris et al., 2026, Frontiers in Neuroscience
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