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The Ecstasy of an Open Brain

As we grow up, there are little windows of time when we can learn very, very fast, and very, very deeply. Scientists call these moments, critical periods. Real, neurological, biological states when our brain can soak up information like a sponge. Then, these windows of learning close. Locking us in to certain behaviors and skills for the rest of our lives. But … what if we could reopen them? Today, we consider a series of discoveries that are reshaping our understanding of when and how we can learn. And what that could mean for things like PTSD, brain disease, or strokes. And cuddle puddles. It’s a mind-bending discussion. Literally and figuratively. This is the second episode in an ongoing series hosted by Molly Webster, in conversation with scientists and science-y people, doing work at the furthest edges of what we know. More to come! Previous episodes in the series: Up in Smoke (https://zpr.io/zrN5fgZwiWiR) Special thanks to Gül Dölen, at the University of California, Berkeley, along with researcher Romain Nardou. Plus, Charles Philipp and David Herman.We have some exciting news! In the “Zoozve” episode, Radiolab named its first-ever quasi-moon, and now it's your turn! Radiolab has teamed up with The International Astronomical Union to launch a global naming contest for one of Earth’s quasi-moons. This is your chance to make your mark on the heavens. Vote on your favorites starting in November: https://radiolab.org/moon EPISODE CREDITS: Hosted by - Molly WebsterReported by - Molly WebsterProduced by -Sindhu Gnanasambandan with help from - Timmy Broderick and Molly WebsterOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Dylan Keefewith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Emily Kriegerand Edited by  - Soren Wheeler EPISODE CITATIONS: Science Articles - Gul’s 2019 paper: Oxytocin-dependent reopening of a social reward learning critical period with MDMA  (https://zpr.io/wfQjeA6PGCBv) on the feel-good brain chemical oxytocin, and how it reopens social reward learning when combined with MDMA.Gul’s 2023 paper: Psychedelics reopen the social reward learning critical period (https://zpr.io/TKDKEwiLwGRN) on the role of psychedelics in social reward learning. Sign-up for our newsletter. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Duration
38m
Broadcast on
08 Nov 2024
Audio Format
other

As we grow up, there are little windows of time when we can learn very, very fast, and very, very deeply. Scientists call these moments, critical periods. Real, neurological, biological states when our brain can soak up information like a sponge. Then, these windows of learning close. Locking us in to certain behaviors and skills for the rest of our lives. But … what if we could reopen them? Today, we consider a series of discoveries that are reshaping our understanding of when and how we can learn. And what that could mean for things like PTSD, brain disease, or strokes. And cuddle puddles. It’s a mind-bending discussion. Literally and figuratively.

This is the second episode in an ongoing series hosted by Molly Webster, in conversation with scientists and science-y people, doing work at the furthest edges of what we know. More to come! 

Previous episodes in the series:
Up in Smoke (https://zpr.io/zrN5fgZwiWiR)

Special thanks to Gül Dölen, at the University of California, Berkeley, along with researcher Romain Nardou. Plus, Charles Philipp and David Herman.

We have some exciting news! In the “Zoozve” episode, Radiolab named its first-ever quasi-moon, and now it's your turn! Radiolab has teamed up with The International Astronomical Union to launch a global naming contest for one of Earth’s quasi-moons. This is your chance to make your mark on the heavens. Vote on your favorites starting in November: https://radiolab.org/moon

EPISODE CREDITS: 
Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
Produced by -Sindhu Gnanasambandan 
with help from - Timmy Broderick and Molly Webster
Original music and sound design contributed by - Dylan Keefe
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger
and Edited by  - Soren Wheeler

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Science Articles -

Gul’s 2019 paper: Oxytocin-dependent reopening of a social reward learning critical period with MDMA  (https://zpr.io/wfQjeA6PGCBv) on the feel-good brain chemical oxytocin, and how it reopens social reward learning when combined with MDMA.

Gul’s 2023 paper: Psychedelics reopen the social reward learning critical period (https://zpr.io/TKDKEwiLwGRN) on the role of psychedelics in social reward learning.
 

Sign-up for our newsletter. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!

Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].


Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.


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RIDILEB is supported by AT&T. We all love to connect via video calls or texts. Right now, at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with iPhone trade-in. Any condition. It has the ultimate pro camera system and big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Learn how you can trade in your iPhone for the new iPhone 18 Pro requires trade-in of iPhone 14 or higher, excluding iPhone 16E, an eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply, subject to change, visit an AT&T store for details. Hey, it's a lot to hear with a quick note. Today, we have the second installment in the series where we just sort of let ourselves fall into a conversation between our own senior correspondent, Molly Webster, and a scientist who's working on the front edge of something. If not exactly news, something deeply and delightfully new. Here we go. I don't know about you, but I found being a teenager and going into puberty very difficult. I was bullied by the mean girls, the popular girls at school, and had to eat lunch by myself. I remember having a tearful conversation with my mother, and she was like, "Don't worry. It'll pass. You think that this is the whole world right now, but in a few years, you'll be off in the bigger world, and you'll see that there are a lot more people, and you'll fit in better, and it'll be fine." I'm Molly Webster. This is Radiolab, and that was Ghoul Dolan, a neuroscientist and former teen. But unlike maybe the rest of us, former teens, Ghoul's very familiar teenage struggle would end up at the center of her scientific work and lead to new ways of seeing the moments in our lives when our most basic habits and behaviors emerge, and then get locked in. It all starts with something called critical periods. For us, yokeles over here, what is a critical learning period? Critical periods are windows of time when the brain is especially sensitive to its environment, and it can learn really well and really strong from that environment. Probably the best way to understand that is to think about the first critical period that was described. I think a lot of people have heard of it. It's imprinting behavior in geese. So cute. We did an episode on it at one point. Yeah, so Conrad Lorentz, what he noticed is that within 48 hours of hatching, a little geese will ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls. Form a long-lasting attachment to whatever is moving around in their immediate environment. So typically, this is their mom, but if the mom isn't there, it could be another mom, or if it's Conrad Lorentz, it could be a scientist. But then after that 48-hour time window is over, they can be exposed to all kinds of things in their environment, and they won't form that lasting attachment. So that little window of time where they're so sensitive to their environment and they can form this lifelong attachment is what he coined the phrase critical period. And when was that discovered? So that was in, I think, 1935, and then since 1935, we've discovered dozens of other critical periods.

Transcription truncated.

As we grow up, there are little windows of time when we can learn very, very fast, and very, very deeply. Scientists call these moments, critical periods. Real, neurological, biological states when our brain can soak up information like a sponge. Then, these windows of learning close. Locking us in to certain behaviors and skills for the rest of our lives. But … what if we could reopen them? Today, we consider a series of discoveries that are reshaping our understanding of when and how we can learn. And what that could mean for things like PTSD, brain disease, or strokes. And cuddle puddles. It’s a mind-bending discussion. Literally and figuratively. This is the second episode in an ongoing series hosted by Molly Webster, in conversation with scientists and science-y people, doing work at the furthest edges of what we know. More to come! Previous episodes in the series: Up in Smoke (https://zpr.io/zrN5fgZwiWiR) Special thanks to Gül Dölen, at the University of California, Berkeley, along with researcher Romain Nardou. Plus, Charles Philipp and David Herman.We have some exciting news! In the “Zoozve” episode, Radiolab named its first-ever quasi-moon, and now it's your turn! Radiolab has teamed up with The International Astronomical Union to launch a global naming contest for one of Earth’s quasi-moons. This is your chance to make your mark on the heavens. Vote on your favorites starting in November: https://radiolab.org/moon EPISODE CREDITS: Hosted by - Molly WebsterReported by - Molly WebsterProduced by -Sindhu Gnanasambandan with help from - Timmy Broderick and Molly WebsterOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Dylan Keefewith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Emily Kriegerand Edited by  - Soren Wheeler EPISODE CITATIONS: Science Articles - Gul’s 2019 paper: Oxytocin-dependent reopening of a social reward learning critical period with MDMA  (https://zpr.io/wfQjeA6PGCBv) on the feel-good brain chemical oxytocin, and how it reopens social reward learning when combined with MDMA.Gul’s 2023 paper: Psychedelics reopen the social reward learning critical period (https://zpr.io/TKDKEwiLwGRN) on the role of psychedelics in social reward learning. Sign-up for our newsletter. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.