Structural plasticity and enhanced fear extinction following psilocybin in chronically stressed mice
The classic psychedelic psilocybin elicits long-lasting neural plasticity and behavioral effects, but prior studies largely examined stress-naive animals. Using longitudinal imaging, we show that psilocybin increases dendritic spine density in frontal cortical neurons and facilitates fear extinction after chronic restraint stress, demonstrating psilocybin's effects in a translationally relevant mouse model.
Authors
- Alex C. Kwan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2169-1667)
- Samuel C. Woodburn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9762-4335)
- Cory A. Knox
- Amelia D Gilbert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5728-2674)
- Jason M Schlotzhauer
Institutions
- Cornell University (US)
- Weill Cornell Medicine (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-04-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.21.720014
- Primary Topic
- Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Usona Institute
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health