Gül Dölen, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Gül Dölen is a Professor in the University of California at Berkeley’s Department of Psychology, and the Renee & U.S. Marine LCpl Bob Parsons Endowed Chair in Psychology, Psychedelics, and Neuroscience, a member of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics as well as the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr Dölen also maintains an Adjunct Professorship in Neuroscience and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine.

Dölen’s studies in animal models, including mouse and octopus, suggest that psychedelics may operate in the brain by reopening “critical periods,” finite windows of opportunity that enable more rapid learning. Her work with the two-spot octopus demonstrated that doses of the psychedelic chemical MDMA caused this normally antisocial animal to display more prosocial, playful behavior. MDMA also activates a critical period for brain plasticity in mice. Research in Dölen’s lab has shown that other psychedelic substances, such as psilocybin and ketamine, can reopen a critical period for social reward learning.

Dr. Dölen is the recipient of several prestigious awards including: the Joukowsky Family Foundation Outstanding Dissertation Award, the Conquer Fragile X Rising Star Award, the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Society for Social Neuroscience Early Career Award, the Searle Scholars Award, and the Johns Hopkins University President’s Frontier Award.