Kelly Corrigan Wonders Deep Dive with Gül Dölen on Curiosity
5 snips
Feb 3, 2026 
Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist who studies psychedelics, critical periods, and social behavior, shares wild lab stories and bold ideas. She describes MDMA experiments in octopuses, how windows for learning open and close, and ways curiosity, deprivation, or mystical practice can crack them back open. The conversation celebrates wonder and argues lasting change depends on what you learn while your mind is receptive.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Beach Sparked A Scientist
- Gül Dölen recalls being terrified of sea urchins as a child until her grandmother explained their anatomy, sparking lifelong fascination.
- That summer on the beach convinced her that one could become a scientist and set her on a curiosity-driven path.
Why Critical Periods Close
- Critical periods are developmental windows when the brain is unusually receptive to learning from the environment.
- They close to stabilize behavior and efficiency, which explains why perpetual curiosity is cognitively costly.
Psychedelics Reopen Learning Windows
- Psychedelics appear to act as master keys that can reopen closed critical periods in adult brains.
- Deprivation practices and psychedelics may converge on the same mechanism to induce mystical, learning-ready states.