The science behind Psilocybin

Our Role is research & Access

We fund veterans’ participation and study the outcomes alongside academic partners. The experiences themselves are run by vetted partner programs. Truxtun Foundation does not administer or provide psychedelics.

How psilocybin works in the brain

  • Psilocybin reopens critical periods of neuroplasticity, giving your brain the flexibility it had in youth to form new neural pathways. Research shows this window lasts approximately two weeks, during which the brain can break free from entrenched patterns of depression, anxiety, habits, and trauma that have resisted years of conventional treatment.

  • Brain imaging shows psilocybin temporarily desynchronizes the default mode network, the system that holds our sense of self and our habitual thought patterns. As that grip loosens, regions that don’t usually communicate connect in new ways, interrupting the entrenched loops of negative thinking and hypervigilance that trauma reinforces. (Nature, 2024)

  • In preclinical studies, a single dose of psilocybin grew new dendritic spines, the connections between neurons, by roughly 10% within 24 hours, with the growth still present a month later. This is the biological basis of the window when new patterns can take hold. (Yale, Neuron, 2021)

  • Psilocybin appears to reopen the brain’s capacity for social connection that trauma and isolation shut down, which helps explain why veterans describe a renewed ability to bond with family and re-engage with community, changes that hold when integration support reinforces them.

Why Preparation and Integration Matter

The neuroplasticity window is real, and it’s temporary. Without structured support, insight fades and old patterns return. Preparation gets veterans ready to use the experience well, and integration during the window is what makes the change stick.

OUR ReSEARCH Partners

We partner with academic researchers, including Boston University’s Sargent College, to strengthen the evidence, broaden education, and advance policy so this care reaches more veterans.

We’re sharing Early findings from our Boston University study at an upcoming panel discussion.

The discussion covers Veterans’ Experiences of Supervised Psychedelic-Assisted Healing Retreats, the IRB-approved study examining what veterans go through in supervised psilocybin-assisted programs and what changes for them afterward. The panel brings the BU research team together with Truxtun’s founder to talk through what they’re finding so far and where the work goes next.

Thursday, September 24

6:00 – 7:00 PM

Sargent College, SAR 101 — 635 Commonwealth Ave, Boston

You can come in person or watch the livestream:

Register for the Panel