Examining the Role of Memory in Psychedelic Healing

Manoj Doss, PhD (Assistant Professor)

Tuesday 14 April, 2026 8PM CEST (7PM BST, 2PM ET, 11AM PT)

Online via Zoom

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What persists after a psychedelic experience is often not the acute state itself, but the memories formed during it, and these memories can have lasting effects on meaning, behaviour, and therapeutic outcomes. Understanding how psychedelics influence memory is therefore central to understanding both their healing potential and their risks.

In this session, cognitive neuropsychopharmacologist Manoj Doss explores how psychedelics affect different memory systems and learning processes, including episodic, fear-based, semantic, and reward learning. The talk examines how psychedelics influence memory formation, stabilisation, and retrieval, with particular attention to differences between hippocampal- and cortical-dependent memory processes and what this may mean for how experiences are encoded and later interpreted.

The session also considers the implications of psychedelic effects on fear extinction and reward learning for therapeutic practice, including the potential need for more active clinical involvement during key learning windows. Together, these findings shed light on mechanisms such as insight learning, while also highlighting conditions in which learning may become distorted, including the formation of false or unhelpful insights.

Your Key Insights and Takeaways

How psychedelics interact with different memory and learning systems
The role of encoding, consolidation, and retrieval in psychedelic experiences
Why fear extinction learning matters for therapeutic outcomes
How reward learning differs across acute and post-acute phases
When insight learning supports healing and when it may go awry

Designed for Professionals Like You

This session is designed for:

Therapists, clinicians, and mental health practitioners working with or preparing to work with psychedelic-assisted therapy
Practitioners interested in how learning and memory shape therapeutic change and integration
Clinicians seeking a clearer understanding of how psychedelic experiences translate into lasting psychological impact
Researchers and educators looking to bridge neuroscience findings with clinical practice

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Manoj Doss, PhD is a cognitive neuropsychopharmacologist in the McGill Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School. He received a bachelor’s from The University of Texas at Austin, a master’s from University College London, post-baccalaureate training from University of California, Davis, a doctorate from University of Chicago, and postdoctoral training at the Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before returning to UT Austin. Dr. Doss studies the basic neurocognitive mechanisms of psychoactive drugs, with a particular focus on the impact of psychedelics on different learning and memory processes in humans. He is also interested in how psychedelic therapy could be optimized via the incorporation of cognitive-behavioral manipulations that modulate different learning processes.

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