Science at Cal – An Inside Look: UC Berkeley’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics

Dr. Michael Silver will also explore BCSP’s role in destigmatizing the use of psychedelic drugs through evidence-based, objective journalism and education, and he will discuss the BCSP’s plans to give back to the Indigenous communities that have served as stewards of plant and fungal medicines for millennia.

Registration is required.
Doors open at 10:45 AM.

About our speaker:
Michael Silver is the Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). Initial psychedelic research studies in his lab involve administration of psilocybin, a psychoactive component of magic mushrooms, to human subjects in order to characterize the neurobiological, perceptual, and cognitive aspects of the psychedelic experience. A central goal of this research is to use psychedelics to obtain insights into the workings of the human mind and brain and their capacity to change.

Michael Silver is also a Professor of Optometry and Vision Science and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley. His laboratory’s research is focused on understanding how the human brain constructs representations of the visual environment and how these representations are altered by cognitive processes such as attention, expectation, and learning. His team seeks to better understand how the brain actively constructs these visual representations by using a combination of perceptual, brain imaging, computational modeling, and pharmacological techniques.