their neurotransmitter effect, traditional antidepressants improved neuroplasticity but over a significantly protracted time course of weeks or months. The search for faster acting antidepressants found success in the pursuit of Ketamine, a well-known anesthetic agent, that was found to have potent anti-depressant effects after a single infusion due to its capacity to rapidly increase the number of dendritic spines and to restore aspects of functional connectivity. Additional neuroplasticity promoting compounds with therapeutic effects that were both rapid and enduring have been identified through classes of compounds including serotonergic psychedelics, cholinergic scopolamine, and other novel compounds. To differentiate between traditional antidepressants focused on monoamine modulation and this new category of fast acting antidepressants that achieve therapeutic effects through neuroplasticity, the term psychoplastogen was introduced. See also Activity-dependent plasticity Brain training Environmental enrichment (neural) Neural backpropagation Neuronal sprouting Neuroplastic effects of pollution Psychoplastogen Psychedelic drug Kinesiology References Further reading Edelman, Gerald. Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind (Basic Books, 1992, Reprint edition 1993). Edelman and Jean-Pierre Changeux, editors, The Brain (Transaction Publishers, 2000). Videos about consciousness, mirror neurons, and phantom limb syndrome Other readings External links Neuro Myths: Separating Fact and Fiction in Brain-Based Learning by Sara Bernard Memory Neurophysiology Neurotrauma Neural circuits Brain