I study how brain temperature shapes neuroplasticity, and why rapid-acting antidepressants such as ketamine and nitrous oxide work as fast as they do. I lead KohtaLab at the University of Helsinki. On the side I make things: installations, podcasts, photographs, the occasional multinational corporation.
Leaky integrate-and-fire neuron model. Cooling slows channel kinetics; ketamine damps network drive.
I am a neuropharmacologist at the University of Helsinki: Docent in Neuropharmacology, Academy Research Fellow, and Principal Investigator of KohtaLab, the Laboratory of Systems Neuropharmacology in the Division of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Faculty of Pharmacy.
My work asks how the physiological state of the brain, and its temperature in particular, regulates neuroplasticity and neurotrophic signalling. The question grew out of a decade spent on rapid-acting antidepressants. Ketamine, nitrous oxide, isoflurane and electroconvulsive therapy all change the brain within hours, and part of the explanation turned out to be thermal.
Before the lab I trained as a pharmacist, and I have worked as a news writer, editor and graphic designer. I still make things: an interactive neuron installation, podcast series, photographs, and a satirical multinational corporation. Research and art are complementary ways of looking at the same reality, and both deserve a public.
KohtaLab studies brain temperature as an active regulator of neuroplasticity: how physiological and pharmacological temperature changes shape TrkB/BDNF signalling, synaptic plasticity and network function, with consequences for sleep, stress, anaesthesia and antidepressant treatment. The lab started in November 2025 and lives at thermoneuro.com.
Brain temperature is not a passive readout of metabolism. It is a dynamic physiological variable that shapes neuronal signalling, synaptic plasticity and brain function. We study how pharmacologically and physiologically induced temperature changes drive TrkB/BDNF activation, and why cooling followed by rewarming looks so much like the signature of a rapid-acting antidepressant.
Plasticity, the strengthening and weakening of synapses over time, is how the brain adapts to experience. We ask how temperature, sleep and drugs modulate it, from single-molecule kinetics to the slow oscillations of cortical networks.
Depression is increasingly understood as a disorder of maladaptive plasticity rather than a simple transmitter imbalance. We study how rapid-acting treatments such as ketamine, esketamine, nitrous oxide and psychedelics reset plasticity, and why the timing of sleep, arousal and body temperature matters for whether they work.
In vivo and in vitro approaches with molecular and computational techniques: fibre photometry, EEG, brain temperature recording, neuronal cultures, flow cytometry, two-photon imaging, proteomics and transcriptomics, iDISCO. The lab 3D-prints its own equipment and keeps a workshop for prototyping.
The lab hosts BSc and MSc thesis students and welcomes PhD and postdoctoral applicants with their own funding plans. Details, people and application guidance are on the lab site. KohtaLab
Articles, reviews, a book chapter, a patent and a dissertation. Conference abstracts and preprints that later became papers are left out. The living list is on the Research Portal and Google Scholar.
Public science is part of the job. Below is the log kept since 2017; appearances after 2023 are catalogued on the Research Portal. Finnish titles are kept as they were.
Science and art share a root: the urge to understand something and then show it to someone else. This is the part of the work that happens in workshops, studios and exhibition halls rather than at the bench.
A tree-like pillar carrying fifteen-plus screens of calcium-imaging-inspired network activity. Visitors dose the network with picrotoxin or ketamine and watch the state change while light pulses travel the cables. With Soma Szentkirályi-Tóth and Iina Annala.
neurons.fi ↗
A multinational corporation, the most efficient and versatile operator in its field. The Company, not the individual. Products include Tuote® (Product), Kipupumppu® (Pain Pump), Teollisuuslaatikko® (Industrial Casserole) and Teollisuusmyrkky® (Industrial Poison). Growth is exponential, happiness an illusion.
yhtio.com ↗
Neuropharmacology out of the lab: rapid-acting antidepressants, psychedelic research, designer drugs and the medicated mind, explained for anyone curious enough to ask. Also @neuropharmacist on Instagram.
youtube.com · Neuropharmacist ↗
A four-part Finnish series on brain research with journalist Kaarle Hurtig for Brain Awareness Week 2017, and the Psychedelic Science Podcast with Robin Carhart-Harris, recorded the same autumn.
Episodes and notes →Everything published on the earlier version of this site: op-eds on pharmacy and drug policy written as a pharmacist and doctoral student, a guest essay, and notes on podcasts, lectures and interviews. Mostly in Finnish. Some of the outbound links have aged and may no longer work.
A recent presentation of mine held in the Ketamine in Psychiatry online seminar by the The Finnish Association for Psychedelic…
I’ve been interviewed recently for nice stories by Business Insider and Pharmaceutical technology. Although you may see my name…
Vieraana Puheenaihe-podcastin jaksossa 134. Aiheina ketamiini, masennuslääkkeet, masennuksen hoito ja aivotutkimus.
Yhdessä Tomi Rantamäen kanssa kirjoitettu hypoteesiartikkelimme nopeavaikutteisten masennuslääkkeiden mekanismeista on nyt…
Vierailin kesällä Juuso Pekkisen ohjelmassa jutustelemassa hieman väitöskirjani aihepiiristä: ”Ketamiinia, ilokaasua ja…
Taltiointi Päihdepäivien luennosta 2018. Luentoni alkaa kohdassa 1:30:00.
Minulla on ollut ilo osallistua tutkimustyöni ohessa myös tutkimustuloksiamme esittelevän animaation suunnitteluun, joka on nyt…
Helsingin Sanomissa julkaistiin pieni juttu älylääkkeisiin liittyen: Lue se tämän linkin takaa!
Olin Juuso Pekkisen vieraana yhdessä Muunto-hankkeen projektikoordinaattorin Miina Kajoksen kanssa keskustelemassa…
Osallistuin Brain & Mind tohtoriohjelman vuosittaisen Symposiumin järjestämiseen, ja nyt tilaisuudesta taltioidut…
Millä mekanismeilla psykedeelit vaikuttavat aivoihin? Mitä tiedetään psykedeelien potentiaalista masennuksen hoitomuotona? Mitä…
Suunnittelin yhteistyössä toimittaja Kaarle Hurtigin kanssa neurotiedettä käsittelevän podcast-sarjan. Sarjassa Hurtig selvittää…
Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, Head of Psychedelic Research in the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology at the Imperial College London…
Co-written with Niko Lindholm, lääketieteen lisensiaatti, as a response to an Aamulehti column. Republished on this site in 2017…
Guest essay by Henri Autio, FaT, proviisori, written after the solanezumab trial result. Republished on this site in 2017…
An essay on anaesthetics as antidepressants. Republished on this site in 2017. Vakava masennus on lamauttava psykiatrinen…
A reply to the editorial in Pharmaca Studentica 1/2016. Republished on this site in 2017. Pharmaca Studentican päätoimittaja…
On the BIA 10-2474 phase I trial accident in Rennes, January 2016. Republished on this site in 2017. Portugalilaisen lääkeyhtiö…
On the exchange of newsletters between Farmasialiitto and Proviisoriyhdistys in October 2014. Republished on this site in 2017…
A response to STT news coverage from February 2014. Republished on this site in 2017. STT uutisoi 11.2.2014 kuinka…
Collaborations, lectures, interviews, thesis projects, exhibitions. Lab matters and applications go through KohtaLab; everything else lands here.
samuel.kohtala [at] gmail.com
