Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
2026
Charlène Aubinet, Olivia Gosseries, Steve Majerus
The degree of interaction between language and consciousness is a theoretically significant yet poorly understood question. In this review, we examine neuroimaging, cognitive, and neuropsychological studies that address this issue by distinguishing between different aspects or dimensions of language and consciousness. The reviewed studies indicate that high-level semantic and sentence...
Advanced Science
November 20, 2025
Paolo Cardone, Charlotte Martial, Yonatan Sanz Perl et al.
3 citations
Abstract Disorders of consciousness (DoC), including unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) and minimally conscious state (MCS), have limited treatment options and are characterized by low complexity of brain activity. Recent research suggests that psychedelic drugs, which enhance the complexity of brain activity, could offer promising therapies. Here, individualized whole‐brain computational...
Brain and Behavior
October 1, 2025
Pauline Fritz, Anaïs Pichelin, Aurore Ancion et al.
2 citations
This case, set within its medical and pharmacological context, provides a unique opportunity to study NDEs and their precipitating context. The reported transformations underscore the importance of recognizing NDEs for their possible long-term effects on patients and relevance to medical practice.
arXiv (Cornell University)
September 23, 2025
Victor Oswald, Karim Jerbi, Corine Sombrun et al.
Non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOC) provide an opportunity to experience highly intense, unique, and perceptually rich subjective states. The neural mechanisms supporting these experiences remain poorly understood. This study examined brain activity associated with a self-induced, substance-free NOC known as Auto-Induced Cognitive Trance (AICT). Twenty-seven trained participants...
Frontiers in Psychology
July 22, 2025
Pascal Michael, Pauline Fritz, Olivia Gosseries et al.
1 citation
Near-death experiences (NDEs), a syndrome of experiences with mystical-type content classically arising in the context of life-threatening situations, are under-researched in terms of their relevance for acute medical care. We here discuss several reasons to raise the importance of conducting more comprehensive NDE research in emergency and critical care contexts, including but not limited to...
Journal of Neural Engineering
June 10, 2025
Daniel Polyakov, P A Robinson, Eli J Müller et al.
2 citations
Objective.Disorders of consciousness (DoC) remain a significant challenge in neurology, with traditional brain stimulation therapies showing limited and inconsistent efficacy across patients. This study presents a novel computational approach grounded in neural field theory for constructing personalized stimulus signals designed to induce healthy-like neural activity patterns in individuals...
Nature reviews. Neurology
June 1, 2025
Charlotte Martial, Pauline Fritz, Olivia Gosseries et al.
19 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are episodes of disconnected consciousness that typically occur in situations that involve an actual or potential physical threat or are perceived as such, and the experiences are characterized by a rich content with prototypical mystical features. Several explanatory theories for NDEs have been proposed, ranging from psychological or neurophysiological to...
Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics
June 1, 2025
Rosalie Girard Pepin, Fatemeh Seyfzadeh, David Williamson et al.
7 citations
Disorders of consciousness (DoC) are characterized by impaired arousal and/or awareness, ranging from coma to unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, minimally conscious state, and cognitive motor dissociation. Pharmacological treatment options remain limited, complicated by the heterogeneity of etiologies, such as traumatic brain injury, stroke, and infections. The lack of rigorous clinical trials...
Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
May 1, 2025
Paolo Cardone, Pablo Núñez, Naji Alnagger et al.
7 citations
With very few treatments available, post-comatose disorders of consciousness (DoC) pose one of the hardest challenges in modern neurology. Following promising clinical trial results in psychiatry, and a deepening understanding of their brain mechanisms, psychedelics have been suggested as a novel therapeutic drug for DoC patients, given that they increase the entropy or complexity of...
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
March 5, 2025
Gaëtan Collignon, Aminata Bicego, Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville et al.
2 citations
Auto-induced cognitive trance (AICT) is a method for voluntarily entering modified state of consciousness. The therapeutic implications of AICT are still unknown. Since complementary approaches based on modified states of consciousness are recognized to be beneficial for patients suffering from chronic pain (e.g., hypnosis, meditation), we here present the first case report of a 68-year-old man...
iScience
January 17, 2025
Paolo Cardone, Arthur Bonhomme, Vincent Bonhomme et al.
9 citations
Post-comatose disorders of consciousness (DoC) represent persistent neurological conditions with limited therapeutic options and a poor prognosis. Recent works advocate for exploring the effects of psychedelics to enhance brain complexity in DoC and ameliorate their consciousness. We investigated sub-anesthetic concentration of the atypical psychedelic ketamine for treating post-comatose...
Int J Clin Health Psychol
2025
Victor Oswald, Karim Jerbi, Corine Sombrun et al.
4 citations
Understanding individual differences in non-ordinary state of consciousness: Relationship between phenomenological experiences and autonomic nervous system.
The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis
2025
Aminata Bicego, Naji Alnagger, Etzel Cardeña et al.
1 citation
Mystical-type experiences can be induced through techniques like hypnosis and meditation. These experiences are common in near-death experiences (NDEs) and have been linked to paranormal beliefs. This study explored auto-induced cognitive trance (AICT) as a method to induce mystical-type experiences and NDE outside of life threatening situations (NDE-like), as well as examining the influence of...
Neuromethods
2025
Naji Alnagger, Paolo Cardone, Javier Montupil et al.
AbstractKetamine is a versatile N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-antagonist used in various clinical settings. Ketamine dose-dependently induces psychoactive effects: at low, anti-hyperalgesic doses, these are minor or not detectable, but at subanesthetic doses, they may include dissociative, psychotomimetic, and psychedelic events. At an anesthetic dose, ketamine leads to a state of “(full)...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2025
Daniel Polyakov, P A Robinson, Avigail Makbili et al.
Understanding the neural correlates of consciousness remains a central challenge in neuroscience. In this study, we explore the potential of neural field theory (NFT) as a computational framework for representing consciousness states. While prior research has validated NFT's capacity to differentiate between normal and pathological states of consciousness, the relationship of its parameters to...
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
November 4, 2024
Nolwenn Marie, Yannick Lafon, Aminata Bicego et al.
13 citations
Shamanism is a spiritual tradition in which trance practitioners deliberately modify their state of consciousness to seemingly interact with an invisible world to resolve their community members' problems. This review aims to provide a multidisciplinary overview of scientific research on shamanic trance. The search was performed using PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Twenty-seven articles...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
October 27, 2024
Daniel Polyakov, P.a. Robinson, Avigail Makbili et al.
preprint
Understanding the neural correlates of consciousness remains a central challenge in neuroscience. In this study, we explore the potential of neural field theory (NFT) as a computational framework for representing consciousness states. While prior research has validated NFT’s capacity to differentiate between normal and pathological states of consciousness, the relationship of its parameters to...
Communications Biology
September 19, 2024
Iván Mindlin, Rubén Herzog, Laouen Belloli et al.
18 citations
Disorders of consciousness (DoC) represent a challenging and complex group of neurological conditions characterised by profound disturbances in consciousness. The current range of treatments for DoC is limited. This has sparked growing interest in developing new treatments, including the use of psychedelic drugs. Nevertheless, clinical investigations and the mechanisms behind them are...
Neuroimage
September 1, 2024
Charlotte Martial, Andrea Piarulli, Olivia Gosseries et al.
10 citations
During fainting, disconnected consciousness may emerge in the form of dream-like experiences. Characterized by extra-ordinary and mystical features, these subjective experiences have been associated to near-death-like experiences (NDEs-like). We here aim to assess brain activity during syncope-induced disconnected consciousness by means of high-density EEG monitoring. Transient loss of...
Communications Biology
August 5, 2024
Charlotte Maschke, Jordan O'Byrne, Michele Angelo Colombo et al.
50 citations
Consciousness has been proposed to be supported by electrophysiological patterns poised at criticality, a dynamical regime which exhibits adaptive computational properties, maximally complex patterns and divergent sensitivity to perturbation. Here, we investigate dynamical properties of the resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) of healthy subjects undergoing general anesthesia with propofol,...
Neurosci Conscious
June 15, 2024
Paolo Cardone, Naji Alnagger, Jitka Annen et al.
16 citations
Modern medicine has been shaken by the surge of psychedelic science that proposes a new approach to mitigate mental disorders, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Clinical trials to investigate whether psychedelic substances can treat psychiatric conditions are now underway, yet less discussion gravitates around their use in neurological disorders due to brain injury. One...
Neuroimage
June 1, 2024
Pradeep Kumar, Rajanikant Panda, Kanishka Sharma et al.
20 citations
High-order interactions are required across brain regions to accomplish specific cognitive functions. These functional interdependencies are reflected by synergistic information that can be obtained by combining the information from all the sources considered and redundant information (i.e., common information provided by all the sources). However, electroencephalogram (EEG) functional...
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
May 9, 2024
Olivia Gosseries, Nolwenn Marie, Yannick Lafon et al.
16 citations
This review provides an exploration of trance states, covering their phenomenology, neural mechanisms, and clinical uses. Trance states, present in diverse cultural contexts from shamanic practices to modern adaptations, have recently captured the interest of researchers and clinicians. Here, we delve into the phenomenological aspects of trance experiences, highlighting the most common...
Frontiers in Neuroscience
February 13, 2024
Benedetta Cecconi, Javier Montupil, Sepehr Mortaheb et al.
6 citations
Background: Disconnected consciousness describes a state in which subjective experience (i.e., consciousness) becomes isolated from the external world. It appears frequently during sleep or sedation, when subjective experiences remain vivid but are unaffected by external stimuli. Traditional methods of differentiating connected and disconnected consciousness, such as relying on behavioral...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2024
Charlotte Grégoire, Corine Sombrun, Philippe Lenaif et al.
10 citations
Trance states include various practices characterized by a modulation of consciousness, but with their own specific characteristics and induction techniques. They have been very seldom scientifically studied, and their phenomenological similarities and differences are poorly documented. This paper will focus on two types of Western trances developed after the leaders were trained in traditional...