bioRxiv Preprint Server
February 22, 2026
Sergio Elías Hernández, Katya Rubia, Oscar Perez-Diaz et al.
preprint
The perception of God can be as a transcendent entity that is infinite and outside of human beings, typical for religious traditions, or as an immanent entity that is outside and inside of human beings, typical for mystical traditions. These different perceptions of God may be associated with different neural correlates depending on which God we pray to. To elucidate the neural correlates of...
Scientific Reports
April 25, 2025
Oscar Perez-Diaz, Sergio Elías Hernández, Lucy L Brown et al.
1 citation
Neuroscience research has associated meditation practice with effects on cognitive, motivational and emotional processes. These processes are mediated by several brain circuits, including the striatum and its associated cortical connections. The aim of this study was to focus on the striatum and test how its functional connectivity is affected in long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga...
PLoS One
March 28, 2024
Oscar Perez-Diaz, Daylín Góngora, José Luis González–Mora et al.
11 citations
OBJECTIVE: To study the white matter connections between anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and amygdala as key regions of the frontal-limbic network that have been related to meditation. DESIGN: Twenty experienced practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation and twenty nonmeditators matched on age, gender and education level, were scanned using Diffusion Weighted Imaging, using a 3T...
BMC Neuroscience
November 13, 2023
Oscar Perez-Diaz, Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Uffe Schjoedt et al.
Sahaja Yoga Meditation draws on many religious traditions and uses a variety of techniques including Christian prayer to reach a state known as thoughtless awareness, or mental silence. While there are many studies on the neural correlates of meditation, few studies have focused on the neural correlates of praying. Thus, the aim of our research was to study the neural activity associated with...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
March 16, 2021
Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Sergio Hernández, Yaqiong Xiao et al.
25 citations
Neuroscience research has shown that meditation practices have effects on brain structure and function. However, few studies have combined information on the effects on structure and function in the same sample. Long-term daily meditation practice produces repeated activity of specific brain networks over years of practice, which may induce lasting structural and functional connectivity (FC)...
PLoS One
December 28, 2020
Sergio Hernández, Roberto Dorta‐Guerra, José Suero et al.
23 citations
OBJECTIVES: Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the same...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
July 30, 2020
Sergio Hernández, Roberto Dorta‐Guerra, José Suero et al.
2 citations
preprint
Abstract Objectives Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the...
Neuroscience
February 10, 2018
Sergio Elías Hernández, Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Yaqiong Xiao et al.
Some meditation techniques teach the practitioner to achieve the state of mental silence. The aim of this study was to investigate brain regions that are associated with their volume and functional connectivity (FC) with the depth of mental silence in long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation. Twenty-three long-term practitioners of this meditation were scanned using Magnetic Resonance...
PLoS One
March 3, 2016
Sergio Elías Hernández, José Suero, Alfonso Barros et al.
Objectives: To investigate regional differences in grey matter volume associated with the practice of Sahaja Yoga Meditation. Design: Twenty three experienced practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation and twenty three non-meditators matched on age, gender and education level, were scanned using structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging and their grey matter volume were compared using Voxel-Based...
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
March 2015
Sergio Hernández, José Suero, Katya Rubia et al.
To identify the neural correlates of the state of mental silence as experienced through Sahaja yoga meditation. Nineteen experienced meditators underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during three short consecutive meditation periods, contrasted with a control relaxation condition. Relative to baseline, at the beginning of the meditation sessions there was a significant increase of...
European Neuropsychopharmacology
January 2015
Sagnik Bhattacharyya, Zerrin Atakan, Rocío Martín‐Santos et al.
Cannabis use can induce acute psychotic symptoms and increase the risk of schizophrenia. Impairments in inhibitory control and processing are known to occur both under the influence of cannabis and in schizophrenia. Whether cannabis-induced impairment in inhibitory processing is related to the acute induction of psychotic symptoms under its influence is unclear. We investigated the effects of...
Psychological Medicine
October 1, 2012
Zerrin Atakan, Sagnik Bhattacharyya, Paul Allen et al.
54 citations
BACKGROUND: Cannabis can induce transient psychotic symptoms, but not all users experience these adverse effects. We compared the neural response to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in healthy volunteers in whom the drug did or did not induce acute psychotic symptoms. Method In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, pseudorandomized design, 21 healthy men with minimal experience of cannabis were...
Archives of General Psychiatry
January 2012
Sagnik Bhattacharyya, José Alexandre S. Crippa, Paul Allen et al.
The aberrant processing of salience is thought to be a fundamental factor underlying psychosis. Cannabis can induce acute psychotic symptoms, and its chronic use may increase the risk of schizophrenia. We investigated whether its psychotic effects are mediated through an influence on attentional salience processing. To examine the effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and cannabidiol...
Biological Psychology
September 2009
Katya Rubia
This paper reviews the evidence for changes of Meditation on body and brain physiology and for clinical effectiveness in disorders of psychiatry. The aim of Meditation is to reduce or eliminate irrelevant thought processes through training of internalised attention, thought to lead to physical and mental relaxation, stress reduction, psycho-emotional stability and enhanced concentration....
Biological Psychiatry
December 1, 2008
Stefan Borgwardt, Paul Allen, Sagnik Bhattacharyya et al.
This study examined the effect of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) on brain activation during a motor inhibition task. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioural measures were recorded while 15 healthy volunteers performed a Go/No-Go task following administration of either THC or CBD or placebo in a double-blind, pseudo-randomized, placebo-controlled repeated...