Virtual Reality
June 19, 2026
Ylenia D'elia, Catherine I. Andreu, Aida Palacios et al.
Compassion-based interventions have been shown to improve numerous mental health outcomes. However, they are time- and effort-intensive and are associated with high dropout rates. Virtual Reality (VR) could be a useful tool to enhance compassion practice by immersing users in a VR environment, thus facilitating the construction and sustainment of mental images necessary for the practice. The...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
April 22, 2026
Valerie Bonnelle, Giulia Parola, Catherine I. Andreu et al.
Abstract Self-transcendent experiences (STEs) offer profound and beneficial shifts in perspective, yet remain largely inaccessible outside elite contemplative or pharmacological contexts. Although neural measures have advanced our understanding of these states, their cost and limited ecological validity restrict broader application. This study evaluates heart rate variability (HRV) amplitude, a...
Virtual Reality
December 21, 2025
Joana Vidal, Catherine I. Andreu, Maja Wrzesien et al.
Recently, there has been growing scientific interest in studying states of selflessness, where there is no sense of self as the immediate subject of experience. Preliminary findings suggest that this state is associated with increased positive emotions and a sense of connection with the world and all living beings. Given its potential benefits, various practices have been developed to induce or...
International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
December 17, 2025
Aida Palacios, Sara Martínez‐Gregorio, Catherine I. Andreu et al.
Although the effectiveness of compassion-based interventions (CBIs) has been widely demonstrated to improve mental health and prosocial behaviors, not all individuals benefit equally from these interventions. Therefore, enhancing specific capacities relevant to compassion practice (i.e., mental imagery and somatosensory perception) could optimize the benefits of CBIs. This randomized controlled...
PsyArXiv
November 11, 2025
Ylenia D'elia, Óscar Lecuona, Rocío Herrero et al.
preprint
Measuring subjective experience during meditation remains methodologically challenging due to reliance on verbal self-reports for embodied phenomena. To address this, we developed the Meditation Pictographic Scale (MPS) using a first-person phenomenological approach. We developed and validated the MPS across four phases: (1) qualitative interviews to refine pictographic items; (2)...
Mindfulness
August 1, 2025
Ivana Buric, Lucija Žderić, Maja Wrzesien et al.
Abstract Objectives While mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have shown broad mental health benefits, few studies have examined which individuals benefit the most. Since emotion regulation is a core psychological process implicated in many mental health outcomes, this study aimed to investigate whether baseline participant characteristics predict improvements in emotion regulation following...
Frontiers in Psychology
2024
Ivana Buric, Maja Wrzesien, Jelica Milojičić et al.
1 citation
Self-compassion is a fundamental aspect of psychological health and well-being that can be cultivated through self-compassion meditations, but it remains unclear how to facilitate this most effectively. This study is the first to explore whether sensory and semantic priming introduced prior to a guided self-compassion meditation could enhance the effects of meditation in comparison with a...
Giulia Parola, Catherine I. Andreu, Valerie Bonnelle et al.
preprint
Abstract Self-transcendent experiences, characterized by reduced self-focus and a sense of connection to something greater than oneself, have been linked to positive mental-health outcomes. However, existing induction methods, such as meditation, require sustained training, while pharmacological approaches (e.g., psychedelics) raise legal and ethical issues. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as...