Journal of Sleep Research
August 19, 2024
Gaspare Alfì, Julia Maruani, Giulia Aquino et al.
This exploratory study aimed to investigate the relationship between interoceptive sensibility and quality of consciousness in individuals with insomnia disorder, in order to understand how the modulation of internal states may contribute to modifying the experience of consciousness during sleep difficulties. A total of 37 patients with insomnia disorder (mean age = 46.05 ± 18.16) and 41...
Brain Sciences
June 5, 2024
Sergio Frumento, Danilo Menicucci
A potential function of consciousness is to integrate emotions, motivations, and subsequent behaviors into a coherent narrative [...]
Frontiers in Psychology
May 2, 2024
Bruno Neri, A. Callara, Nicola Vanello et al.
The positive effects of meditation on human wellbeing are indisputable, ranging from emotion regulation improvement to stress reduction and present-moment awareness enhancement. Changes in brain activity regulate and support these phenomena. However, the heterogeneity of meditation practices and their cultural background, as well as their poor categorization limit the generalization of results...
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
March 21, 2022
Andrea Zaccaro, Andrea Piarulli, Lorenza Melosini et al.
32 citations
The modulatory effect of nasal respiration on integrative brain functions and hence consciousness has recently been unambiguously demonstrated. This effect is sustained by the olfactory epithelium mechanical sensitivity complemented by the existence of massive projections between the olfactory bulb and the prefrontal cortex. However, studies on slow nasal breathing (SNB) in the context of...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
March 21, 2022
Danilo Menicucci, Valentina Cesari, Enrico Cipriani et al.
preprint
The fragmented sleep, fragmented mind hypothesis has associated sleep disturbances and dissociative states in subjects with dissociative traits, as supported by neurophysiological theories of consciousness stating that altered states might result from an altered functional interaction among brain modules due to inefficient sleep processes.
International Journal of Yoga Therapy
2021
Andrea Zaccaro, André Riehl, Andrea Piarulli et al.
13 citations
Nidrâ yoga is an ancient yogic practice capable of inducing altered states of consciousness characterized by deep relaxation, strong concentration, acute self-awareness, and joy. In modern contemplative neuroscience language, it is known by the name yoga nidra, and few studies have investigated its phenomenological and psychophysiological effects. Six healthy volunteers (four females aged...
Scientific Reports
April 26, 2018
Andrea Piarulli, Andrea Zaccaro, Marco Laurino et al.
The coupling between respiration and neural activity within olfactory areas and hippocampus has recently been unambiguously demonstrated, its neurophysiological basis sustained by the well-assessed mechanical sensitivity of the olfactory epithelium. We herein hypothesize that this coupling reverberates to the whole brain, possibly modulating the subject's behavior and state of consciousness....
Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
September 22, 2015
Paolo Allegrini, Paolo Paradisi, Danilo Menicucci et al.
Criticality reportedly describes brain dynamics. The main critical feature is the presence of scale-free neural avalanches, whose auto-organization is determined by a critical branching ratio of neural-excitation spreading. Other features, directly associated to second-order phase transitions, are: (i) scale-free-network topology of functional connectivity, stemming from suprathreshold pairwise...