October 21, 2026Joshua Cain, Micah Alan Johnson, Amirvala Tavakoli et al.
preprint
Sustained contemplative practice confers well-documented psychological and physiological benefits, yet the experiential deepening that motivates practitioners can require many hours of practice, and mastery is not assured. Methods that accelerate training would broaden access to these benefits and could also test mechanism: the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), caudate, and anterior insula are...
Aesthetic chills, psychogenic shivers elicited by emotionally charged stimuli such as music, offer a neurophysiological marker bridging subjective experience and measurable physiology. Although neuroimaging has localized chills to reward and interoceptive circuits and behavioral work has linked them to prosocial outcomes, their electrophysiological signature and its relationship to...
NPJ Digital MedicineMarch 28, 2026Aidan Cone, Sam Zuzick, Tiffany Durinski et al.
Escalating stress prevalence, particularly among essential service personnel whose cognitive compromise threatens public welfare, necessitates rapid, accessible non-pharmacological interventions. Individuals who struggle with endogenous cultivation of beneficial neuropsychological states may benefit from passive exogenous stimulation. This uncontrolled exploratory investigation (n = 74)...
The MindGym, a novel immersive technology utilizing a reflective chamber environment, was developed to create standardized experiential content, including anxiolytic experiences. This study examined whether therapeutic experiences originally created in the MindGym could maintain their efficacy when delivered via 360-degree recordings through virtual reality (VR) headsets. A randomized...
In this randomized, controlled, and double-blind experiment with a relatively large sample (n = 262), a novel technique of audiovisual stimulation (AVS) was demonstrated to substantially improve self-reported mood states by reducing several negative affects, including anxiety and depression, and enhancing performance on mood-sensitive cognitive tasks. Most of the AVS effects were highly similar...
Meditation practices have demonstrated numerous psychological and physiological benefits, but capturing the neural correlates of varying meditative depths remains challenging. In this study, we aimed to decode self-reported time-varying meditative depth in expert practitioners using electroencephalography (EEG). Expert Vipassana meditators ( n = 34) participated in 2 separate sessions....
The MindGym, a novel immersive technology utilizing a reflective chamber environment, was developed to create standardized experiential content, including anxiolytic experiences. This study examined whether therapeutic experiences originally created in the MindGym could maintain their efficacy when delivered via 360-degree recordings through virtual reality (VR) headsets. A randomized...
Abstract In this randomized, controlled, and double-blind experiment with a relatively large sample (n = 262), a novel technique of audiovisual stimulation (AVS) was demonstrated to substantially improve self-reported mood states by reducing several negative affects, including anxiety and depression, and enhancing performance on mood-sensitive cognitive tasks. Most of the AVS effects were...
This study aims to assess the validity of focused ultrasound (FUS) stimulation as a method for facilitating meditative development, which may have application for novice or intermediate meditators seeking to improve their practice. A growing body of work suggests profound benefits to health and wellbeing following consistent meditation practice; however, successfully maintaining such a practice...
Meditation practices have demonstrated numerous psychological and physiological benefits, yet capturing the neural correlates of varying meditative depths remains challenging. This study aimed to decode self-reported time-varying meditative depth in expert practitioners using EEG. Expert Vipassana meditators (n=34) participated in two separate sessions. Participants reported their meditative...
Stroboscopic or “flicker” stimulation is a form of periodic visual stimulation that induces geometric hallucinations through closed eyelids. While the visual effects of this form of sensory stimulation have received considerable attention, few studies have investigated the neural entrainment effects of periodic visual stimulation. Here, we introduce two variants of the classic flicker paradigm...