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B. Rael Cahn

5 papers in the library · 347 citations · publishing 2006-2025

Papers

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Meditative absorption shifts brain dynamics toward criticality

arXiv (Cornell University) November 26, 2025 Jonas Mago, Josh Brahinsky, Mark Miller et al.

Criticality describes a regime between order and chaos that supports flexible yet stable information processing. Here we examine whether neural dynamics can be volitionally shifted toward criticality through the self-regulation of attention. We examined ten experienced practitioners of meditation during a 10-day retreat, comparing refined states of meditative absorption, called the jhanas, to...

Meditation and the Brain in Health and Disease

The Oxford Handbook of Meditation December 15, 2020 Kieran C. R. Fox, B. Rael Cahn

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to provide an accessible introduction to the neuroscience of meditation. First, a review of studies examining the relationship between meditation and alterations in the structure of the brain’s grey and white matter (so-called morphometric neuroimaging) is offered. Next, the chapter discusses findings from functional neuroimaging methods, such as functional...

Everyone Can Meditate: Characterizing a Personalized Connectomic State Space among Meditation Groups and Non-meditators

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) June 20, 2020 Jacob van Doorn, Mengqi Xing, B. Rael Cahn et al. 1 citation preprint

Abstract Alterations in brain connectivity has been shown for many disease states and groups of people from different levels of cognitive training. To study dynamic functional connectivity, we propose a method for a personalized connectomic state space called Thought Chart. Experienced meditators are an interesting group of healthy subjects for brain connectivity analyses due to their...

The 5-HT2A/1A Agonist Psilocybin Disrupts Modal Object Completion Associated with Visual Hallucinations

Biological Psychiatry December 4, 2010 Michael Kometer, B. Rael Cahn, David Andel et al. 101 citations

BackgroundRecent findings suggest that the serotonergic system and particularly the 5-HT2A/1A receptors are implicated in visual processing and possibly the pathophysiology of visual disturbances including hallucinations in schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.MethodsTo investigate the role of 5-HT2A/1A receptors in visual processing the effect of the hallucinogenic 5-HT2A/1A agonist...

Effects of psilocybin on time perception and temporal control of behaviour in humans

Journal of Psychopharmacology May 20, 2006 Marc Wittmann, Olivia Carter, Felix Hasler et al. 245 citations

Hallucinogenic psilocybin is known to alter the subjective experience of time. However, there is no study that systematically investigated objective measures of time perception under psilocybin. Therefore, we studied dose-dependent effects of the serotonin (5-HT) 2A/1A receptor agonist psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine) on temporal processing, employing tasks of temporal...