Frontiers in Psychology
June 9, 2015
Norman A. S. Farb, Jennifer Daubenmier, Cynthia Price et al.
630 citations
Interoception, the sense of internal bodily signals, is essential for embodiment, motivation, and well-being but remains poorly understood. This review integrates perspectives from neuroscience, clinical practice, and contemplative studies, introducing an expanded taxonomy of interoceptive processes. It argues that many of these processes can be explained by a predictive coding model of mind-body integration, which describes tension between expected and felt body sensations. This model parallels contemplative theories and links interoception to affective and psychosomatic disorders. Maladaptive interpretation of bodily sensations may underlie many contemporary maladies, and contemplative practices may reduce these biases, restoring a sense of presence and agency.
Frontiers in Pharmacology
July 13, 2022
Patrick Vizeli, Isabelle Straumann, Urs Duthaler et al.
43 citations
A single 125 mg dose of MDMA, given to 30 healthy men after fear conditioning and two hours before extinction learning, reduced skin conductance responses to a conditioned fear cue during both extinction learning and its recall the next day, compared with placebo. The drug did not affect fear-potentiated startle responses. Subjective feelings of trust and openness during extinction learning were linked to poorer discrimination between danger and safety cues during recall. MDMA raised oxytocin levels fourfold, but this increase did not correlate with fear extinction outcomes. The findings suggest MDMA can accelerate fear extinction learning and retention, at least for some physiological measures of fear, which may help explain its therapeutic benefit in PTSD.
Human Brain Mapping
April 9, 2021
Obada Al Zoubi, Masaya Misaki, Jerzy Bodurka et al.
39 citations
A single 90-minute session of Floatation-REST, which minimizes sensory input, reduces resting-state functional connectivity within and between posterior hubs of the default-mode network and somatomotor cortices extending into the posterior insula. A control condition of resting in a zero-gravity chair produced a similar pattern of reduced connectivity. The findings suggest that reducing nervous system stimulation is reflected by decreased connectivity in brain networks that construct and map the sense of self.
Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
March 15, 2022
Namik Kirlic, Zsofia P Cohen, Aki Tsuchiyagaito et al.
29 citations
A nonrandomized, single-arm study tested whether typically developing adolescents could learn to self-regulate the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) using real-time functional MRI neurofeedback during mindfulness training. Thirty-four adolescents (mean age 15; 14 females) completed the task across neurofeedback and non-neurofeedback runs. Neurofeedback runs showed significantly decreased PCC activity during the Focus-on-Breath condition compared with Describe (z = -2.38 to -6.27). State awareness of physical sensations increased after neurofeedback and was maintained at 1-week follow-up (Cohen's d = 0.69). The findings demonstrate feasibility and tolerability of this approach in healthy adolescents and replicate the role of the PCC in mindfulness.
Journal of Psychopharmacology
June 27, 2005
Franz X. Vollenweider, Matthias E. Liechti, Martin P. Paulus
24 citations
MDMA alters decision-making in a way that depends on the degree of success or failure. In a crossover trial with 42 healthy volunteers, a single 1.5 mg/kg oral dose of MDMA increased how much previous responses and stimuli influenced current choices, particularly when error rates were low (20% and 50%). The drug did not significantly change basic response characteristics like response latency or switching, and participants' self-assessed psychological states did not predict the decision-making patterns. These results suggest that acute MDMA affects success-related response selection during decision-making.
Translational Psychiatry
July 13, 2025
Xiaoqian Yu, Aki Tsuchiyagaito, Masaya Misaki et al.
4 citations
Adolescents who experienced early life adversity (ELA) show greater difficulty down-regulating the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a key node of the default mode network, compared to healthy controls. A neurofeedback-augmented mindfulness training combining breath focus with real-time fMRI neurofeedback targeting the PCC was tested in 43 ELA-exposed and 40 healthy adolescents. Those with ELA were randomly assigned to active or sham neurofeedback. Both active and sham groups showed similar PCC down-regulation, and all adolescents reported increased state mindfulness after training. ELA-exposed adolescents reported greater improvements in positive affect, negative affect, and stress at one-week follow-up relative to controls, but there was no difference between active and sham neurofeedback on self-reported measures. The approach was feasible and acceptable for ELA-exposed adolescents but may not enhance mindfulness training beyond sham.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
January 1, 2024
Kelly T Cosgrove, Aki Tsuchiyagaito, Zsofia P Cohen et al.
3 citations
A pilot study tested whether a single session of neurofeedback-augmented mindfulness training (NAMT) altered resting-state functional connectivity of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in typically developing adolescents. Thirty-one adolescents (average age 14.8 years; 45% female) underwent resting-state fMRI before and after the NAMT task. The hypothesized decrease in connectivity between the PCC and other default mode network regions was not supported. However, functional connectivity between the PCC and a cluster including the left hippocampus and amygdala increased significantly after the task (Fisher's Z from 0.16 to 0.26). This preliminary finding suggests NAMT may strengthen connectivity between default mode and salience regions, potentially supporting self-referential and emotional processing.