How mental training reshapes the temporal architecture of large-scale brain dynamics and how these mechanisms differ between healthy and clinically vulnerable populations remains poorly understood. Time-averaged neural measures collapse the multi-scale nature of brain activity, obscuring the dynamic processes through which behavioural interventions reorganise hierarchical brain function. Here,...
Awakening is reported across contemplative traditions yet remains poorly defined in science, where it is often conflated with transient states induced by meditation or psychedelics, obscuring its significance for theories of consciousness and cognitive architecture. We treat awakening as a functional construct capturing convergence across Hindu and Buddhist sources, phenomenological and...
Scalable digital strategies that support subjective well-being before the consolidation of psychological distress remain limited. Ultra-brief, mobile-delivered interventions may offer a low-burden, just-in-time approach compatible with everyday digital ecosystems. However, the extent to which a single-session, sub-10-minute digital meditation is associated with immediate changes in...
IntroductionNear-death experiences (NDEs) are subjective experiences reported during actual or perceived life-threatening situations, whereas near-death-like experiences may occur in non-life-threatening altered states. Empirical data from Chinese populations remain limited, particularly regarding culturally specific narrative content.MethodsThis exploratory mixed-methods study examined...
Distinguishing between self (internal) and environment (external) is fundamental to human experience, yet mind-body traditions describe non-dual states where this boundary dissolves. However, the neural basis of non-duality remains underexplored. We investigate this in advanced and novice meditators from the Isha Yoga tradition and meditation-naïve controls using psychological scales and...
Un nombre alarmant d’étudiants universitaires présente des niveaux élevés de stress psychologique ainsi qu’une faible estime de soi et auto-efficacité, soulignant le besoin d’interventions en santé mentale. La méditation d’autocompassion en pleine conscience (ACPC) apparaît prometteuse pour améliorer rapidement le bien-être psychologique. L’intégration de la réalité virtuelle (VR), comparée à...
Significant advances in the scientific investigation of the neurobiology of consciousness have been slow to be translated into clinical settings, limited by factors of conceptual (e.g., what is consciousness?), methodological (e.g., how to identify reliable indicators of consciousness?), and technical (e.g., how to improve sensitivity and specificity of the technological identification of...
Abstract Disorders of consciousness (DoC), including unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) and minimally conscious state (MCS), have limited treatment options and are characterized by low complexity of brain activity. Recent research suggests that psychedelic drugs, which enhance the complexity of brain activity, could offer promising therapies. Here, individualized whole‐brain computational...
Abstract Understanding disorders of consciousness (DOC) remains one of the most challenging problems in neuroscience, hindered by the lack of experimental models for probing mechanisms or testing interventions. To address this, we introduce a generative adversarial AI framework that pits deep neural networks—trained to detect consciousness across over 680,000 neuroelectrophysiology samples and...
This article presents a taxonomy of altered states of consciousness, primarily based on their central phenomenological features. Following taxonomic principles and a modified Delphi methodology, a multidisciplinary, international group identified eight distinct phenomenological/behavioral states (some with subcategories): proto and transitional, delirium, minimal to no awareness, experiential...
The treatment for patients with disorders of consciousness challenges researchers and clinicians. The stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may enhance behavioral responsiveness of a subset of patients in a minimally conscious state, while having limited effects in unresponsive patients. However, heterogeneity in responses...
Disorder of consciousness (DoC) poses diagnostic challenges due to behavioral assessment limitations. This study evaluates the spectral exponent (SE)-a neurophysiological biomarker quantifying the decay slope of electroencephalography (EEG) aperiodic activity-as an objective tool for consciousness stratification and clinical behavior scores correlation. The study involved 15 DoC patients, nine...
Introduction Mind-body practices, such as meditation, enhance mental well-being. Research studies consistently demonstrate improved brain function and psychological well-being in meditation practitioners. A substantial body of neuroscientific evidence highlights changes in alpha and theta frequency bands during meditation among practitioners. Neurophysiological effects of meditation are...
Understanding the neural correlates of consciousness remains a central challenge in neuroscience. In this study, we explore the potential of neural field theory (NFT) as a computational framework for representing consciousness states. While prior research has validated NFT's capacity to differentiate between normal and pathological states of consciousness, the relationship of its parameters to...
During fainting, disconnected consciousness may emerge in the form of dream-like experiences. Characterized by extra-ordinary and mystical features, these subjective experiences have been associated to near-death-like experiences (NDEs-like). We here aim to assess brain activity during syncope-induced disconnected consciousness by means of high-density EEG monitoring. Transient loss of...
Abstract Psychedelic experiences open a colorful view into drug-induced changes in conscious awareness. Small-sample studies on psychedelic drug action have gained traction in recent years. Yet, today’s means for measuring changes in subjective experience are mostly limited to legacy questionnaires of pre-assumed relevance, which could be complemented by bottom-up explorations of semantic...
Consciousness has been proposed to be supported by electrophysiological patterns poised at criticality, a dynamical regime which exhibits adaptive computational properties, maximally complex patterns and divergent sensitivity to perturbation. Here, we investigate dynamical properties of the resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) of healthy subjects undergoing general anesthesia with propofol,...
High-order interactions are required across brain regions to accomplish specific cognitive functions. These functional interdependencies are reflected by synergistic information that can be obtained by combining the information from all the sources considered and redundant information (i.e., common information provided by all the sources). However, electroencephalogram (EEG) functional...
Background: Disconnected consciousness describes a state in which subjective experience (i.e., consciousness) becomes isolated from the external world. It appears frequently during sleep or sedation, when subjective experiences remain vivid but are unaffected by external stimuli. Traditional methods of differentiating connected and disconnected consciousness, such as relying on behavioral...
Consciousness has been proposed to be supported by electrophysiological patterns poised at criticality, a dynamical regime which exhibits adaptive computational properties, maximally complex patterns and divergent sensitivity to perturbation. Here, we investigated dynamical properties of the resting-state electroencephalogram of healthy subjects undergoing general anesthesia with propofol,...
Characterization of normal arousal states has been achieved by fitting predictions of corticothalamic neural field theory (NFT) to electroencephalographic (EEG) spectra to yield relevant physiological parameters. A prior fitting method is extended to distinguish conscious and unconscious states in healthy and brain injured subjects by identifying additional parameters and clusters in parameter...
Self-induced cognitive trance (SICT) is a voluntary non-ordinary state of consciousness characterized by a lucid yet narrowed awareness of the external surroundings. It involves a hyper-focused immersive experience of flow, expanded inner imagery, modified somatosensory processing, and an altered perception of self and time. SICT is gaining attention due to its potential clinical applications....
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are subjective experiences of seeing one's own body and the environment from a location outside the physical body. They can arise spontaneously or in specific conditions, such as during the intake of dissociative drug. Given its unpredictable occurrence, one way to empirically study it is to induce subjective experiences resembling an OBE using technology such as...
Introduction Little is known about the potential personality and psychological predictors of near-death experiences (NDEs), and fewer yet those of near-death-like experiences (NDEs-like; similar phenomenology reported after a non-life-threatening context). This study investigated whether personality traits (Openness, Extraversion, Pleasantness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism), dissociative...
Background So far, the few prospective studies on near-death experience (NDE) were carried out only in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with homogeneous aetiologies, such as cardiac arrest or trauma survivors. The aims of this 1-year prospective and monocentric study were to investigate the incidence of NDE in ICU survivors (all aetiologies) as well as factors that may affect its frequency,...