June 2, 2026
Alejandro Troncoso, Antonia Zepeda, David Martínez-pernía
preprint
Neurophenomenology has progressively consolidated as a research program aimed at integrating first-person lived experience with third-person neurobiological and behavioral measures. Nevertheless, despite its growing empirical development, neurophenomenology continues to face what Varela described as a “pragmatic and methodological limbo”. Subjective experience is recognized as scientifically...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2026
María del Carmen Tejada, Antonia Zepeda, Alejandro Troncoso et al.
Empathy plays a fundamental role in social bonding and intersubjective understanding. While recent research has emphasized how bodily processes shape empathic engagement and underlie individual differences, the impact of bodily disruptions on empathic experience in Parkinson's disease (PD) remains largely unexplored. In this study, we used a neurophenomenological approach to investigate Empathy...
Frontiers in Psychology
2025
David Martínez-pernía, Alejandro Troncoso, Sergio E Chaigneau et al.
4 citations
Mixed-method studies require adaptation to the era of big data in quantitative research, seeking scalable approaches that can analyze extensive qualitative datasets while preserving the depth and nuance inherent in the study of consciousness on a broader scale. This study aimed to leverage ChatGPT, renowned for its descriptive generation proficiency, to perform a phenomenological analysis. Our...
Frontiers in Psychology
2024
Alejandro Troncoso, Kevin Blanco, Álvaro Rivera-Rei et al.
14 citations
Empathy is foundational in our intersubjective interactions, connecting with others across bodily, emotional, and cognitive dimensions. Previous evidence suggests that observing individuals in painful situations elicits whole bodily responses, unveiling the interdependence of the body and empathy. Although the role of the body has been extensively described, the temporal structure of bodily...
Frontiers in Psychology
2023
Alejandro Troncoso, Vicente Soto, Antoni Gomila et al.
31 citations
Empathy is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that plays a crucial role in human social interactions. Recent developments in social neuroscience have provided valuable insights into the neural underpinnings and bodily mechanisms underlying empathy. This methodology often prioritizes precision, replicability, internal validity, and confound control. However, fully understanding the complexity...
Frontiers in Psychology
2022
David Martínez-pernía, Ignacio Cea, Alejandro Troncoso et al.
25 citations
Traditionally, empathy has been studied from two main perspectives: the theory-theory approach and the simulation theory approach. These theories claim that social emotions are fundamentally constituted by mind states in the brain. In contrast, classical phenomenology and recent research based on the enactive theories consider empathy as the basic process of contacting others' emotional...
Frontiers in Psychology
2020
David Martínez-pernía
With the arrival of the cognitive paradigm during the latter half of the last century, the theoretical and scientific bases of neurorehabilitation have been linked to the knowledge developed in cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. Although the knowledge generated by these disciplines has made relevant contributions to neurological therapy, their theoretical premises may create...
Frontiers in Psychology
2015
Francisco A Olivares, Esteban Vargas, Claudio Fuentes et al.
In the study of consciousness, neurophenomenology was originally established as a novel research program attempting to reconcile two apparently irreconcilable methodologies in psychology: qualitative and quantitative methods. Its potential relies on Francisco Varela's idea of reciprocal constraints, in which first-person accounts and neurophysiological data mutually inform each other. However,...