Biological research
January 1, 2003
David Rudrauf, Antoine Lutz, Diego Cosmelli et al.
194 citations
Francisco Varela's work on subjectivity and consciousness is reviewed, presenting a view of subjectivity as deeply intertwined with biological and physical roots. His theory of concrete, embodied dynamics, grounded in autonomous systems, posits that biological autonomy defines life and identity as emergent, circular self-producing processes. Embodiment explains how a cognitive self arises from an organism's internal regulation and sensorimotor coupling, with global subjective properties emerging from component interactions and constraining local processes through recursive morphodynamics. Neurophenomenology uses first-person methods to examine experience, creating mutual constraints between biophysical data and subjective accounts, aiming to ground disciplined insight in biophysical emergence. Varela's contribution is framed as a "biophysics of being."
Scientific Reports
October 17, 2017
Constanza Baquedano, Rodrigo C. Vergara, Vladimir Lopez et al.
34 citations
Imagining food can make it feel real, but mindful attention reduces this effect. In one condition, participants were instructed to immerse themselves in food images; in another, they applied mindful attention. Saliva volume and automatic approach bias toward attractive food were measured. Mindful attention reduced saliva volume and automatic approach bias compared to immersion. During immersion, higher saliva volume, subjective realism, and food craving traits were linked to stronger approach bias, while meditation experience was linked to weaker bias. The findings suggest that mindful attention can de-automatize automatic food biases.
European Journal of Neuroscience
December 2, 2019
Constanza Baquedano, Vladimir Lopez, Diego Cosmelli et al.
8 citations
Dereification—viewing mental events as mere representations rather than accurate depictions of reality—is a core feature of mindfulness meditation, contrasted with subjective realism, where one becomes immersed in mental contents. This study examined how mindful versus immersed instructions affect approach-avoidance tendencies toward visual stimuli. Novices and experienced meditators viewed neutral and attractive food images under both states, then performed an approach-avoidance task with behavioral, salivary, EEG, and self-report measures. Approach bias toward attractive food correlated with N2 amplitude (response inhibition), and mindful instruction modulated this bias via N1 amplitude (early attention). Experienced meditators showed less late affective reappraisal during mindfulness, indicated by lower LPP amplitude. Findings suggest mechanisms by which mindfulness-based interventions may help psychiatric conditions.
Scientific Reports
September 13, 2019
Catherine I. Andreu, Ismael Palacios, Cristóbal Moënne-Loccoz et al.
Long-term Vipassana meditators made significantly fewer errors than athletes on an emotional Go/Nogo task measuring response inhibition, while being equally fast. This behavioral improvement was accompanied by reduced midfrontal theta activity in Nogo versus Go trials, but no changes in the N2 and P3 brainwave components. Meditators also rated emotional pictures lower in valence and arousal. The results suggest that meditation may enhance response inhibition and emotional control.
Frontiers in Psychology
May 24, 2019
Alejandra Vasquez-Rosati, Rodrigo Montefusco-Siegmund, Vladimir Lopez et al.
Negative emotional music slowed reaction times during a task-switching test compared to positive music or silence, but the effect depended on each person's subjective emotional experience. When participants felt hampered by the music, their reaction times were slower and a brain signal called P300 was reduced. The study combined EEG brain monitoring, behavior measures, and detailed interviews about inner experience to show that emotion and cognitive flexibility interact in complex, individual ways.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2018
Gonzalo Boncompte, Diego Cosmelli
The neural signature of conscious perception is debated, with candidates including the P3b, Visual Awareness Negativity (VAN), and early components like P1. Most studies use static images, favoring ventral stream processing. This experiment isolated local motion, a dorsally processed feature, as the consciously perceived content. Using physical equality between Seen and Unseen conditions and minimal contrast differences, a P3b with wide centro-parietal distribution strongly correlated with stimulus detection, with larger magnitude for Seen vs. Unseen conditions consistently at the single subject level. VAN was undetectable, and P1 was absent. A N2pc component appeared in the 200-300 ms window, consistent with high attentional demands. Results extend P3b's role as a content-independent neural correlate of consciousness to visual motion perception.
Mindfulness
December 1, 2017
Catherine I. Andreu, Cristóbal Moënne-Loccoz, Vladimir Lopez et al.
Regular long-term meditation practice is associated with enhanced performance monitoring, the ability to detect and correct errors. Meditators made significantly fewer errors than non-meditator athletes on a challenging attention task. EEG recordings showed larger amplitudes in two brain potentials related to performance monitoring—the error-related negativity and correct-related negativity—in meditators compared to controls. These results suggest that meditation may improve cognitive control, specifically performance monitoring, which is often impaired in psychiatric disorders such as ADHD and substance use disorder.
Neuroimage
September 1, 2004
Diego Cosmelli, Olivier David, Jean-Philippe Lachaux et al.
During binocular rivalry, when perception alternates between two competing images, distributed brain activity correlates with which image is consciously seen. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings showed that neural responses to a frequency-tagged stimulus were modulated during its perceptual dominance. Source estimation revealed activation not only in visual cortex but also in parietal, temporal pole, and frontal regions. Perceptual switches modulated activity in visual cortex, medial parietal, and left frontal areas. During dominance, occipital and frontal regions, including anterior cingulate and medial frontal areas, became coactivated. Phase synchrony in the frequency tag band revealed a dynamically modulated distributed cortical network that varied in extent across individuals.
Diego Cosmelli, Evan Thompson
Binocular rivalry, where conflicting images presented to each eye cause alternating perception, offers a window into how conscious experience unfolds over time. The authors first propose a framework for understanding temporal aspects of consciousness, then review research on multistable perception and binocular rivalry, highlighting methodological and theoretical issues. They describe their own experimental study linking the timing of perceptual switches in rivalry to the timing of cortical brain activity. Emphasizing that both conscious experience and neural activity are inherently dynamic and changing, they argue that concepts of recurrence and variability are key to understanding rivalry and the broader flow of experience.