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Rafael Malach

5 papers in the library · 2 citations · publishing 2015-2024

Papers

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Tests for consciousness in humans and beyond.

Trends in Cognitive Sciences March 1, 2024 Tim Bayne, Anil K. Seth, Marcello Massimini et al.

Which systems/organisms are conscious? New tests for consciousness ('C-tests') are urgently needed. There is persisting uncertainty about when consciousness arises in human development, when it is lost due to neurological disorders and brain injury, and how it is distributed in nonhuman species. This need is amplified by recent and rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI), neural...

Studying the precuneus reveals structure-function-affect correlation in long-term meditators

bioRxiv Preprint Server October 30, 2019 Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Edna Furman-Haran, Rafael Malach et al. 2 citations preprint

Understanding the relationship between brain structure, function and self-reports has hardly been addressed until now in meditation research. Here we demonstrate such relationship, using Mindfulness meditation (MM). MM aims to reduce thought-related processes and enhance bodily awareness, thereby reducing identification with thought content and deconstructing maladaptive self-schema. We thus...

Data for default network reduced functional connectivity in meditators, negatively correlated with meditation expertise.

Data in brief September 1, 2016 Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Michal Harel, Avital Hahamy et al.

FMRI data described here was recorded during resting-state in Mindfulness Meditators (MM) and control participants (see "Task-induced activity and resting-state fluctuations undergo similar alterations in visual and DMN areas of long-term meditators" Berkovich-Ohana et al. (2016) [1] for details). MM participants were also scanned during meditation. Analyses focused on functional connectivity...

Alterations in task-induced activity and resting-state fluctuations in visual and DMN areas revealed in long-term meditators.

Neuroimage July 15, 2016 Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Michal Harel, Avital Hahamy et al.

Recently we proposed that the information contained in spontaneously emerging (resting-state) fluctuations may reflect individually unique neuro-cognitive traits. One prediction of this conjecture, termed the "spontaneous trait reactivation" (STR) hypothesis, is that resting-state activity patterns could be diagnostic of unique personalities, talents and life-styles of individuals. Long-term...

Repetitive speech elicits widespread deactivation in the human cortex: the "Mantra" effect?

Brain and Behavior July 1, 2015 Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Meytal Wilf, Roni Kahana et al.

Mantra (prolonged repetitive verbal utterance) is one of the most universal mental practices in human culture. However, the underlying neuronal mechanisms that may explain its powerful emotional and cognitive impact are unknown. In order to try to isolate the effect of silent repetitive speech, which is used in most commonly practiced Mantra meditative practices, on brain activity, we studied...