Human Brain Mapping
May 1, 2015
Morten Joensson, Kristine Rømer Thomsen, Lau M Andersen et al.
44 citations
When experiences become meaningful to the self, they are linked to synchronous activity in a paralimbic network of self-awareness and dopaminergic activity. This network includes medial prefrontal and medial parietal/posterior cingulate cortices, where transcranial magnetic stimulation may transiently impair self-awareness. Conversely, we hypothesize that dopaminergic stimulation may improve...
Acta Paediatrica
February 2012
Hans C Lou
Self-awareness is a pivotal component of any conscious experience and conscious self-regulation of behaviour. A paralimbic network is active, specific and causal in self-awareness. Its regions interact by gamma synchrony. Gamma synchrony develops throughout infancy, childhood and adolescence into adulthood and is regulated by dopamine and other neurotransmitters via GABA interneurons. Major...
The FASEB Journal
July 1, 2011
Jean-Pierre Changeux, Hans C Lou
We here review experimental findings relevant for the pharmacology of conscious experience, an issue largely neglected in pharmacological research. First, we focus on self-awareness, a pivotal component of conscious experience and its integration within the global neuronal network (GNW), a theoretical concept that unifies convergent approaches on the neural bases of conscious processing. We...
Journal of Vision
February 23, 2011
Hans C Lou, Joshua Skewes, Kristine Rømer Thomsen et al.
83 citations
Liberal acceptance, overconfidence, and increased activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine have been proposed to account for abnormal sensory experiences, for instance, hallucinations in schizophrenia. In normal subjects, increased sensory experience in Yoga Nidra meditation is linked to striatal dopamine release. We therefore hypothesize that the neurotransmitter dopamine may function as a...
Frontiers in Psychology
2011
Hans C Lou, Morten Joensson, Morten L. Kringelbach
18 citations
Consciousness has been proposed to play a key role in shaping flexible learning and as such is thought to confer an evolutionary advantage. Attention and awareness are the perhaps most important underlying processes, yet their precise relationship is presently unclear. Both of these processes must, however, serve the evolutionary imperatives of survival and procreation. They are thus intimately...
Human Brain Mapping
February 1, 2010
Hans C Lou, Joachim Gross, Katja Biermann-Ruben et al.
A coherent and meaningful percept of the world is essential for human nature. Consequently, much speculation has focused on how this is achieved in the brain. It is thought that all conscious experiences have reference to the self. Self-reference may either be minimal or extended, i.e., autonoetic. In minimal self-reference subjective experiences are self-aware in the weak sense that there is...
Progress in Brain Research
2005
Hans C Lou, Markus Nowak, Troels W Kjaer
In meditation both the quality and the contents of consciousness may be voluntarily changed, making it an obvious target in the quest for the neural correlate of consciousness. Here we present the results of a positron emission tomography study of yoga nidra relaxation meditation when compared with the normal resting conscious state. Meditation is accompanied by a relatively increased perfusion...
Brain research. Cognitive brain research
April 2002
Troels W Kjaer, Camilla Bertelsen, Paola Piccini et al.
This is the first in vivo demonstration of an association between endogenous neurotransmitter release and conscious experience. Using 11C-raclopride PET we demonstrated increased endogenous dopamine release in the ventral striatum during Yoga Nidra meditation. Yoga Nidra is characterized by a depressed level of desire for action, associated with decreased blood flow in prefrontal, cerebellar...
Human Brain Mapping
1999
Hans C Lou, Troels W Kjaer, Lars Friberg et al.
28 citations
The aim of the present study was to examine whether the neural structures subserving meditation can be reproducibly measured, and, if so, whether they are different from those supporting the resting state of normal consciousness. Cerebral blood flow distribution was investigated with the 15O-H2O PET technique in nine young adults, who were highly experienced yoga teachers, during the relaxation...