Cerebral Cortex
May 14, 2018
Lisa Miller, Iris M. Balodis, Clayton H. Mcclintock et al.
65 citations
People across cultures and throughout history report spiritual experiences that involve a sense of union transcending the ordinary self, but their neural mechanisms are poorly understood. Using an individualized guided-imagery task, the authors compared brain activity during personally meaningful spiritual experiences with that during stressful and neutral-relaxing experiences. During spiritual experiences, the left inferior parietal lobule showed reduced activity compared to neutral-relaxing experiences, suggesting this region contributes to perceptual processing and self-other representations. Compared to stress cues, spiritual cues reduced activity in the medial thalamus and caudate, regions linked to sensory and emotional processing. The findings point to neural mechanisms underlying broadly defined, personally experienced spirituality.
Journal of Behavioral Addictions
December 1, 2019
Clayton H. Mcclintock, Patrick D. Worhunsky, Jiansong Xu et al.
18 citations
Spiritual experiences engage a distributed brain network, particularly a ventral frontotemporal circuit, that activates at the start and end of a spiritual condition but not during stress or neutral-relaxing conditions. The degree of network engagement correlated strongly with participants' self-reported spirituality during the task and moderately with a separate measure of spirituality taken outside the scanner. These findings suggest a specific functional neural network underlies spiritual experiences and may help explain how spirituality supports recovery from behavioral addictions.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
June 26, 2023
Simon Zhornitsky, Henrique Nunes Pereira Oliva, Laura A. Jayne et al.
12 citations
Ketamine and psychedelics can alter markers of synaptic density, which may relate to their abuse liability and potential therapeutic effects in substance use disorders. A scoping review of 84 studies found mixed results for ketamine: single or repeated doses under basal conditions produced inconsistent synaptic changes in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, but a single dose counteracted stress-related reductions in these markers, and repeated dosing also reversed stress effects. Psychedelics generally increased synaptic markers, though results varied by agent. The heterogeneity likely stems from differences in methods, drugs, sex, and marker types.
EClinicalMedicine
January 1, 2026
Henrique Nunes Pereira Oliva, Tiago Paiva Prudente, Alisson M Paredes Naveda et al.
5 citations
Sleep disturbances are common in people with substance use disorders and often persist after stopping use. This systematic review and meta-analysis of 43 studies with about 7500 participants examined sleep abnormalities linked to alcohol, benzodiazepine, cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, nicotine, and opioid use disorders. Total sleep time was reduced in alcohol, nicotine, and opioid use disorders. Slow-wave sleep was reduced in alcohol and cocaine use disorders. Sleep quality, measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, was poorer in alcohol, cocaine, and nicotine use disorders. No studies met criteria for benzodiazepine or methamphetamine use disorders. Results suggest specific substances relate to distinct sleep problems, highlighting areas for further research.
Addiction (Abingdon, England)
January 29, 2026
Yi-Hsuan Liu, Chia-Chun Hung, Marc N Potenza et al.
Recreational ketamine use, primarily administered by smoking, is associated with dose-dependent psychiatric symptoms and cognitive deficits. Heavier use correlates with greater psychological distress, especially anxiety and hostility. Users show reduced accuracy on high-load working memory tasks and have smaller left hippocampal volume, most notably in the hippocampal-amygdaloid-transition-area. Functional connectivity between this region and several brain networks is increased and aligns with NMDA-receptor distribution. These findings suggest that chronic, smoking-administered ketamine use selectively affects hippocampal subregions and related circuitry, potentially explaining working memory impairments.
Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy
February 1, 2025
Alejandra Pulido-Saavedra, Anna Borelli, Razi Kitaneh et al.
Substance use disorders remain a public health challenge; few have FDA-approved treatments, and those that do suffer from high dropout rates. This narrative review examined clinical evidence for non-psychedelic medications that primarily target the 5-HT2A receptor. Results on craving and abstinence were mixed, with some positive effects but no consistent pattern. Comparing these findings with those for psychedelic agents (which are typically 5-HT2A agonists) suggests that mixed results are not unique to non-psychedelics. Because most non-psychedelic agents reviewed are 5-HT2A antagonists, while psychedelic agonists show more uniformly positive outcomes, the authors propose that 5-HT2A receptor agonists are a promising avenue for treating substance use disorders, possibly by addressing a common underlying chronic hypodopaminergic state.
PNAS Nexus
September 1, 2025
Xin Luo, Huabin Wang, Xuefeng Xu et al.
Mindfulness meditation reduces gaming and depression severity in people with co-occurring internet gaming disorder and depression more effectively than progressive muscle relaxation. Brain imaging showed that mindfulness meditation decreased activity in the medial frontal gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus while increasing activity in the left lentiform when participants faced gaming cues. It also altered functional connectivity between these regions, suggesting changes in executive control and reward processing. Progressive muscle relaxation produced similar but weaker effects. Mindfulness meditation may be an efficacious treatment for individuals with both conditions.
JAMA Network Open
June 3, 2024
Haosen Ni, Huabin Wang, Xuefeng Ma et al.
An 8-session mindfulness meditation program reduced internet gaming disorder severity and gaming cravings more than progressive muscle relaxation in adults with internet gaming disorder. After four weeks, the mindfulness group showed a greater decrease in addiction severity scores than the relaxation group. Mindfulness meditation was linked to reduced brain activity in regions involved in reward and craving, and increased connectivity between the medial frontal gyrus and lentiform nuclei predicted lower craving. The findings suggest mindfulness meditation may be an effective treatment for internet gaming disorder by altering frontopallidal pathways.