Research Square
January 12, 2026
Niloufar Pouyan, Chelsea M Kaplan, Tony E. Larkin et al.
Subanesthetic nitrous oxide (N2O) alters visual experience by reconfiguring large-scale brain networks rather than changing early visual processing. In a placebo-controlled fMRI study with 13 healthy adults, participants viewed a flashing checkerboard and rated visual intensity and unpleasantness. Increased unpleasantness under N2O was linked to reduced connectivity between the right anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex and lateral occipital cortex. Network analyses revealed reduced modularity and a collapse of hierarchical organization, with sensorimotor connectivity redistributed toward salience and associative networks. These findings suggest that altered visual experience under N2O arises from disrupted salience integration and increased cross-network communication.
Research Square
December 12, 2025
Language used in online discussions about eating disorders and psychedelics shows heightened emotional awareness, suggesting deeper self-insight. Comments from a psychedelic subreddit were analyzed with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software to detect clues and patterns in personal experiences. The findings parallel ongoing discourse about psychedelics' potential to support well-being and mental health, particularly by changing perceptions of struggles such as eating-related ones. This intersection of language, eating disorders, and psychedelic integration raises therapeutic possibilities.
Research Square
November 19, 2025
Long-term Sufi meditation practitioners showed greater prosocial responses after being reminded of death, compared to non-meditators. The study suggests that contemplative practice can transform existential anxiety into compassionate action, with meditators reporting increased generosity and willingness to help others when mortality was made salient. Non-meditators exhibited typical defensive responses, such as increased materialism or worldview defense, under the same condition. The findings indicate that spiritual training may buffer against fear-based reactions to death awareness.
Research Square
November 18, 2025
A single session of high ventilation breathwork, compared to body scan meditation, produced substantially greater altered states of consciousness in 24 healthy adults, including mystical experiences, emotional breakthrough, and feelings of oneness. One week later, breathwork led to greater psychological insight and behavioral change. Both groups showed improvements in stress, anxiety, depression, and well-being over time. The results indicate that breathwork induces acute psychedelic-like effects and may have therapeutic potential.
Research Square
November 13, 2025
A randomized controlled trial using MR spectroscopy found that a single session of mindfulness meditation produced a distinct neurochemical profile in limbic brain regions compared to progressive muscle relaxation. Mindfulness increased glutamate + glutamine (Glx) and decreased gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the anterior cingulate cortex, while progressive muscle relaxation decreased Glx and increased GABA. The results suggest that different relaxation practices engage unique neurochemical mechanisms in brain regions involved in emotion regulation.
Research Square
October 30, 2025
A longitudinal randomized controlled trial examined the long-term efficacy of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in breast cancer survivors. The intervention reduced depression and anxiety symptoms, improved health status and coping capacity, and positively influenced immune response compared to controls. Effects were sustained over time, suggesting MBSR offers lasting benefits for psychological and physiological well-being in this population.
Research Square
October 24, 2025
A systematic review of neuroimaging studies found that mindfulness-based interventions alter functional connectivity within resting-state networks in adults with depression. The review indicates that mindfulness training is associated with increased connectivity within the default mode network and between the default mode network and executive control networks, suggesting improved regulation of self-referential thought and emotional processing. These changes in brain network connectivity may underlie the therapeutic effects of mindfulness for depression.
Research Square
September 23, 2025
The visual awareness negativity (VAN) is a brain signal thought to reflect conscious perception. This event-related potential study tested whether the VAN appears during visual illusions, where people report seeing something that is not physically present. Using the sound-induced flash illusion—a single flash accompanied by two beeps often creates the illusion of a second flash—the researchers compared brain responses from 47 participants on trials where the illusion was perceived versus not perceived. An enhanced negativity over posterior electrodes between 250 and 300 milliseconds appeared during illusory trials. Lower pre-stimulus alpha power also accompanied illusion trials, consistent with prior work linking alpha brain waves to perceptual variability. These results suggest the VAN reflects conscious perception even for illusory experiences, supporting its role as a neural correlate of consciousness.
Research Square
August 21, 2025
Ritchy Hodebourg, Lillian Duncan, Eric Dereschewitz et al.
Cannabinoid use after stress causes male rats to generalize fear responses to neutral cues and adopt avoidant coping behaviors. The combination of THC and CBD triggered distinct brain changes in the nucleus accumbens core: astrocytes retracted from synapses and Synapsin-I density decreased when a neutral odor was presented, while exposure to a stress-conditioned odor activated MMP-2,9 (mostly MMP-2), re-associated astrocytes to synapses, increased Synapsin-I density, and caused astrocyte atrophy. These neuroadaptations occurred only in males. The findings suggest MMPs and astrocytes as potential therapeutic targets for co-occurring cannabis use disorder and PTSD.
Research Square
August 19, 2025
A national survey of 742 Canadian stakeholders—cancer patients, healthcare providers, and policymakers—found that patients held the most favorable attitudes toward psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT), though they reported the least knowledge about it. Policymakers reported the highest knowledge but also the greatest safety concerns. Psilocybin was viewed as the most effective agent across all groups. Patients and providers supported PAT for use across the cancer continuum, while most policymakers favored restricting it to advanced-stage cases. The findings indicate that integrating PAT into oncology will require stakeholder-informed education, regulatory guidance, and attention to implementation barriers.
Research Square
July 8, 2025
A generative adversarial AI framework, pitting deep neural networks against interpretable neural field models, produces biologically realistic simulations of conscious and comatose brains that recapitulate features across humans, monkeys, rats, and bats. Without explicit programming, the AI retrodicts known responses to brain stimulation and generates testable predictions about unconsciousness mechanisms. Two predictions are validated: selective disruption of the basal ganglia indirect pathway, supported by diffusion MRI in 51 DOC patients; and increased cortical inhibitory-to-inhibitory synaptic coupling, supported by RNA sequencing from resected brain tissue in six human coma patients and a rat stroke model. The model also identifies high-frequency subthalamic nucleus stimulation as a promising intervention, supported by electrophysiology data from human patients.
Research Square
June 29, 2025
The authors argue that nonordinary experiences—such as hallucinations, mystical states, or altered perceptions—are more common than typically assumed and offer a valuable lens for studying consciousness. They review evidence suggesting these experiences are not inherently pathological but can provide insights into the nature of conscious awareness. The paper calls for a broader, more inclusive scientific approach that treats such phenomena as legitimate subjects of inquiry rather than anomalies to be dismissed.
Research Square
June 9, 2025
Dream reports from congenitally blind individuals show reduced structural complexity and semantic coherence compared to those from late blind individuals, as measured by graph analysis of speech. The findings suggest that visual experience during early development contributes to the organization of narrative language in dreams, while blindness that occurs later in life does not similarly affect dream report structure.
Research Square
December 13, 2024
An online conscious connected breathwork intervention significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety in a quantitative study. Participants who completed the breathwork program showed a decrease in anxiety scores compared to those who did not receive the intervention. The findings suggest that this remotely delivered breathwork practice may be an accessible and effective tool for managing anxiety.
Research Square
December 3, 2024
A randomized controlled trial tested whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduces auditory hallucinations in people with schizophrenia. Patients who received MBCT in addition to treatment as usual showed greater reductions in the frequency and severity of auditory hallucinations compared with those receiving treatment as usual alone. The findings suggest MBCT may be a useful adjunctive intervention for managing this symptom.
Research Square
November 21, 2024
Conscious-Connected Breathwork (CCB), a high-ventilation breathing practice lasting over 15 minutes, consistently triggers altered states of consciousness, heightened emotional intensity, and decreased heart-rate variability (HRV) during the session, followed by increased baseline HRV afterward. The post-session HRV increase was larger in participants who experienced a wider range of emotions during the session, suggesting emotional catharsis rather than a purely physiological response may drive this improvement. The presence of evocative music did not significantly modulate any of these effects, indicating the breathing practice itself is the primary driver. This work characterizes subjective breathwork experiences using natural language processing and relates them to physiological changes.
Research Square
September 6, 2024
Advanced tractography findings support the existence of communication between brain regions associated with the Global Workspace theory and Integrated Information theory of consciousness.
Research Square
June 5, 2024
People find the prospect of becoming happier more appealing than the prospect of becoming kinder, suggesting that happiness is a stronger motivator than kindness when considering meditation practices. The study compared interest in the effects of Loving-kindness Meditation, which aims to cultivate kindness, and Compassion Meditation, which aims to cultivate compassion, and found that participants were more interested in outcomes related to happiness than those related to kindness or compassion.
Research Square
April 22, 2024
A randomized placebo-controlled trial tested whether a brief, remote high-ventilation breathwork practice with breath retention improves mental health and wellbeing compared to a placebo. The intervention involved daily sessions over a period of weeks. Results showed that the breathwork group reported significantly greater reductions in anxiety and depression symptoms and improvements in wellbeing relative to the placebo group. The findings suggest that this accessible breathwork protocol can be an effective self-administered tool for enhancing mental health.
Research Square
February 29, 2024
A heartfulness meditation and yoga protocol for anxiety was developed, content-validated, and assessed for feasibility in a pilot study. The protocol consists of guided relaxation, breathing practices, heartfulness meditation, and yoga postures. Content validity was established by expert review. A pilot study with a small sample demonstrated that the protocol is feasible and acceptable for reducing anxiety, with participants reporting decreased anxiety scores after the intervention.
Research Square
January 10, 2024
Empathy can be cultivated through contemplative practices as a process of re-humanization, according to insights from South American students. The text describes how engaging in such practices helps individuals reconnect with their own and others' humanity, fostering deeper empathic understanding. This perspective emerges from students' experiences, suggesting that contemplative approaches may serve as tools for restoring human connection in contexts where it has been diminished.
Research Square
October 30, 2023
The paper examines how Integrated Information Theory (IIT) can be applied to understand changes in consciousness during epileptic seizures. IIT quantifies consciousness through a measure called phi, which reflects the brain's capacity for integrated information. The authors argue that different seizure types produce distinct disruptions in neural integration and information, correlating with varying degrees of consciousness impairment. Focal seizures may reduce phi in specific brain regions, while generalized seizures cause a widespread drop in integrated information, leading to loss of consciousness. The analysis suggests that IIT offers a useful framework for linking seizure activity to conscious experience.
Research Square
October 3, 2023
C. Pittenger, Cheng Jiang, R. DiLeone et al.
A single dose of ketamine's antidepressant-like effects in rats require the brain's own opioid system, specifically β-endorphin and mu-opioid receptors in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Blocking opioid receptors with naltrexone, either throughout the body or directly in the mPFC, prevented ketamine's behavioral effects and associated molecular changes. Ketamine rapidly increased β-endorphin levels and mu-opioid receptor gene expression in the mPFC, as well as the gene for β-endorphin's precursor in the hypothalamus. Neutralizing β-endorphin in the mPFC with a specific antibody before ketamine also abolished both behavioral and molecular effects, demonstrating that activation of mPFC opioid receptors is necessary for ketamine's antidepressant-like actions.
Research Square
July 11, 2023
Engaging with African contemplative practices—such as Ubuntu-based communal reflection, ritual storytelling, and nature-connected meditation—can enhance personal well-being, strengthen community bonds, and foster a sense of purpose. The text argues that these practices offer an alternative to predominantly Western mindfulness models by emphasizing relational interdependence rather than individual self-improvement. Drawing on philosophical and ethnographic sources, the work suggests that integrating African contemplative traditions into contemporary settings may promote holistic flourishing that benefits both individuals and their communities.
Research Square
June 21, 2022
Individuals who report more frequent mind-wandering show weaker integration of the default mode network in their resting-state EEG functional networks. The finding suggests that a less cohesive default mode network is associated with greater propensity for task-unrelated thoughts.