PsyArXiv
August 14, 2026
Giuseppina Porciello, Laura Barca, Chiara Fini et al.
preprint
Recent theories of embodied cognition suggest that conceptual knowledge is grounded not only in external sensory experiences but also in internal bodily states. Interoception, the sensing of physiological signals from within the body, has been identified as a key modality for representing abstract concepts. However, whether this grounding is dynamically modulated by significant physiological...
PsyArXiv
August 10, 2026
preprint
A No-Go Theorem for Process Theories of Consciousness
PsyArXiv
August 8, 2026
preprint
Oscillation Dynamics and Default Mode Network Coupling: A Framework for Linguistic Semantic Diversity
PsyArXiv
August 8, 2026
preprint
Neuronal criticality as a framework for the computational neurophenomenology of advanced meditation
PsyArXiv
July 28, 2026
preprint
Methodological Consistency and Measurement Standards in Mindfulness-Based Randomized Controlled Trials for Racial Minorities: A Systematic Review
PsyArXiv
July 27, 2026
preprint
Meditation Fosters Bonding and Cooperation with Humanity and All Forms of Life
PsyArXiv
July 24, 2026
Travis Wiltshire
preprint
Embodied cognition, from my view, is the study of, and recognition that, cognition (e.g., mental, perceptual, and action processes) is situated within, and constitutes, a complex dynamical system. This system is multi-scale meaning that understanding aspects of cognition can stem from multiple scales of analysis as small as hormonal levels, to organs, and physiological systems and even to...
PsyArXiv
July 21, 2026
Peter Lush, Ryan Bradley Scott, Max Lovell et al.
preprint
Phenomenological control is the stable trait ability to alter subjective experience according to one’s goals. Although voluntary, experiences arising from phenomenological control are experienced as involuntary and may be incorrectly attributed to external causes. Such experiences may influence related beliefs about the world. In a large sample preregistered study (n = 497), we tested...
PsyArXiv
July 18, 2026
Vikas O'Reilly-Shah, Stanley Krippner
preprint
We propose the Chaos-State Space Dream Model (CSSDM): a candidate neural correlate of dream consciousness. CSSDM treats dreaming as the brain's exploration of hierarchically organized attractor landscapes when sensory anchoring lifts and prefrontal control attenuates during REM sleep. The proposal combines two published frameworks. From chaos-theoretic accounts of dream phenomenology, we take...
PsyArXiv
July 3, 2026
Morten L. Kringelbach, Fernando E. Rosas, Ruben Eero Laukkonen et al.
preprint
We propose three entangled characteristics that explain the functional properties of consciousness: Emotion, quantum-like interference and hierarchy. The argument proceeds from thermodynamic first principles. Biological systems must stay far from equilibrium at minimal energy cost, and emotion is one of evolution’s heuristic solutions to this constraint. Valenced summary statistics compress the...
PsyArXiv
June 29, 2026
Yuta Naito, Tomohisa Asai, Aya Katayama et al.
preprint
This case study examined differences in the temporal dynamics of EEG indices as a function of meditation expertise using a quantitative analytic framework. EEG was recorded and analyzed across multiple sessions over three days during prolonged Samatha meditation in two meditation novices and two expert meditators. Alpha-band power, beta-band power, and peak alpha frequency were extracted in...
PsyArXiv
June 26, 2026
Marc Wittmann, Amelia Lacassagne, Clara Koinegg et al.
preprint
This study investigates the effects of three variants of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Techniques (REST)—guided meditation, multimodal Ganzfeld (MMGF), and a control resting condition—on subjective experiences related to altered states of consciousness (ASC). Specifically, the study examines emotional responses, time perception, and perceived body boundaries, while also assessing the...
PsyArXiv
June 25, 2026
Wolfgang Kromer
preprint
According to the Relativistic Theory of Consciousness by Lahav and Neemeh, consciousness is not an absolute feature but a relativistic one that depends on the reference system of the observer. The theory offers a new, thought-provoking view on consciousness, but also raises critical issues. First: What is the fundamental precondition of consciousness which the Relativistic Theory may be based...
PsyArXiv
June 21, 2026
Nerea L Herrero, Yohann Corfdir, Cecilia Forcato
preprint
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) during sleep involve a transient disruption of bodily self-consciousness, in which the self or center of awareness is experienced as displaced from the physical body. Although OBEs have been reported in neurological, psychiatric, and dissociative contexts, they also occur in non-clinical populations, raising the question of whether their altered-self phenomenology...
PsyArXiv
June 21, 2026
Haoyue Qian
preprint
The neural basis of self-consciousness has been intensively investigated for decades, with numerous studies characterizing distributed brain areas engaged in self-related processing. Despite systematic descriptions of core brain regions and functional architectures in previous reviews, a unified theoretical framework explaining the mechanisms of self-consciousness has yet to be established....
PsyArXiv
June 20, 2026
Terje Sparby, Brian Toomey, Malcolm Wright et al.
preprint
This article proposes a definition of advanced meditation which in concise form is the states, stages, and endpoints that arise with the maturation and mastery of awareness skills. Advanced meditation involves experiential and structural mental changes, sometimes radical, to volition, affect, cognition, and self-related processing in the direction of effortlessness, intentional control,...
PsyArXiv
June 19, 2026
Kseniya Solovyeva, Vladislav Beliaev, Andrey Grunin et al.
preprint
Recent developments in theoretical frameworks and experimental approaches have improved our understanding of the problems that need to be solved for us to advance in the understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying consciousness. Yet, there is a long way ahead as evident from the recent Cogitate adversarial collaboration that attempted to directly contrast Integrated Information Theory...
PsyArXiv
June 18, 2026
Tim Neville Palmer, Noémie Goeuriot, Leonie Koban et al.
preprint
Emotion introspection has been proposed as a key mechanism through which mental health or well-being interventions (such as meditation or psychotherapy) act. However, so far, evidence has almost exclusively come from questionnaire measures. Here, we propose a brain-based measure of emotion introspection. We recruited 25 participants to perform an emotion introspection task after completing a...
PsyArXiv
June 17, 2026
Marc Wittmann, Julie Papastamatelou, Sepideh Ravahi et al.
preprint
This study investigated the prevalence, phenomenology, and potential transformative significance of nonordinary experiences in a representative German sample. Across cultures and historical periods, such experiences have been widely reported and often culturally valued. To assess these phenomena, the study employed the Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences (INOE; Taves et al., 2023), a...
PsyArXiv
June 16, 2026
Ido Shalev, Emily Hayun, Alal Eran et al.
preprint
Whether a person feels overwhelmed by others' emotions or remains detached from them may depend not on how much empathy they have, but on the balance between the cognitive and emotional components of empathy. An imbalance between emotional and cognitive empathy, termed empathic disequilibrium, has consistently distinguished clinical from non-clinical groups across a range of conditions,...
PsyArXiv
June 13, 2026
Sophie Hascher, Anoushka Parylo, Mike Kendig et al.
preprint
Mindfulness-based treatments have demonstrated efficacy in reducing addictive behaviours, including food addiction. Yet, accessibility to in-person programmes remains a barrier, with limited capacity issues and accessibility for individuals suffering from mobility impairment. Virtual reality (VR) offers a promising platform to deliver mindfulness interventions in immersive nature-like...
PsyArXiv
June 13, 2026
Zhenguo Lai
preprint
Objectives. Contemporary psychotherapy and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) show well-documented benefits for symptom reduction, emotion regulation, and attentional control. Yet they are most often framed as refining an already given self rather than as modifying the deeper structures through which experience is centered as “mine,” a level that has received comparatively little explicit...
PsyArXiv
June 13, 2026
Zhenguo Lai
preprint
[Problem] Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) produce well-documented clinical benefits, yet a possible dissociation between attentional skill and deeper self-structural transformation remains undertheorized: some experienced practitioners attain high scores on standard mindfulness measures while showing limited corresponding change in self-referential processing—a pattern this paper terms...
PsyArXiv
June 12, 2026
Valerie van Mulukom, Robert Clark, Lexi Eikelboom et al.
preprint
Self‑transcendence in rituals and awe experiences tends to promote social bonding, particularly if these events involve synchronous movement. Here we suggest that the blurring of self-other boundaries, as a cognitive-perceptual mechanism underlying self-transcendence, may increase perceived self-other overlap, which in turn may lead to greater social connection, together with awe. Building on...
PsyArXiv
June 11, 2026
Thaeny Regina Ribeiro Rodrigues, Diego Frank Marques Cavalcante, Caio Maximino
preprint
Mechanistic approaches in behavioral neuroscience often overlook the situated, embodied, and meaning‑generating dimensions of animal behavior. This paper builds a theoretical bridge between enactivism and biosemiotics – two frameworks that place sense‑making at the core of life – and grounds the synthesis in an empirical case: the alarm reaction of zebrafish (Danio rerio). The conspecific alarm...