PsyArXiv
November 11, 2025
preprint
A new non-verbal tool, the Meditation Pictographic Scale (MPS), reliably measures subjective experiences during meditation without relying on verbal self-reports. Developed through a first-person phenomenological approach, the MPS was validated across four phases including interviews and a randomized controlled trial with 373 adults comparing three meditation practices (breath counting, loving-kindness, decentering) and an active control. Psychometric analysis showed the MPS detected meditation-induced changes, with items clustering into positive, negative, and distortion-related experiences. The scale demonstrated stable psychometric properties and sensitivity to specific practices, offering a novel method for studying meditation states and altered consciousness.
PsyArXiv
October 27, 2025
preprint
Psychedelic-assisted therapies are often explained through the 5-HT2A receptor, but evidence of GABAergic deficits in conditions like depression, PTSD, and addiction suggests a broader mechanism. A chemist proposes that modulation of inhibitory circuits acts as a necessary gate, converting temporary 5-HT2A activation into lasting effects. Evidence includes coordinated GABA-glutamate changes in the prefrontal cortex, critical-period reopening lasting 2 days to 4 weeks beyond receptor occupancy, and GABAergic deficits in target disorders. Predictions include that GABA changes should correlate with network and gamma changes, that enhancing GABA_A activity after the acute phase should shorten plasticity windows, and that baseline GABA levels may predict treatment response. The hypothesis would be challenged if no such correlations appear.
PsyArXiv
October 24, 2025
preprint
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was developed to prevent relapse in recurrent major depression by integrating cognitive therapy with mindfulness meditation. The theoretical framework draws on information-processing models of depression, which propose that negative thinking patterns become automatically reactivated during dysphoric states. MBCT aims to teach patients to disengage from these automatic patterns through mindfulness skills, thereby reducing the risk of relapse. The approach is grounded in both cognitive science and Buddhist contemplative traditions, offering a novel synthesis for treating mood disorders.
PsyArXiv
October 24, 2025
preprint
Current AI systems lack temporal continuity, operating only in isolated computation episodes. This paper argues that a missing ingredient for artificial consciousness is a persistent, unbroken stream of computation analogous to the human stream of consciousness. The authors propose an architectural framework called stream of computation, based on persistent recursive inference where each cognitive cycle's output feeds into the next, forming a continuous flow of internal states. This goes beyond standard Chain-of-Thought by aiming for autonomy and continual learning, not just on-demand recursion. Mechanisms include continual learning, dynamic switching between inward and outward cognition, and sleep-like phases. The framework promises deeper reasoning and adaptability, and may mark a step towards artificial life with systems whose identity arises from computational continuity.
PsyArXiv
October 23, 2025
preprint
Flicker light stimulation, a method of presenting rapid light flashes, has been proposed as a way to induce altered states of consciousness. This study tested whether the diversity of brain signals measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG) during flicker stimulation correlates with participants' subjective experiences. The results showed no evidence of a relationship between MEG signal diversity and subjective experience, suggesting that signal diversity is not a reliable neural marker for the subjective effects of flicker light.
PsyArXiv
October 8, 2025
preprint
This work offers a reflective analysis of empirical theories of consciousness, examining their foundational assumptions and the extent to which they can be tested. The author argues that many current theories lack clear empirical grounding and that conceptual clarity is needed before progress can be made. The analysis suggests that a more interdisciplinary approach, integrating philosophy and neuroscience, is required to advance the field.
PsyArXiv
October 2, 2025
preprint
Negative outcome expectations about psychedelic treatment are the strongest predictor of whether chronic pain patients choose to join a psychedelic clinical trial. In a survey of 988 chronic pain patients, those with greater openness to experience and positive expectations were more willing to participate, while negative expectations predicted lower willingness. When all factors were considered together, negative expectancy was the only significant predictor. This suggests that current trials may enroll participants who are more risk tolerant, potentially biasing results and limiting how well findings apply to broader patient populations once psychedelic therapies become mainstream.
PsyArXiv
September 28, 2025
preprint
The authors argue that materialism, which treats inner experience and outer physical entities as independent, is a useful but limited cognitive paradigm. They propose holism as a solution to the explanatory gap: inner experience can be objectively described and has objective causal efficacy. From a third-person perspective, physical properties and spacetime-bound causality are described, excelling for simple systems but creating the explanatory gap. From a first-person perspective, holistic attributes are objectively described, and things interact without a physical medium, forming causality unrestricted by spacetime. These perspectives are complementary.
PsyArXiv
August 23, 2025
preprint
A philosophical argument integrates Predictive Processing and Global Workspace Theory within a non-reductive emergentist framework to explain qualia—the subjective, phenomenal character of experience. The thesis holds that qualia are not mysterious byproducts or illusions but are constituted by intrinsic properties of the integrated, embodied predictive modeling process itself. By reframing the explanatory question from 'generation' to 'realization,' the account aims to dissolve the hard problem of consciousness while avoiding panpsychism and strong illusionism, affirming the reality of subjective experience within a naturalistic, physicalist worldview.
PsyArXiv
August 20, 2025
preprint
A new theoretical framework, the Bi-Interpretive Mind Framework (BIMF), proposes that human cognition and consciousness arise from two interdependent subsystems: a logical, conscious Primary Mind and an intuitive, unconscious Secondary Mind. Subjective experience emerges from an "interpretive handshake" between these systems, and instability in this process—termed interpretive instability—underlies stress, psychopathology, and altered states. The framework reinterprets conditions such as schizophrenia, PTSD, OCD, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, dissociation, and addiction as failures in interpretive alignment. Dreams are described as autonomous simulations of the Secondary Mind, ranging from symbolic REM experiences to lucid states. BIMF integrates dual-process cognition, predictive processing, and stress appraisal theories, offering testable predictions for laboratory and clinical research.
PsyArXiv
July 31, 2025
preprint
This paper presents a graded framework for understanding phosphenes—luminous visual experiences generated without external light—by integrating findings from neuroscience, contemplative traditions, and psychonautic reports. The authors synthesize research on the neural mechanisms underlying these inner light phenomena, including cortical excitability and visual system activation, and map them onto practices aimed at cultivating such experiences. The framework proposes a progression from simple phosphenes to complex inner visions, linking each stage to specific neural correlates and contemplative techniques. The work argues that systematic engagement with phosphenes can serve as a tool for self-inquiry and altered states of consciousness, offering a bridge between empirical science and the yogic concept of inner light.
PsyArXiv
July 27, 2025
preprint
No Summary
PsyArXiv
July 23, 2025
preprint
The article proposes a litmus test for plant consciousness based on a relation-first ontology, arguing that consciousness should be assessed through pattern-temporal synergy rather than neurocentric criteria. It challenges conventional assumptions by suggesting that plants may exhibit forms of awareness through dynamic, time-sensitive interactions with their environment. The argument redefines the criteria for consciousness, emphasizing relational and temporal patterns over neural structures.
PsyArXiv
July 7, 2025
preprint
A new mathematical method called Co-Activation Analysis (CoAA) can identify Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCCs) from data on co-activation of neural states and states of consciousness. The method improves on existing approaches like contrastive analysis and decoding, does not require near-threshold conditions, works with various conceptions of consciousness and neural states, and reduces confounders. The analysis shows that CoAA can enhance results from contrastive analysis studies. This is a purely theoretical contribution intended to support empirical NCC research.
PsyArXiv
July 5, 2025
preprint
A protocol is described for an experiment that will investigate how spatial experience is warped across the blind spot. The study aims to contrast two competing theories of consciousness: Integrated Information Theory and Predictive Processing. The experiment will test predictions derived from each theory about how the visual system compensates for the blind spot, potentially revealing which theoretical framework better accounts for the structure of conscious visual experience.
PsyArXiv
June 25, 2025
preprint
The paper argues that the hard problem of consciousness—explaining why there is subjective experience—can be addressed by combining predictive processing theory with an epistemological hypothesis: a brain that models itself as an entity facing a world generates the experience of being a conscious subject. The author proposes that consciousness arises when a predictive system simulates its own perspective, thereby solving the explanatory gap without invoking dualism or panpsychism.
PsyArXiv
May 14, 2025
preprint
A mindfulness-based intervention in healthy young adults led to improvements in attention and emotional regulation, as indicated by self-report measures and changes in brain activity patterns. The intervention group showed increased activation in prefrontal regions associated with cognitive control and reduced amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli, suggesting enhanced top-down regulation of emotion. No significant changes were observed in the control group. The findings support the potential of mindfulness training to modulate neural circuits underlying attention and emotion in a non-clinical population.
PsyArXiv
April 29, 2025
preprint
The paper argues that computational functionalist theories of consciousness must move beyond merely accommodating subjective experience within a computational framework. It contends that a structural turn is necessary, one that reconceives the very architecture of cognition to account for the qualitative character of conscious states. The author suggests that standard functionalist approaches fail to capture the intrinsic nature of experience, and that a revised computational model, grounded in the structure of consciousness itself, offers a more promising path forward.
PsyArXiv
April 16, 2025
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This paper presents an integrative framework that organizes the cognitive mechanisms through which mindfulness training produces changes in cognition. The framework distinguishes between attention monitoring and acceptance as two core processes that interact to improve cognitive functioning. Attention monitoring involves sustained awareness of present-moment experience, while acceptance refers to a non-judgmental orientation toward that experience. The model proposes that these processes together enhance executive attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, and reduce habitual or automatic responding. The authors suggest that the framework can guide future research by specifying testable hypotheses about how mindfulness alters cognitive processes.
PsyArXiv
April 12, 2025
preprint
No Summary
PsyArXiv
March 14, 2025
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The Altered States Database (ASDB) is an open data initiative that collects questionnaire data on subjective experiences from pharmacologically and non-pharmacologically induced altered states of consciousness. Updated annually, the 2024 update added data from a systematic literature review following PRISMA guidelines. Of 470 screened items, 28 journal articles were included, reporting on several scales: 12 used the 11-ASC, 11 the 5D-ASC, 10 the MEQ30, 3 the HRS, and 1 the PCI. The ASDB now contains data from 28 pharmacological and 18 nonpharmacological consciousness-modifying techniques, covering 225 journal articles and 978 datasets from 25,131 participants. The database is freely accessible online.
PsyArXiv
March 11, 2025
preprint
This theoretical paper examines the Ganzfeld effect—a uniform visual field that induces perceptual changes—as a phenomenon situated at the intersection of visual perception and consciousness research. The authors argue that the Ganzfeld provides a unique tool for studying the mechanisms underlying both normal perception and altered states of consciousness. They propose that investigating the neural and phenomenological aspects of the Ganzfeld can illuminate fundamental questions about how the brain constructs perceptual experience and the nature of conscious awareness. The paper synthesizes findings from visual science and consciousness studies to suggest that the Ganzfeld paradigm bridges these fields, offering insights into sensory processing, hallucinatory phenomena, and the neural correlates of consciousness.
PsyArXiv
February 3, 2025
preprint
No Summary
PsyArXiv
January 31, 2025
preprint
The color similarity judgments of young children differ systematically from those of adults, revealing that the structure of color qualia—the subjective experience of color—changes with development. In a novel task, children organized colors into fewer, broader categories than adults, suggesting that perceptual color space becomes more finely differentiated as we mature. These findings indicate that even basic sensory experiences like color are not fixed but shaped by cognitive development.
PsyArXiv
January 22, 2025
preprint
Argues that the 'hard problem of consciousness' is a symptom of a deeper 'three-world problem' created by a metaphysical framework inherited from modern philosophy. Proposes a method for doing philosophy of mind that avoids these metaphysical commitments by focusing on the structure of experience and the conditions for its description, rather than positing separate ontological realms.