Background. The nine items of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) index distinct symptom dimensions of major depressive disorder. Depression treatment is typically reported as change in the total score, so how individual symptom dimensions move during a rapid-acting treatment is seldom characterized. Ketamine is a rapid-acting glutamatergic antidepressant, but item-level trajectories...
Artificial intelligence will become sentient, able to feel, and then metasentient, able to reflect on its own experience, if the organization proposed here produces feeling. I claim that sentience requires a continuously updated world model that includes the system and its own modeling activity. I suspect that this organization, sufficiently developed and integrated, is also sufficient....
Preprints.orgOctober 19, 2026Maxwell Jackson Harrell
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The transmission of consciousness through a chemical synapses is an under-specified probable occurrence. Chemical transmission is essential for neuronal propagation and neural propagation is essential within many existing measurements of consciousness. The development and plasticity of consciousness throughout an animal's lifetime requires grounded chemical distinctions, executive and...
Schools are an integral setting for early prevention and promotion of mental health and well-being among children and adolescents. Nature-based mindfulness (NBM) interventions combine mindfulness practices with exposure to nature and may be a promising approach to supporting children and adolescent health and well-being. However, no review studies have comprehensively examined the evidence on...
This article reviews the currently reported coupling properties of astrocytes in neural circuits, as well as the potentially promising functional structures and molecular mechanisms associated with astrocytic specialized domains and the spatiotemporal specificity of calcium levels. It proposes a model of astrocytes as a bridging mechanism—from microcircuit specialization to the functional...
Intranasal esketamine has been available for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) since 2019, but the trials that led to its approval answer only some of the questions prescribers face. About 97% of trial participants had failed only one or two antidepressant classes, and patients with bipolar disorder, psychosis, obsessive–compulsive disorder, four personality disorders, moderate-to-severe...
The study aimed to examine the effect of a mindful parenting intervention on parents of adolescents exhibiting non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Families meeting the specified criteria voluntarily participated, resulting in 23 families in the intervention group and 18 families in the waitlisted treatment group. Both groups were carefully matched in demographic variables. Only the parents in the...
A substantial proportion of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) do not respond to first-line treatment. Approximately 40% of PTSD patients do not respond to first-line psychotherapy, and 30.9% of MDD patients meet criteria for treatment-resistant depression. Yet standard polysomnography in these patients frequently shows REM sleep that appears...
Preprints.orgSeptember 21, 2026Xianqun Yi, Hongsheng Li
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The convergence of generative artificial intelligence and brain-computer interface technology is pushing artificial dreaming from science fiction into the scope of academic inquiry. Existing research has focused primarily on technical implementation pathways and sensory fidelity goals; while fragmented ethical and risk warnings exist, there remains a lack of systematic assessment of the...
Preprints.orgSeptember 9, 2026Qi Cui, Zheng Meng Sun
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The rapid scaling of large language models (LLMs) and sparse mixture-of-experts (MoE) architectures reframes a foundational question about intelligence: must intelligent systems rely on large-scale, serial, and explicit computation, or does natural intelligence employ a faster, lower-level response mechanism than neuronal networks and explicit cognition? We introduce the Physical Fast Network...
Delusions occur in disorders with markedly different etiologies, including schizophrenia, medication-induced psychosis, postpartum psychosis, neurodegenerative disease, and metabolic encephalopathy. This convergence poses a basic clinical problem: the phenomenology of a delusion may provide limited information about the mechanism that produced it or the prognosis that follows. This article...
This essay proposes the elegant simulation as a reframing of the philosophical simulation debate. Its aim is not to provide evidence that reality is or is not a simulation, but to ask what kind of architecture would make a simulated reality plausible as a lived world. Contemporary discussions of simulation often focus on whether our world could be generated by advanced external agents. I argue...
Background: Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, is widely used in experimental schizophrenia models due to its ability to mimic psychotic symptoms through N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonism. Despite its utility, concerns remain regarding its potential systemic toxicity, particularly in the liver and kidneys. Method: This study investigated the dose- and time-dependent hepatotoxic...
The default mode network (DMN)—positioned on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus, and the angular gyrus, beside medial temporal and lateral temporal aids—was originally distinguished by its high resting activity and its deactivation during externally focused tasks. Although emotion has traditionally been associated with subcortical and limbic...
Preprints.orgJune 30, 2026Dirk Revenstorf, Joost (j.b.c.) Mertens, Martin Schipplick
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The therapeutic use of ketamine and other psychoactive substances in psychiatry is attracting growing research interest, particularly in treatment-resistant depression and related conditions refractory to conventional care. Ketamine exerts direct pharmacological antidepressant effects through NMDA receptor antagonism and downstream neuroplastic mechanisms; its combination with structured...
Preprints.orgJune 25, 2026Hudson Augusto Rodrigues Bonomo
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A Large Language Model fabricated a reference to Ferenczi: plausible title, believable date, convincing page number, all false. Starting from this scene, this essay traces a genealogy from the Cartesian evil demon to the LLM as a technical realisation of the closed-cognition fantasy, and interrogates a presupposition shared, in different ways, by Putnam's brain-in-a-vat thought experiment,...
Preprints.orgJune 23, 2026Arosh S. Perera Molligoda Arachchige, Afanasy Svet, Maria Svet
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Understanding consciousness remains one of the most significant challenges in neuroscience, philosophy, and cognitive science. Despite substantial advances in neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling, a comprehensive account of the neural basis of conscious experience has yet to emerge. This review examines several leading contemporary theories of consciousness, including the...
Preprints.orgJune 22, 2026Andrzej Günther, Barbara Bednarczyk-Cwynar
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Amanita muscaria is one of the most recognizable toxic mushrooms, yet its chemical and toxicological variability remains insufficiently understood. Its principal neuroactive isoxazole compounds, ibotenic acid and muscimol, differ substantially in pharmacological profile: ibotenic acid is associated mainly with glutamatergic excitatory activity, whereas muscimol is a potent GABAergic compound....
Four clinical literatures — psychedelic-assisted therapy, accelerated transcranial magnetic stimulation, closed-loop deep brain stimulation, and reconsolidation-based trauma therapy — produce durable change from brief, often single, interventions in conditions the current standard of care has not solved. The convergence is not procedural. Each modality transiently induces a high-plasticity...
This essay discusses feminist ideas in connection to the occulture present in opera, musical theatre, and film, focusing on femme fatales, tricksters and ‘wicked women’ in a transcultural approach to religion, (Western) esotericism, and the performing arts. A culturally critic debate is facilitated here via the spiritual-scientific embodiment of Afro-Brazilian traditions, as seen through the...
Preprints.orgMay 5, 2026Houssaïnatou Bah, Aboubacar Sidiki Magassouba, Mahamoud Sama Cherif et al.
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Sleep paralysis (SP) is characterized by a temporary inability to move or speak while awake. Although SP is prevalent among students, it remains understudied in sub-Saharan Africa. Medical students may be particularly vulnerable. In 2025, a survey was conducted among 320 medical science students at three universities in Conakry, Guinea, using a semi-structured electronic questionnaire. Data...
Psychedelic drugs are serotonergic hallucinogens that can be divided into two types: naturally occurring (psilocybin, psilocin, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and synthetic (LSD, MDMA, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine, and ketamine). Psychedelics generally work on 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors and might be useful in cognitive enhancement, brain connectivity, neuroplasticity, and neuronal...
Ancient contemplative traditions offer sophisticated technologies for cultivating stable states of consciousness underlying sustainable well-being. This integrative review synthesizes empirical and theoretical literature on Patañjali’s Sanyam—the integrated practice of Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditative absorption), and Samadhi (non-dual awareness)—and its Zen parallel, Joriki...