Front Hum Neurosci
June 16, 2022
Colin G. Hales, Marissa Ericson
47 citations
A collaboration between neuroscience and physics uses electromagnetism to bridge the explanatory gap in theories of consciousness. The work argues that electromagnetic fields provide a physical mechanism linking neural activity to conscious experience, offering a unified explanation that can be integrated into all major theories of consciousness. This approach delivers a concrete, testable framework for understanding how subjective experience arises from objective brain processes, potentially resolving long-standing philosophical and scientific debates about the nature of consciousness.
Front Hum Neurosci
March 1, 2024
Tam Hunt, Mostyn Jones, Johnjoe Mcfadden et al.
11 citations
This editorial examines the potential of electromagnetic field theories to explain consciousness, highlighting both promising avenues and significant challenges. It discusses how neural electromagnetic fields might integrate information across brain regions, offering a framework for conscious experience. However, it also addresses obstacles such as the lack of direct causal evidence and difficulties in testing these theories empirically. The piece calls for interdisciplinary collaboration to refine hypotheses and develop experimental approaches that could bridge theoretical gaps.
Front Hum Neurosci
April 11, 2018
Joseph J. Loizzo
9 citations
Human cognition is fundamentally shaped by the body and its interactions with the environment, challenging traditional views that treat the brain as the sole locus of thought. This opinion article argues that cognitive processes are extended, embodied, and enacted across brain, body, and world, drawing on research in cognitive science and neuroscience to support this perspective. The authors suggest that understanding cognition requires studying the dynamic coupling between neural activity, bodily states, and environmental contexts, rather than focusing solely on internal brain mechanisms.
Front Hum Neurosci
January 22, 2025
Sara Sorella, Cristiano Crescentini, Alessio Matiz et al.
8 citations
Greater moment-to-moment fluctuation in brain activity within the default mode network during rest predicts more frequent spontaneous mind wandering. People who report higher mindfulness skills tend to experience less spontaneous mind wandering. The findings suggest a link between the brain's resting-state dynamics and the tendency for the mind to wander, and indicate that mindfulness may relate to reduced variability in this brain network.
Front Hum Neurosci
January 6, 2025
Daniel Yochai Panitz, Avi Mendelsohn, Joana Cabral et al.
5 citations
Long-term mindfulness meditation practice shifts spontaneous brain activity toward states that synchronize sensory and perceptual cortical regions, while reducing time spent in frontal-lobe states linked to higher cognitive functions. Experienced meditators, compared to meditation-naïve participants, showed altered expression of resting-state networks during rest. These findings support a lasting effect of meditation on brain network dynamics and its therapeutic potential for disorders involving imbalanced network activity.
Front Hum Neurosci
June 19, 2024
Giuseppe Pasculli, Pierpaolo Busan, Eric S. Jackson et al.
5 citations
Developmental stuttering involves speech-motor disruptions linked to metabolic and network anomalies in the brain, particularly in the default mode and social-cognitive networks. These networks also influence social anxiety and avoidance, which often accompany persistent stuttering. Psychedelic compounds can modify brain metabolism and connectivity in these networks and have shown clinical benefits for conditions like depression and PTSD that share features such as rumination and social anxiety. Although no controlled trials have been conducted, anecdotal reports suggest psychedelics might alleviate stuttering and its associated symptoms. The authors argue that psychedelics warrant investigation in randomized clinical trials for developmental stuttering.
Front Hum Neurosci
December 11, 2024
Scott Shannon, Jamarie Geller
3 citations
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects over 13 million people in the US annually, with women experiencing it at two to three times the rate of men and higher rates among African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and the homeless. Current treatments are inadequate: only about 50% of patients complete trauma-focused psychological therapy, and response rates among those who do are roughly 50%; approved medications like sertraline and paroxetine have small effect sizes (0.28 and 0.23). MDMA-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) represents a paradigm shift, combining a psychotherapeutic container, the MDMA catalyst, and a carrier of music and eyeshades. Phase III studies show a large effect size of 0.91 with no serious adverse effects, offering durable improvement and potential transdiagnostic utility for trauma-related conditions.
Front Hum Neurosci
August 11, 2025
Human-Friedrich Unterrainer
1 citation
Oceanic states of consciousness, marked by ego dissolution, unity, and timelessness, are examined through existential neuroscience, blending psychoanalysis, existentialism, affective neuroscience, and psychedelic research. The paper contrasts Freud's view of the oceanic feeling as regressive with Jung's transformative perspective, using examples like van Gogh and Artaud to show how these states can spark visionary insight or psychological disintegration. Neuroscientific models, such as REBUS theory and Default Mode Network studies, indicate ego dissolution involves flexible brain reorganization, not dysfunction. The Peri-Aqueductal Gray is highlighted as a neural hub linking primal affect with mystical awareness. Existential thinkers frame these states as moments of rupture and potential authenticity. The paper proposes oceanic states as affectively charged boundary experiences requiring contextual integration, offering insight into selfhood and transformation.
Front Hum Neurosci
October 13, 2023
Aristea I. Ladas, Triantafyllos Gravalas, Tom Stoneham et al.
1 citation
No Summary
Front Hum Neurosci
April 10, 2026
Joachim Keppler
A theory of consciousness (TOC) should be judged by its predictive and explanatory power. Physicalism, which treats consciousness as reducible to physical processes, can achieve high predictive power but fails to explain why conscious states arise. Non-physicalism, which treats consciousness as fundamental and irreducible, offers clear advantages for developing a powerful TOC. The analysis makes a strong case for a paradigm shift from physicalism to non-physicalism, which would not discard neuroscientific theories but reinterpret neurophysiological indicators of consciousness within a broader context.
Front Hum Neurosci
September 5, 2025
The Orch OR model proposes that consciousness arises from objective reduction (OR) of quantum superpositions in microtubules within neurons, orchestrated by classical brain processes. This paper argues that quantum-classical dynamics, using a quasi-Lie algebra, can formally describe the orchestration process—how classical neuronal activity modulates quantum states in microtubules without collapsing them. The authors aim to make Orch OR more predictive and testable by integrating quantum and classical degrees of freedom. They review evidence for quantum coherence in microtubules, discuss anesthesia's disruption of quantum states, and address philosophical issues like free will and time perception. The work is presented as a foundation for further rigorous analysis.
Front Hum Neurosci
January 18, 2023
The work explores the question of whether consciousness is fundamentally material or electromagnetic in nature. It argues that consciousness may be more closely linked to electromagnetic fields (EMF) than to purely neural matter, drawing on theoretical and empirical considerations from physics and neuroscience. The authors suggest that EMF could play a causal role in conscious experience, challenging traditional materialist views. The argument is presented as a theoretical or philosophical analysis rather than an empirical study.
Front Hum Neurosci
February 24, 2022
Most neuroscientists avoid the question of how consciousness arises, relying on an unexplained "magical emergence" from neural activity. The brain's electromagnetic (EM) fields—the fundamental physics underlying neuronal and glial activity—offer a potential mechanism. These EM fields literally manifest the computations and information processing of connected cellular ensembles, generating a first-person perspective. Investigating EM fields at the cellular scale could identify outward signs of a mechanism in fundamental physical terms, rather than merely describing correlates of mental abstractions.
Front Hum Neurosci
September 28, 2021
This theoretical paper outlines a conceptual framework for developing a self-consistent electromagnetic field theory of consciousness. It argues that electromagnetic fields in the brain, particularly those generated by neural activity, may serve as the physical substrate for conscious experience. The author proposes that consciousness arises from the integration and dynamics of these fields, which can be described using principles from classical and quantum electrodynamics. The paper discusses how such a theory could account for features of consciousness like unity, binding, and causal efficacy, and suggests that a self-consistent approach requires linking field properties to phenomenological aspects without invoking dualism. It remains a speculative proposal, not an empirical test.
Front Hum Neurosci
June 30, 2020
A novel closed-loop neurofeedback method using frontal midline theta oscillations was developed to train focused-attention meditation. The system provides real-time feedback based on the participant's own brain activity, aiming to enhance meditation practice. The approach was tested and shown to be feasible for guiding individuals in achieving deeper meditative states by reinforcing specific neural patterns associated with focused attention.
Front Hum Neurosci
February 25, 2020
Deep brain electrical stimulation of the amygdala can evoke a dreamy state characterized by vivid, dream-like experiences, altered consciousness, and emotional responses. The findings suggest the amygdala plays a key role in human dreaming, emotional processing, and aspects of consciousness and creativity. The stimulation produced acute effects including changes in mood, perception, and memory, linking the amygdala to the generation of dreamy states and broader cognitive functions.
Front Hum Neurosci
March 18, 2015
Meditation is associated with measurable changes in both the cardiovascular and nervous systems, including reductions in heart rate and alterations in brain activity patterns. These physiological shifts suggest a state of relaxed alertness and autonomic regulation during the practice.
Front Hum Neurosci
February 26, 2014
Nondirective meditation engages the default mode network and brain regions linked to memory retrieval and emotional processing.
Front Hum Neurosci
November 7, 2013
The abstract questions whether dream reports can be trusted as accurate accounts of dream experience, examining reasons for skepticism and arguments against it. It explores the philosophical and methodological challenges in verifying dream reports, suggesting that while reports may be imperfect, outright skepticism may be unwarranted.
Front Hum Neurosci
September 17, 2012
Meditation techniques induce dynamic changes in awareness that are accompanied by distinct neural and physiological correlates. The text reviews evidence that different meditation practices—such as focused attention and open monitoring—produce varying patterns of brain activity and autonomic responses. These changes are linked to shifts in conscious states, including alterations in attention, meta-awareness, and body awareness. The findings suggest that the neural and physiological markers of meditation are not static but evolve over the course of a session and with practice. Understanding these dynamic changes can inform the development of meditation-based interventions for mental health and well-being.