Consciousness and Cognition - The Consciousness Library

Synesthetic hallucinations induced by psychedelic drugs in a congenitally blind man.

Consciousness and Cognition April 1, 2018 Sara Dell'Erba, David J Brown, Michael J Proulx 11 citations

This case report offers rare insights into crossmodal responses to psychedelic drug use in a congenitally blind (CB) individual as a form of synthetic synesthesia. BP's personal experience provides us with a unique report on the psychological and sensory alterations induced by hallucinogenic drugs, including an account of the absence of visual hallucinations, and a compelling look at the...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.02.008 Full text LSD Congenital blindness Hallucination Psychosis +2

Daydreams incorporate recent waking life concerns but do not show delayed ('dream-lag') incorporations.

Consciousness and Cognition February 1, 2018 Elaine Van Rijn, Alexander M Reid, Christopher L Edwards et al.

This study investigates the time course of incorporation of waking life experiences into daydreams. Thirty-one participants kept a diary for 10 days, reporting major daily activities (MDAs), personally significant events (PSEs) and major concerns (MCs). They were then cued for daydream, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and N2 dream reports in the sleep laboratory. There was a higher incorporation into...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.10.011 Full text Day-residue Daydreaming Dream-lag Functions of dreaming +4

Unitary and dual models of phenomenal consciousness.

Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2017 Tomáš Marvan, Michal Polák 26 citations

There is almost unanimous consensus among the theorists of consciousness that the phenomenal character of a mental state cannot exist without consciousness. We argue for a reappraisal of this consensus. We distinguish two models of phenomenal consciousness: unitary and dual. Unitary model takes the production of a phenomenal quality and it's becoming conscious to be one and the same thing. The...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.09.006 Full text

The interpretation of dream meaning: Resolving ambiguity using Latent Semantic Analysis in a small corpus of text.

Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2017 Edgar Altszyler, Sidarta Ribeiro, Mariano Sigman et al.

Computer-based dreams content analysis relies on word frequencies within predefined categories in order to identify different elements in text. As a complementary approach, we explored the capabilities and limitations of word-embedding techniques to identify word usage patterns among dream reports. These tools allow us to quantify words associations in text and to identify the meaning of target...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.09.004 Full text Dream content analysis Latent semantic analysis Word2vec

Consciousness operationalized, a debate realigned.

Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2017 Peter Carruthers, Bénédicte Veillet 43 citations

This paper revisits the debate about cognitive phenomenology. It elaborates, defends, and improves on our earlier proposal for resolving that debate, according to which the test for irreducible phenomenology is the presence of explanatory gaps. After showing how proposals like ours have been misunderstood or misused by others, we deploy our operationalization to argue that the correct way to...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.07.008 Full text Hard problem Access consciousness Amodal experience Cognitive phenomenology +2

Activity in part of the neural correlates of consciousness reflects integration.

Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2017 Johan Eriksson

Integration is commonly viewed as a key process for generating conscious experiences. Accordingly, there should be increased activity within the neural correlates of consciousness when demands on integration increase. We used fMRI and "informational masking" to isolate the neural correlates of consciousness and measured how the associated brain activity changed as a function of required...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.07.007 Full text Auditory Brain Consciousness Integration +1

The levels of perceptual processing and the neural correlates of increasing subjective visibility.

Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2017 Marek Binder, Krzysztof Gociewicz, Bert Windey et al.

According to the levels-of-processing hypothesis, transitions from unconscious to conscious perception may depend on stimulus processing level, with more gradual changes for low-level stimuli and more dichotomous changes for high-level stimuli. In an event-related fMRI study we explored this hypothesis using a visual backward masking procedure. Task requirements manipulated level of processing....

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.07.010 Full text Awareness Consciousness Dichotomous Graded +3

Juxtaposing the real-time unfolding of subjective experience and ERP neuromarker dynamics.

Consciousness and Cognition September 1, 2017 Renate Rutiku, Talis Bachmann

Electroencephalographic (EEG) potentials have remained a valuable source of data and theories concerning neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). The EEG based methods are far from being exhausted and are continually valuable in the quest for the markers of NCC. To set the background for the research presented in this issue, we review the published work on EEG-based markers of NCC. The article...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.05.003 Full text Cnv Contralateral delay activity EEG/Erp N200 +5

Expectation creates something out of nothing: The role of attention in iconic memory reconsidered.

Consciousness and Cognition August 1, 2017 Jaan Aru, Talis Bachmann 42 citations

Conscious experience is modulated by attention and expectation, yet is believed to be independent of attention. The experiments on iconic memory (IM) are usually taken as support for this claim. However, a recent experiment demonstrated that when attention is diverted away from the IM letter display subjects fail to see the absence of IM letters. Here we contribute to the ongoing debate by...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.06.017 Full text Cognitive penetration Expectation Iconic memory Individual differences +5

Intensity and memory characteristics of near-death experiences

Consciousness and Cognition July 8, 2017 Charlotte Martial, Vanessa Charland-Verville, Héléna Cassol et al. 24 citations

Memories of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) seem to be very detailed and stable over time. At present, there is still no satisfactory explanation for the NDEs' rich phenomenology. Here we compared phenomenological characteristics of NDE memories with the reported experience's intensity. We included 152 individuals with a self-reported "classical" NDE (i.e. occurring in life-threatening...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.06.018

Characteristics of memories for near-death experiences

Consciousness and Cognition March 19, 2017 Lauren E. Moore, Bruce Greyson 46 citations

Near-death experiences are vivid, life-changing experiences occurring to people who come close to death. Because some of their features, such as enhanced cognition despite compromised brain function, challenge our understanding of the mind-brain relationship, the question arises whether near-death experiences are imagined rather than real events. We administered the Memory Characteristics...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.03.003

Higher theta and alpha1 coherence when listening to Vedic recitation compared to coherence during Transcendental Meditation practice.

Consciousness and Cognition March 1, 2017 Frederick Travis, Niyazi Parim, Amrita Shrivastava

This study compared subjective experiences and EEG patterns in 37 subjects when listening to live Vedic recitation and when practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM). Content analysis of experiences when listening to Vedic recitation yielded three higher-order code. Experiences during Vedic recitation were: (1) deeper than during TM practice; (2) experienced as an inner process; and (3)...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.02.002 Full text Alpha Frontal EEG Coherence Tm Theta +2

The life review experience: Qualitative and quantitative characteristics.

Consciousness and Cognition February 1, 2017 Judith Katz, Noam Saadon-Grosman, Shahar Arzy

The life-review experience (LRE) is a most intriguing mental phenomenon that fascinated humans from time immemorial. In LRE one sees vividly a succession of one's own life-events. While reports of LRE are abundant in the medical, psychological and popular literature, not much is known about LRE's cognitive and psychological basis. Moreover, while LRE is known as part of the phenomenology of...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.10.011 Full text Autobiographical memory Episodic memory Mental time Narrative +2

Mental time travel to the future might be reduced in sleep.

Consciousness and Cognition February 1, 2017 Jana Speth, Astrid M Schloerscheidt, Clemens Speth

We present a quantitative study of mental time travel to the future in sleep. Three independent, blind judges analysed a total of 563 physiology-monitored mentation reports from sleep onset, REM sleep, non-REM sleep, and waking. The linguistic tool for the mentation report analysis is based on established grammatical and cognitive-semantic theories and has been validated in previous studies....

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.11.006 Full text Hypnagogic hallucinations Linguistics Mentation reports Non-rem +2

Attention in the predictive mind.

Consciousness and Cognition 2017 Madeleine Ransom, Sina Fazelpour, Christopher Mole 38 citations

It has recently become popular to suggest that cognition can be explained as a process of Bayesian prediction error minimization. Some advocates of this view propose that attention should be understood as the optimization of expected precisions in the prediction-error signal (Clark, 2013, 2016; Feldman & Friston, 2010; Hohwy, 2012, 2013). This proposal successfully accounts for several...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.06.011 Full text Hohwy Philosophy of perception Prediction-error coding Voluntary attention

The second me: Seeing the real body during humanoid robot embodiment produces an illusion of bi-location.

Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2016 Laura Aymerich-Franch, Damien Petit, Gowrishankar Ganesh et al.

Whole-body embodiment studies have shown that synchronized multi-sensory cues can trick a healthy human mind to perceive self-location outside the bodily borders, producing an illusion that resembles an out-of-body experience (OBE). But can a healthy mind also perceive the sense of self in more than one body at the same time? To answer this question, we created a novel artificial reduplication...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.09.017 Full text Autoscopic phenomena Full-body illusion Heautoscopy Humanoid robot embodiment +3

When the dissolution of perceived body boundaries elicits happiness: The effect of selflessness induced by a body scan meditation.

Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2016 Michael Dambrun

Drawing on the Self-centeredness/Selflessness Happiness Model (SSHM), we hypothesized that a reduction in the salience of perceived body boundaries would lead to increase optimal emotional experience. These constructs were assessed by means of self-report measures. Participants (n=53) were randomly assigned to either the selflessness (induced by a body scan meditation) condition or the control...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.09.013 Full text

Traumatic stress, neural self and the spiritual mind.

Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2016 Petr Bob, Matthew Laker

According to recent findings stressful experiences may influence various physiological disturbances and also neuroanatomical changes and some studies also show that psychotherapy and meditation may influence brain functions. Traumatic stress is frequently related to a dissociative response that disintegrates conscious experience. In this context, self-reflection is an essential principle in the...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.09.008 Full text Meditation Dissociation Self Spiritual experience +1

Artificial consciousness and the consciousness-attention dissociation.

Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2016 Harry Haroutioun Haladjian, Carlos Montemayor

Artificial Intelligence is at a turning point, with a substantial increase in projects aiming to implement sophisticated forms of human intelligence in machines. This research attempts to model specific forms of intelligence through brute-force search heuristics and also reproduce features of human perception and cognition, including emotions. Such goals have implications for artificial...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.08.011 Full text Phenomenology Artificial consciousness Artificial intelligence Emotions +2

As we fall asleep we forget about the future: A quantitative linguistic analysis of mentation reports from hypnagogia.

Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2016 Jana Speth, Astrid M Schloerscheidt, Clemens Speth

We present a quantitative study of mental time travel to the past and future in sleep onset hypnagogia. Three independent, blind judges analysed a total of 150 mentation reports from different intervals prior to and after sleep onset. The linguistic tool for the mentation report analysis grounds on established grammatical and cognitive-semantic theories, and proof of concept has been provided...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.08.014 Full text Phenomenology Dream Hallucination Hypnagogic +5

Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Consciousness and Cognition July 1, 2016 Josef Parnas, Mads Gram Henriksen 128 citations

Mysticism and schizophrenia are different categories of human existence and experience. Nonetheless, they exhibit important phenomenological affinities, which, however, remain largely unaddressed. In this study, we explore structural analogies between key features of mysticism and major clinical-phenomenological aspects of the schizophrenia spectrum disorders-i.e. attitudes, the nature of...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.05.010 Full text Mysticism Phenomenology Consciousness Delusion +6

Lucid dreaming incidence: A quality effects meta-analysis of 50 years of research

Consciousness and Cognition June 20, 2016 David Saunders, Chris A Roe, Graham Smith et al. 93 citations

We report a quality effects meta-analysis on studies from the period 1966-2016 measuring either (a) lucid dreaming prevalence (one or more lucid dreams in a lifetime); (b) frequent lucid dreaming (one or more lucid dreams in a month) or both. A quality effects meta-analysis allows for the minimisation of the influence of study methodological quality on overall model estimates. Following...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.06.002 Full text Lucid dream Moderation Meta-analysis Population +1

Altered states of consciousness are related to higher sexual responsiveness.

Consciousness and Cognition May 1, 2016 R. Costa, J. Pestaña, D. Costa et al.

Altered states of consciousness lead to profound changes in the sense of self, time and space. We assessed how these changes were related to sexual responsiveness during sex. 116 subjects reported (a) intensity of awareness concerning body, space and time, and (b) satisfaction, desire, arousal, and orgasm occurrence. We differentiated vaginal intercourse orgasm from noncoital orgasm. Female...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.03.013

What Confucius practiced is good for your mind: Examining the effect of a contemplative practice in Confucian tradition on executive functions.

Consciousness and Cognition May 1, 2016 Shan-Chuan Teng, Yunn-Wen Lien

The short-term training effects on various executive functions (EFs) by a movement-based contemplative practice (MBCP) are examined. Three aspects of EFs (working memory capacity, inhibition, switching) are assessed before and after a month-long 12-h training period using Body-Mind Axial Awareness (BMAA) principles that Confucius followers have practiced for more than 2000years. A...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.03.016 Full text Meditation Executive function Mindfulness training Movement-based contemplative training +2

Is dream recall underestimated by retrospective measures and enhanced by keeping a logbook? An empirical investigation.

Consciousness and Cognition May 1, 2016 Denholm J Aspy

In a recent review, Aspy, Delfabbro, and Proeve (2015) highlighted the tendency for retrospective measures of dream recall to yield substantially lower recall rates than logbook measures, a phenomenon they termed the retrospective-logbook disparity. One explanation for this phenomenon is that retrospective measures underestimate true dream recall. Another explanation is that keeping a logbook...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.03.015 Full text Dream recall Dream diaries Methodology Self-report methods

Papers