bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 30, 2026
Mihir Nath, Nicco Reggente, Neil W. Bailey et al.
preprint
Across contemplative traditions, depper states of meditation are described as states of heightened clarity, vividness, and stillness of mind, yet what this clarity corresponds to in the brain has remained difficult to specify. The functional signal-to-noise ratio (f-SNR) framework frames mental clarity as a measurable property of neural signals: the degree to which brain activity tracks the...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 17, 2026
Xinyu Chen, Haoru Zhang, Xinran Deng et al.
preprint
How consciousness arises from the brain remains a central yet unsolved question. Although substantial effort has been devoted to characterizing the neural correlates of conscious perception during wakefulness, how consciousness re-emerges from unconscious states remains poorly understood. Here, we took advantage of the rare opportunity to record human intracranial local field potentials from...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 12, 2026
Dante Sebastián Galván Rial, Gabriel A. Della Bella, Lorina Naci et al.
preprint
A general account of how diverse states of consciousness arise from brain activity requires a quantitative framework that generalises across them. The Entropic Brain Theory proposes that states of consciousness can be ordered along a single dimension defined by the entropy of spontaneous neural activity, but this prediction has not been tested across pharmacological and clinical perturbations...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 7, 2026
Andrea I. Luppi, Dragana Manasova, Justine Y. Hansen et al.
preprint
Consciousness and cognition arise from the ongoing interactions between brain regions. Synchronous fluctuations of fMRI signals may indicate that two brain regions perform similar cognitive functions, but neural interactions are also constrained by anatomical connectivity and regions’ molecular, cytoarchitectonic, and metabolic profiles. Here we disentangle the respective contributions of...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 2, 2026
Ambra Pogliani, Alexandra Zachary, Lena Hall et al.
preprint
Insight is commonly studied in laboratory paradigms as a sudden shift in understanding accompanied by characteristic “Aha!” experiences. However, such paradigms may not capture the full phenomenological range of insight as it occurs in naturalistic contexts. This study compared the phenomenology of insight across four contexts—psychedelic experiences, everyday-life insights, Compound Remote...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
May 27, 2026
Praerna Chowdhury, Ramajayam Govindaraj, Arun Sasidharan et al.
preprint
Background Electroencephalographic (EEG) studies attempting to characterise the neural signature of meditation typically rely on contrasts with passive rest or comparisons among practitioners based on experience. However, these approaches rarely include active control states and seldom establish the reliability and robustness of identified quantitative EEG features. Consequently, the validity...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
May 5, 2026
Povilas Tarailis, Inga Griškova-bulanova
preprint
Electroencephalographic (EEG) microstates provide a compact framework for characterizing the temporal organization of large-scale brain activity, yet their sensitivity to altered brain states remains insufficiently explored. In this study, we applied broadband and frequency-resolved EEG microstate analysis to resting-state EEG data from two publicly available datasets acquired under markedly...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
April 22, 2026
Nicolás Bruno, Federico Cavanna, Federico Zamberlán et al.
preprint
Spontaneous thoughts constitute most of everyday inner experience, yet long-standing methodological challenges obscure a thorough exploration of their content and neurophysiological underpinnings. Traditional approaches relying on thought probes impose strict constraints on phenomenological reports, whereas online verbal reports disrupt the natural flow of experience while interfering neural...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
March 23, 2026
Erhard Bieberich
preprint
Consciousness remains poorly understood as a causative force: existing theories treat it as an epiphenomenal correlate of neural activity rather than explaining how inner experience controls its substrate. I present Recurrent Integration Fractal Theory (RIFT), proposing that consciousness arises when fractal compression of sensory information generates a holographic endospace: the...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
February 26, 2026
Angqi Li, Julio Rodriguez-Larios, Mengsen Zhang et al.
preprint
The study of contemplative practices has evolved into a mature field, yet current taxonomies tend to classify all mantra-based meditation approaches as a single category, overlooking potentially different neural states induced by different mantras or different instructions. To address this gap, we conducted a study of 50 novice subjects practicing two types of mantra-based meditation over a six...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
February 22, 2026
Sergio Elías Hernández, Katya Rubia, Oscar Perez-Diaz et al.
preprint
The perception of God can be as a transcendent entity that is infinite and outside of human beings, typical for religious traditions, or as an immanent entity that is outside and inside of human beings, typical for mystical traditions. These different perceptions of God may be associated with different neural correlates depending on which God we pray to. To elucidate the neural correlates of...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
February 10, 2026
David Zarka, Winson F.z. Yang, Abel Rassat et al.
preprint
Extended cessation (EC) is a rare, non-ordinary meditative endpoint characterized by a temporary absence of reportable phenomenal experience, followed by an extraordinary perceptual vividness, openness, equanimity and affective balance. EC thus offers a unique, non-pharmacological window into the brain dynamics underlying suspension of conscious experience and the subsequent psychological...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
January 19, 2026
Chuong Ngo, Erkin Bek, Monika Stasytyte et al.
preprint
Focused-attention meditation provides a tractable model for examining how large-scale brain dynamics support attention and self-regulation. Using high-density EEG microstate analysis, we investigated how focused-attention meditation on the breath (Ānāpānasati) modulates intrinsic brain activity in 22 experienced practitioners, compared with baseline rest and deliberate mental imagery. Five...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
January 14, 2026
Muad Y. Abd El Hay, Ana Cukić, Marieke L. Schölvinck et al.
preprint
Psychedelic substances show promise for treating psychiatric disorders including depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but the neurobiological mechanisms underlying their therapeutic effects remain poorly understood. Preclinical findings have so far been inconsistent, limiting mechanistic insights. We argue this translational gap is exacerbated by systematic disconnects between conditions thought to...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
December 10, 2025
Zhili Han, Hao Zhu, Qian Chu et al.
preprint
Conscious awareness requires establishing coherent percepts. Yet, whether consciousness is necessary for initiating the integration of basic sensory features remains unclear. Competing theories implicate distinct functional regimes of consciousness in the process of feature binding and creating conscious percepts. We used a novel multi-feature oddball paradigm with intracranial...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
December 9, 2025
Tomas Berjaga-Buisan, Juan Manuel Monti, Martina Cortada et al.
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The quest for reliable and objective measures of consciousness is critical in basic and clinical neuroscience. Across species, the Perturbational Complexity Index (PCI) has emerged as a robust empirical marker by directly perturbing the brain, yet its underlying principles of physics are not fully understood. Here, we bridge this gap by introducing a non-invasive framework based on generative...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
December 8, 2025
Alejandro Luis Callara, Mohammad Hadi Azarabad, Laura Sebastiani et al.
preprint
Meditation has been long associated with improvements in mental well-being, emotional regulation, and attentional control. Yet, the diversity of meditative techniques and participant expertise has hindered the systematic identification of their neurophysiological correlates supporting these benefits. To address this challenge, we investigated the neurophysiological signatures of concentrative...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
October 31, 2025
Tomas Hampejs, David Tomecek, Stanislav Jiricek et al.
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Understanding how spontaneous, rather than experimentally induced, thoughts relate to brain activity remains a major challenge. We combined simultaneous fMRI and EEG recordings with Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) to link momentary, naturally occurring experiences to their neural signatures during rest. Using machine-learning classification of 240 time-locked samples from eight...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
October 17, 2025
France Lerner, Guillaume Tahar, Netta Shafir
preprint
Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) challenge conventional research methods, as they are often described as exceeding the limits of verbal expression. While most studies rely on narrative accounts, little attention has been given to graphic representations as a complementary mode of investigation. This study employs a hybrid approach combining a semi-structured digital questionnaire with a graphic...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
October 1, 2025
Kallum Robinson, Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston, Jiahao Wu et al.
1 citation
preprint
What is a possible physical substrate of the qualitative aspects of consciousness (qualia)? Answering this question is a central goal of consciousness research. Due to their subjective and ineffable nature, finding a quantitative way to characterise qualia from verbal description has thus far proven elusive. To overcome the challenge of expressing subjective experience, recent structural and...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
September 19, 2025
Kenneth Shinozuka, Winson F.z. Yang, Ruby M. Potash et al.
3 citations
preprint
In some contemplative traditions, “extended cessation” (EC) refers to a state of advanced meditation in which the meditator intentionally suppresses their own consciousness and re-emerges with a profound sense of clarity and equanimity. Here, we present the first electrophysiological study of EC, in which five meditators underwent concurrent electroencephalography (EEG) and...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
September 18, 2025
C. Delgado-Sallent, S. A. Ahmed, A. Khawaja-Lopez et al.
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Psychedelics such as psilocybin and ketamine are gaining attention as rapid-acting treatments for psychiatric disorders, yet the mechanisms by which they alter cognition remain unclear. A key hypothesis—the REBUS model—proposes that psychedelics relax high-level priors, allowing bottom-up sensory information to exert greater influence over perception and behavior. Here, we test this model in...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
September 6, 2025
Winson F.z. Yang, Akila Kadambi, Kilian Abellaneda-Pérez et al.
4 citations
preprint
Extended cessation (EC), an advanced meditative state in which consciousness is volitionally suspended and later reset with immense mental clarity, equanimity, and peace, offers an endogenous model for investigating the mechanisms of consciousness. Using ultra-high-resolution 7T fMRI with dense within-subject sampling (N=3), we quantified whole-brain activity, functional and effective...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
August 29, 2025
Gal R. Chen, Rachel Finkelstein, Ariel Goldstein et al.
preprint
Abundant evidence shows that when listening to speech or reading text, we continuously make predictions about upcoming words. Does this process stop when our mind wanders away and subjective experience becomes decoupled from the content of the speech? Conversely, is word prediction sufficient for conscious experience, or can these processes dissociate? Participants (N = 25) listened to...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
July 23, 2025
Tomas Del Olmo, Mathilde Decourcelle, Martial Séveno et al.
preprint
The serotonin (5-HT)2A receptor is the primary target of numerous psychoactive drugs including serotonergic psychedelics, and mediates psychedelics-induced neuroplasticity, but the signaling mechanisms involved remain poorly characterized. Using quantitative phosphoproteomics, we show that the administration of the hallucinogenic 5-HT2A receptor agonist 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI) to...