PLoS One
March 10, 2010
Po‐jang Hsieh, Peter Ulric Tse
4 citations
UNLABELLED: Under conditions of visual fixation, perceptual fading occurs when a stationary object, though present in the world and continually casting light upon the retina, vanishes from visual consciousness. The neural correlates of the consciousness of such an object will presumably modulate in activity with the onset and cessation of perceptual fading. METHOD: In order to localize the...
PLoS One
March 9, 2010
Dobromir G Dotov, Lin Nie, Anthony Chemero
The ideas of continental philosopher Martin Heidegger have been influential in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, despite the fact that there has been no effort to analyze these ideas empirically. The experiments reported here are designed to lend empirical support to Heidegger's phenomenology and more specifically his description of the transition between ready-to-hand and...
PLoS One
March 4, 2010
Thomas S. Ray
57 citations
correction
We currently understand the mental effects of psychedelics to be caused by agonism or partial agonism of 5-HT 2A (and possibly 5-HT 2C ) receptors, and we understand that psychedelic drugs, especially phenylalkylamines, are fairly selective for these two receptors.This manuscript is a reference work on the receptor affinity pharmacology of psychedelic drugs.New data is presented on the affinity...
PLoS One
February 10, 2010
Clara Touriño, Andreas Zimmer, Olga Valverde
55 citations
The majority of MDMA (ecstasy) recreational users also consume cannabis. Despite the rewarding effects that both drugs have, they induce several opposite pharmacological responses. MDMA causes hyperthermia, oxidative stress and neuronal damage, especially at warm ambient temperature. However, THC, the main psychoactive compound of cannabis, produces hypothermic, anti-inflammatory and...
PLoS One
2010
Olivier Jacques Manzoni, Thomas S. Ray
295 citations
We currently understand the mental effects of psychedelics to be caused by agonism or partial agonism of 5-HT2A (and possibly 5-HT2C) receptors, and we understand that psychedelic drugs, especially phenylalkylamines, are fairly selective for these two receptors. This manuscript is a reference work on the receptor affinity pharmacology of psychedelic drugs. New data is presented on the affinity...
PLoS One
November 20, 2009
Stéphane Doly, Jesus Bertran‐gonzalez, Jacques Callebert et al.
80 citations
The amphetamine derivative 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) reverses dopamine and serotonin transporters to produce efflux of dopamine and serotonin, respectively, in regions of the brain that have been implicated in reward. However, the role of serotonin/dopamine interactions in the behavioral effects of MDMA remains unclear. We previously showed that MDMA-induced locomotion,...
PLoS One
September 30, 2009
Sam Harris, Jonas Kaplan, Ashley Curiel et al.
173 citations
While religious and nonreligious thinking differentially engage broad regions of the frontal, parietal, and medial temporal lobes, the difference between belief and disbelief appears to be content-independent. Our study compares religious thinking with ordinary cognition and, as such, constitutes a step toward developing a neuropsychology of religion. However, these findings may also further...
PLoS One
August 5, 2009
Jane E. Aspell, Bigna Lenggenhager, Olaf Blanke
Background: The spatial unity between self and body can be disrupted by employing conflicting visual-somatosensory bodily input, thereby bringing neurological observations on bodily self-consciousness under scientific scrutiny. Here we designed a novel paradigm linking the study of bodily self-consciousness to the spatial representation of visuo-tactile stimuli by measuring crossmodal...
PLoS One
July 3, 2009
Sam M Doesburg, Jessica J Green, John J McDonald et al.
Consciousness has been proposed to emerge from functionally integrated large-scale ensembles of gamma-synchronous neural populations that form and dissolve at a frequency in the theta band. We propose that discrete moments of perceptual experience are implemented by transient gamma-band synchronization of relevant cortical regions, and that disintegration and reintegration of these assemblies...
PLoS One
June 30, 2009
Dardo G. Tomasi, Nora D. Volkow, Ruiliang Wang et al.
Background Dopamine and dopamine transporters (DAT, which regulate extracellular dopamine in the brain) are implicated in the modulation of attention but their specific roles are not well understood. Here we hypothesized that dopamine modulates attention by facilitation of brain deactivation in the default mode network (DMN). Thus, higher striatal DAT levels, which would result in an enhanced...
PLoS One
May 28, 2009
Chao‐gan Yan, Dongqiang Liu, Yong He et al.
315 citations
BACKGROUND: Recent functional MRI (fMRI) studies have demonstrated that there is an intrinsically organized default mode network (DMN) in the resting brain, primarily made up of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). Several previous studies have found that the DMN is minimally disturbed during different resting-state conditions with limited cognitive...
PLoS One
September 2, 2008
Giuseppe Pagnoni, Milos Cekic, Ying Guo
189 citations
Recent neuroimaging studies have identified a set of brain regions that are metabolically active during wakeful rest and consistently deactivate in a variety the performance of demanding tasks. This "default network" has been functionally linked to the stream of thoughts occurring automatically in the absence of goal-directed activity and which constitutes an aspect of mental behavior...
PLoS One
March 25, 2008
Antoine Lutz, Julie A. Brefczynski-Lewis, Tom Johnstone et al.
942 citations
Recent brain imaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have implicated insula and anterior cingulate cortices in the empathic response to another's pain. However, virtually nothing is known about the impact of the voluntary generation of compassion on this network. To investigate these questions we assessed brain activity using fMRI while novice and expert meditation...