PLoS One
January 1, 2026
Young Im Cho, Hyo Jin Kim, Dong Hee Kim
An adapted online Meditation-Mindfulness-Positive Psychology Training (MMPT) program, shortened to six sessions and tailored for nursing students in Korea, was tested for feasibility and preliminary effectiveness. In a mixed-methods pilot study, the experimental group showed significant improvements in gratitude disposition, self-compassion, and perceived stress, but not in mindfulness or overall mental health. Qualitative interviews revealed perceived gains in calmness, self-kindness, positivity, and coping, with students valuing gratitude journaling, compassion exercises, and peer support. The program appears feasible for reducing stress and boosting positive psychological resources, though larger and longer studies are needed.
PLoS One
January 1, 2026
Clement Abbatecola, Bernard Marius ’t Hart, Belén M. Montabes De la Cruz et al.
The subjective experience of space around the visual blind spot is investigated to test three theories of consciousness: Integrated Information Theory (IIT), Predictive Processing Active Inference (AI), and Predictive Processing Neurorepresentationalism (NREP). IIT predicts that the blind spot region, lacking feedforward input from one eye, should contribute differently to perceived spatial quality. The Predictive Processing accounts argue that internal models accommodate structural deviations based on sensory evidence. Participants evaluate distances, areas, and illusory motion with or without the blind spot involved. Psychometric models quantify bias and precision in perceived versus objective space. Simulated results correspond to each theory's predictions, and challenges for dissemination are discussed.
PLoS One
November 10, 2025
Marina D. Luccioni, Jules T. Wyman, Edgard O. Espinoza et al.
The Sonoran Desert toad is the only animal known to secrete the psychedelic compound 5-MeO-DMT as a chemical defense, but its source was unknown. All Sonoran Desert toads secreted high concentrations of 5-MeO-DMT, while other sympatric toads did not. The diet of the Sonoran Desert toad was similar to that of other anurans living in the same area, indicating no dietary specialization. Slight dietary differences existed between toads in native and urban habitats. These findings suggest diet is not directly linked to 5-MeO-DMT production, supporting the hypothesis that the toad synthesizes the compound endogenously or via a microbial symbiont.
PLoS One
October 23, 2025
Daniel Cullen, Kate Cavanagh, Clara Strauss
A qualitative study explored how National Health Service staff identify with mindfulness in-groups and engage with mindful practices. The findings suggest that social identification with mindfulness groups influences staff members' engagement with these practices, highlighting the role of group identity in sustaining mindfulness in a workplace setting.
PLoS One
October 13, 2025
Francisco González-espejito, Laura Esteban Rodríguez, Eduardo J. Pedrero Pérez et al.
Ibogaine, a compound from the iboga plant used in traditional Bwiti rituals, shows promise for treating opioid dependence and neurological conditions, but existing tools fail to capture its dream-like subjective effects. A new 70-item Ibogaine Experience Scale (IES) was developed from a prior qualitative study and tested with 499 participants in neuropsychiatric and substance use treatment settings. The final scale has seven factors—including narrative visions, visual changes, discomfort, cosmic visions, introspection, somatosensory sensitivity, and dissociation—explaining 53.9% of variance, with excellent statistical fit and high internal consistency. The IES offers a reliable way to measure ibogaine's multidimensional effects for research and clinical use.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Jiuhong You, Zunera Khan, Reena Swaroop et al.
An eight-week, online-delivered mindfulness program is being tested for feasibility and acceptability in people over 60 with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia in the UK. The study will recruit 32 participants who will attend weekly live online sessions led by an experienced teacher, plus daily home practice. Primary outcomes are feasibility and acceptability measured through participation records and interviews. Secondary outcomes include changes in cognition, mood, sleep, quality of life, mindfulness, and resilience. Online delivery could reduce travel burdens and costs, and the study aims to provide evidence supporting remote interventions for this population.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Bastien Perroy, Pablo Fernandez Velasco, Umer Gurchani et al.
During the Covid-19 restrictions, people reported unusual disruptions in their experience of time, such as time passing both slower and faster, or feeling unreal. An analysis of 149 subjective reports from France and the UK in March 2021 identified three forms of temporal disorientation: loss of temporal landmarks making orientation harder and causing episodic disorientation; sustained temporal disbelief, an existential form where past perspective was severely distorted; and a future-oriented form marked by anxiety and hopelessness, with inability to project into the future. The findings suggest that providing future landmarks could help those most exposed to dissociative temporal experiences during crises.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Timothy Sweeney, Elena Nixon, Richard Morriss et al.
Depression affects about 5% of people worldwide, with high relapse rates and 10-20% experiencing chronic depression. In 20 participants with moderate-to-severe persistent depression who had no prior mindfulness training, interviews revealed that mindfulness capacity decreases during depressive episodes. Six themes emerged: behavioral withdrawal, perceptual detachment from experience, intentional reduction in awareness, increased self-criticism, racing thoughts, and impaired cognitive performance. Reduced mindfulness appears to occur both as an indirect consequence of depression-related processes like rumination and as a deliberate self-protective strategy, but it also maintains and intensifies depressive experience. Introducing mindfulness-based treatments to this population may be challenging because severe symptoms can obstruct access to a mindful perspective.
PLoS One
January 1, 2024
Kunal R Desai, Patricia O'Malley, Emily Van Culin
A randomized trial compared Heartfulness meditation to gratitude practice among 83 healthcare providers (50% nurses, 37% allied professionals, 13% physicians) across the US. After six weeks, the Heartfulness group showed significant improvement in burnout and secondary traumatic stress, and increased vigor at work, while the gratitude group did not. Compassion satisfaction trended higher with Heartfulness but was not statistically significant. Qualitative reports indicated Heartfulness practitioners experienced better sleep and less reactivity to stress, while gratitude practitioners reported improved mood and positive family interactions. The authors conclude that Heartfulness meditation is associated with reduced burnout and greater work vigor, but larger trials are needed.
PLoS One
January 1, 2024
Benjamin A. Korman
Lifetime use of LSD before job loss is associated with a higher likelihood of severe psychological distress afterward, not with resilience. Analyzing data from over 5 million unemployed, job-seeking individuals, the study found that those who used LSD prior to losing their job reported worse mental health following the stressful experience, even after accounting for sociodemographic factors. This contradicts earlier suggestions that classic psychedelics might confer psychological protection. The findings indicate that, in naturalistic settings, LSD use does not buffer against the distress of unemployment.
PLoS One
December 14, 2023
Virginia Fedrigo, Matteo M. Galizzi, Rob Jenkins et al.
Upon waking, people's first thoughts—termed penumbral thoughts—tend to focus on their own physical or mental state, the current time and the day ahead, and immediate waking actions. Across seven samples totaling 829 participants who recalled and reflected on these thoughts the same day, a consistent pattern emerged: temporal and spatial orientation centers on the present moment and the upcoming day rather than the past or other future timescales. These findings suggest that establishing one's temporal position is a key part of the daily process of rebooting conscious awareness.
PLoS One
February 6, 2019
Vince Polito, Richard J. Stevenson
People who regularly ingest very small amounts of psychedelic substances (microdosing) report minimal acute effects but claim long-term health and wellbeing benefits. In an observational study, 98 microdosers provided daily ratings of psychological functioning over six weeks; 63 also completed psychometric measures at baseline and study end. Daily ratings showed a general increase in reported psychological functioning on dosing days but limited evidence of residual effects. Pre- and post-study measures revealed reductions in depression and stress, lower distractibility, increased absorption, and increased neuroticism. A second study of 263 naïve and experienced microdosers found that participants believed microdosing would have large, wide-ranging benefits, contrasting with the limited outcomes reported by actual microdosers.
PLoS One
May 29, 2026
An intensive longitudinal study tracked university students' immediate mood changes and practice adherence during a self-directed SKT1 meditation program. The text does not report specific findings, numbers, or conclusions; it only describes the study's design and focus.
PLoS One
April 30, 2026
Two randomized controlled double-blinded trials tested whether a brief mindful breathing meditation session reduces the expression of stereotypes. In both trials, participants who engaged in mindful breathing showed reduced implicit and explicit stereotype expression compared to control conditions. The findings suggest that even a short mindfulness practice can temporarily decrease automatic stereotyping.
PLoS One
January 1, 2026
Matilda Gibbons, Ethan G McBride, Raghuram Holenarasipura Venkatasubbaiah et al.
An adversarial collaboration will test competing predictions from Global Neuronal Workspace Theory and Integrated Information Theory about the neural correlates of consciousness. Non-human primates and mice will perform a go-nogo task with supra-threshold visual and auditory stimuli while neural activity is recorded from multiple cortical areas using Neuropixels electrodes. To causally test timing and location predictions, prefrontal cortex activity will be manipulated via electrical stimulation in primates or optogenetic silencing in mice. The protocol details experimental design, analyses, divergent predictions, and anticipated outcomes.
PLoS One
January 1, 2026
Kleber Monteiro Pinto, Thaise G. L. de O. Toutain, Hugo Saba et al.
Mediums in a trance state showed distinct brain electrical activity compared to when they wrote in a normal waking state, with increased power in theta, alpha, beta1, and beta2 frequency bands. The quality of texts produced during trance was higher than the mediums' own waking texts, but there was no overall difference in text quality between mediums and a control group who simulated mediumistic writing. The findings indicate that complex language production is preserved across groups, while trance is associated with unique spectral brain dynamics during writing.
PLoS One
February 25, 2025
Nightmare distress mediates the link between autobiographical memory specificity and depression. In 112 participants who reported recent dreams and completed scales, nightmare distress accounted for the relationship between how specifically people recall personal memories and their depression levels. Both nightmare distress and autobiographical memory specificity also correlated with how much a dream affected a person's life story. No correlation was found between autobiographical memory specificity or nightmare distress and dream bizarreness.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Fern Eleanor Beauchamp, Emily Bispo, Iolanda Costa Galinha et al.
This protocol describes a planned scoping review that will map the literature on how breathwork techniques affect wellbeing across three domains: connection to self (individual wellbeing), connection to others (collective wellbeing), and connection to nature (planetary wellbeing). The review will search six electronic databases, grey literature, and reference lists. Two reviewers will independently screen titles and abstracts, then full texts. Data on intervention type and wellbeing outcomes will be extracted and analyzed numerically and qualitatively. Preliminary findings will be shared with breathwork facilitators to identify gaps and refine applied discussion. The goal is to inform future research and highlight breathwork's role in addressing societal challenges.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Philippine Chachignon, Emmanuelle Le Barbenchon, Cécile Dantzer et al.
Beliefs about mindfulness meditation (MM) are often positive but incomplete, with meditators holding more precise, experiential understandings than non-meditators. A survey of 167 participants (105 meditators) collected 817 free associations, 65% of which were positive. Five belief categories emerged: Body-based Relaxation, Stereotyped Descriptions, Psychological and Affective Well-Being, Focus on Inner-Self, and Experience of MM. Core aspects like attention, acceptance, health, collective dynamics, and ethical concerns were largely absent, and spirituality was not integrated into beliefs. Findings suggest MM is seen as a self-regulatory and personal development tool shaped by social, psychological, and behavioral factors, highlighting the need to address ethical and adverse aspects openly.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Kengo Takahashi, Samuel Pontes Quero, Julien Fiorilli et al.
A planned experiment will test two competing theories of consciousness: one holding that neuronal activity itself generates conscious experience, the other that the causal structure of neural circuits is responsible. The experiment will optogenetically inactivate a portion of mouse visual cortex that does not respond to behaviorally relevant stimuli, targeting neurons with very low spiking activity that does not significantly affect other cortical areas. The effect on perception of the spatial distribution of stimuli will be measured. Results will be compared against theoretical predictions to help determine the neuronal substrate of consciousness.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Hannah J Gibbs, Andrea Schiavio
During Javanese gamelan performances, the experience of time distortion is linked to shared flow, but the relationship is complex and depends on which aspect of shared flow is considered. Qualitative and mixed-methods findings suggest an optimal middle ground of conditions for 'time flying' to occur, akin to flow state. Quantitative results indicate opposed relationships between temporal distortion and two different shared flow factors. The study involved four groups of Javanese gamelan ensembles (total N = 36, mean age 44.83 years, 47.2% female) playing under three conditions, with data collected via focus groups, follow-up surveys, and questionnaires including time estimation.
PLoS One
January 1, 2025
Ryoko Uno, Shu Imaizumi
The way a sentence is structured can affect a speaker's sense of agency and ownership—key components of the minimal self. In an experiment with Japanese sentences, participants rated their sense of agency lower when causation or perception was absent from the sentence compared to when either was present. Agency was also higher for perceiver-prominent sentences (e.g., "I saw a star") than for perceiver-stimulus-prominent sentences (e.g., "A star was visible to me"). Ownership was similarly higher for perceiver-prominent sentences, though results for perceiver-stimulus-prominent sentences varied with the perceived stimulus. These findings suggest that linguistic structure can distinctly influence the embodied experience of selfhood.
PLoS One
January 1, 2024
Mark J H Lim, Rajan Iyyalol, Joseph W Y Lee et al.
A single-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study tested whether a synthetic THC analogue, Nabilone (1-2 mg), alters the sense of agency and body ownership in 32 healthy volunteers, comparing effects to those previously seen in schizophrenia. The study found that Nabilone had multimodal and bidirectional effects on the projected hand illusion, widening the spatio-temporal binding window in some participants and narrowing it in others, depending on spatial and temporal conditions. Evidence supported a unitary spatio-temporal binding window rather than separate spatial and temporal windows. No significant associations were found between agency and embodiment measures, and a large proportion of participants did not experience the illusion.
PLoS One
January 1, 2024
Wolf Mehling, Irina A Strigo, Veronica Goldman et al.
A 2-minute mindful attention exercise guided by a smartphone app, repeated several times daily for 8 weeks, helped people with chronic low back pain. Pain intensity dropped from 4.8 to 3.1 on a 0-10 scale, and a combined measure of pain intensity and interference (PEG score) improved from 13.7 to 8.4. Twenty-one of 29 participants had at least a 30% improvement in PEG score. Participants reported becoming aware of their usual avoidance of pain, were surprised that pain sensations varied over time, and found that focusing on pain reduced its threat. Many described pain in 3D shapes with changing colors, temperature, and density. The approach may be a beneficial alternative to ignoring or distracting from pain.
PLoS One
January 1, 2024
Zhangyi Wang, Yue Zhu, Tingrui Wang et al.
During the Omicron pandemic, Chinese clinical first-line nurses showed moderate levels of innovative behavior, organizational innovation climate, and self-transcendence. Innovative behavior was positively correlated with organizational innovation climate and self-transcendence. Self-transcendence partially mediated the relationship between organizational innovation climate and innovative behavior, accounting for 41.7% of the effect. The findings suggest that fostering a supportive organizational climate and promoting self-transcendence could enhance nurses' innovative behavior, ultimately improving nursing quality during the pandemic.