Brain and Cognition - The Consciousness Library

Exploring neural underpinning of Christian faith: How far can we go?

Brain and Cognition July 9, 2026 Stephanie Clarke, Sonia Crottaz-Herbette, Simo Frestadius et al.

Several neuroimaging studies demonstrated that spiritual/religious beliefs and practices rely on the same brain regions as secular cognition. Several reviews shaped the framework within which religious and secular cognition interacts, emphasizing the need for a precise definition of religiousness and spirituality. Christian faith presents a well-defined theological context, characterized by...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2026.106453 Full text Neural plasticity Brain correlates Christian faith Neuroimaging +2

Tourette's Syndrome as a vehicle in the search for the neural correlates of consciousness.

Brain and Cognition December 1, 2025 Peter J Chabot, Nicholas B Dadario, Michael E. Sughrue

The neurological underpinnings of Tourette's Syndrome offer an avenue to identify the neural correlates of consciousness. Neuroimaging of Tourette's Syndrome patients during the volitional control of premonitory urges highlight the involvement of the non-language dominant prefrontal portion of the frontal operculum of the inferior frontal gyrus and the anterior insular cortex in tic inhibition...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2025.106373 Full text

Mindfulness practices and transcranial direct current stimulation: A systematic review and meta-analysis of self-reported mindfulness.

Brain and Cognition May 27, 2025 Steven Wickens, Gummersall Timothy, Brown Trevor 4 citations

There is a growing body of evidence investigating the effectiveness of combining psychological therapy and techniques with transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) for facilitating meaningful change across a wide range of clinical and non-clinical domains. The objective of the current review was to examine mindfulness practices in combination with tDCS on self-reported mindfulness, given...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2025.106307 Full text Meta-analysis Multi-modal therapy Transcranial stimulation Tdcs +5

Cognition, emotion, and the default mode network.

Brain and Cognition October 30, 2024 Nicola Sambuco

The Default Mode Network (DMN) is increasingly recognized as a key hub where cognitive and emotional processes converge, particularly through its role in integrating episodic memory and emotional experiences. The current mini-review highlights three distinct patterns of brain activity within the DMN associated with emotional processing. The first pattern indicates that, while the ventromedial...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2024.106229

A neurophenomenological fMRI study of a spontaneous automatic writer and a hypnotic cohort.

Brain and Cognition August 1, 2023 Etzel Cardeña, Lena Lindström, Philippe R. Goldin et al. 4 citations

To evaluate the neurophenomenology of automatic writing (AW) in a spontaneous automatic writer (NN) and four high hypnotizables (HH). During fMRI, NN and the HH were cued to perform spontaneous (NN) or induced (HH) AW, and a comparison task of copying complex symbols, and to rate their experience of control and agency. Compared to copying, for all participants AW was associated with less sense...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2023.106060 Full text Agency Anomalous experience Automatic writing Hypnosis +1

Vividness as the similarity between generated imagery and an internal model.

Brain and Cognition July 1, 2023 Sean N Riley, Jim Davies

Vividness in visual mental imagery has been relatively under-explored compared to imagery's representational format and neural mechanisms. In this paper, we take a deeper look at vividness and suggest that in re-framing it, we can potentially reconcile disparate findings regarding visual cortex activation during imagery. Unlike traditional views of vividness that define the concept in terms of...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2023.105988 Full text Aphantasia Hyperphantasia Mental imagery Qualia +1

Reductions in perceived stress following Transcendental Meditation practice are associated with increased brain regional connectivity at rest.

Brain and Cognition January 13, 2020 Giulia Avvenuti, Andrea Leo, Luca Cecchetti et al.

Transcendental Meditation (TM) is defined as a mental process of transcending using a silent mantra. Previous work showed that relatively brief period of TM practice leads to decreases in stress and anxiety. However, whether these changes are subserved by specific morpho-functional brain modifications (as observed in other meditation techniques) is still unclear. Using a longitudinal design, we...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105517

Effect of meditation on psychological distress and brain functioning: A randomized controlled study

Brain and Cognition August 1, 2018 F. Travis, Laurent Valosek, Artie Konrad et al.

Background: Psychological stability and brain integration are important factors related to physical and mental health and organization effectiveness. This study tested whether a mind‐body technique, the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program could increase EEG brain integration and positive affect, and decrease psychological distress in government employees. Method: Ninety‐six central office...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2018.03.011

fMRI during Transcendental Meditation practice

Brain and Cognition June 1, 2018 Michelle C. Mahone, F. Travis, R. Gevirtz et al.

&NA; This study used a within group design to investigate blood flow patterns (fMRI) in 16 long‐term practitioners of Transcendental Meditation (mean practice: 34.3 years with each having over 36,000 h of meditation practice). During Transcendental Meditation practice, blood flow patterns were significantly higher in executive and attention areas (anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2018.02.011

Prediction error minimization: Implications for Embodied Cognition and the Extended Mind Hypothesis.

Brain and Cognition March 1, 2017 Leon De Bruin, John Michael

Over the past few years, the prediction error minimization (PEM) framework has increasingly been gaining ground throughout the cognitive sciences. A key issue dividing proponents of PEM is how we should conceptualize the relation between brain, body and environment. Clark advocates a version of PEM which retains, at least to a certain extent, his prior commitments to Embodied Cognition and to...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.01.009 Full text Embodied cognition Extended mind hypothesis Prediction error minimization

Default mode network activation and Transcendental Meditation practice: Focused Attention or Automatic Self-transcending?

Brain and Cognition February 1, 2017 Frederick Travis, Niyazi Parim

This study used subjective reports and eLORETA analysis to assess to what extent Transcendental Meditation (TM) might involve focused attention-voluntary control of mental content. Eighty-seven TM subjects with one month to five years TM experience participated in this study. Regression analysis of years TM practice and self-reported transcendental experiences (lack of time, space and body...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.08.009 Full text Dmn Automatic self-transcending Focused attention Frontal +3

Increases in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and decreases the rostral prefrontal cortex activation after-8 weeks of focused attention based mindfulness meditation.

Brain and Cognition February 1, 2016 Barbara Tomasino, Franco Fabbro

Mindfulness meditation is a form of attention control training. The training exercises the ability to repeatedly focus attention. We addressed the activation changes related to an 8-weeks mindfulness-oriented focused attention meditation training on an initially naïve subject cohort. Before and after training participants underwent an fMRI experiment, thus, although not strictly a cross over...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2015.12.004 Full text Attention Mindfulness meditation Prefrontal cortex FMRI

Electroencephalographic and autonomic alterations in subjects with frequent nightmares during pre-and post-REM periods.

Brain and Cognition November 1, 2014 Péter Simor, János Körmendi, Klára Horváth et al.

Abnormal arousal processes, sympathetic influences, as well as wake-like alpha activity during sleep were reported as pathophysiological features of Nightmare Disorder. We hypothesized that in Nightmare Disorder, wake-like cortical activity and peripheral measures linked to arousals would be triggered by physiological processes related to the initiation of REM periods. Therefore, we examined...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2014.08.004 Full text Dreaming Nightmare Alpha power EEG +2

Christfried Jakob's late views (1930-1949) on the psychogenetic function of the cerebral cortex and its localization: culmination of the neurophilosophical thought of a keen brain observer.

Brain and Cognition April 1, 2012 Zoë D Théodoridou, Lazaros C Triarhou 2 citations

This article follows the culmination of the scientific thought of the neurobiologist Christfried Jakob (1866-1956) during the later part of his career, based on publications from 1930 to 1949, when he was between 64 and 83 years of age. Jakob emphasized the necessity of bridging philosophy to the biological sciences, neurobiology in particular. Thus, we consider him as one of the early...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.11.005 Full text

Impaired executive functions in subjects with frequent nightmares as reflected by performance in different neuropsychological tasks.

Brain and Cognition April 1, 2012 Péter Simor, Péter Pajkossy, Klára Horváth et al.

Nightmare disorder is a prevalent parasomnia characterized by vivid and highly unpleasant dream experiences during night time sleep. The neural background of disturbed dreaming was proposed to be associated with impaired prefrontal and fronto-limbic functioning during REM sleep. We hypothesized that the impaired prefrontal and fronto-limbic functioning in subjects with frequent nightmares would...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2012.01.006 Full text

Consciousness lost and found: subjective experiences in an unresponsive state.

Brain and Cognition December 1, 2011 Valdas Noreika, Leila Jylhänkangas, Levente Móró et al. 62 citations

Anesthetic-induced changes in the neural activity of the brain have been recently utilized as a research model to investigate the neural mechanisms of phenomenal consciousness. However, the anesthesiologic definition of consciousness as "responsiveness to the environment" seems to sidestep the possibility that an unresponsive individual may have subjective experiences. The aim of the present...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.09.002 Full text

Segmenting the stream of consciousness: the psychological correlates of temporal structures in the time series data of a continuous performance task.

Brain and Cognition February 1, 2008 Jonathan Smallwood, Merrill McSpadden, Bryan Luus et al.

Using principal component analysis, we examined whether structural properties in the time series of response time would identify different mental states during a continuous performance task. We examined whether it was possible to identify regular patterns which were present in blocks classified as lacking controlled processing, either behaviourally (as a failure to withhold a response to a...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2007.05.004 Full text

A TMS study of the ventral projections from V1 with implications for the finding of neural correlates of consciousness.

Brain and Cognition February 1, 2004 Morten Overgaard, J. Nielsen, A. Fuglsang-Frederiksen

The study of subliminal perception in normal and brain lesioned subjects has long been of interest to scholars studying the neural mechanisms behind conscious vision. Using brief durations and a developed methodology of introspective reporting, we present an experiment with visual stimuli that gives rise to little or no subliminal perception under normal viewing conditions. Coupled with...

DOI: 10.1016/s0278-2626(03)00260-4

The laterality of dreaming.

Brain and Cognition July 1, 1986 M S Greenberg, M J Farah

The cortical locus of dream generation could be lateralized to the right or left hemisphere, or be bilaterally represented with either equal or unequal contributions from each hemisphere. In this paper we review the neurological literature for cases of loss or alteration of dream report after brain damage. The distribution of lesion sites is used to test the various hypotheses concerning the...

DOI: 10.1016/0278-2626(86)90034-5 Full text

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