Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
October 6, 2017
Joseph Glicksohn, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Federica Mauro et al.
38 citations
Exposure to a monotonous sensory environment can alter time perception and subjective experience. Participants spent 20 minutes in a whole-body altered sensory chamber with white and colored light, relaxing with eyes closed. Before entering, they completed a time-production task; one group repeated it inside the chamber, another after exiting. The main effect of the sensory environment was a change in the intercept of the psychophysical function when produced time was plotted against target duration on a log-log scale. For participants reporting a marked change in time experience, such as the sensation of time disappearing, their time-production data could not be linearized on a log-log plot, suggesting a possible break in the psychophysical function.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
February 27, 2017
Baland Jalal, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
38 citations
This opinion article argues that the concept of brain health should be expanded beyond the absence of disease to include optimal cognitive and emotional functioning across the lifespan. The authors propose a framework that integrates neuroscience, psychology, and public health to promote resilience and well-being. They suggest that lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, and social engagement, can enhance brain health and reduce the risk of neurodegenerative conditions. The piece calls for a shift in research and clinical practice toward proactive, preventive approaches that empower individuals to maintain brain health throughout life.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
October 15, 2019
Mariza van Wyk, Mark Solms, Gosia Lipinska
37 citations
People who frequently recall their dreams spend more time awake during the night, particularly after waking from stage 2 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, compared to those who rarely recall dreams. A study of 36 healthy adults using overnight brain-wave recordings found that high dream recallers had more awakenings overall and more prolonged awakenings from NREM stage 2 sleep, but did not differ from low recallers in the number of awakenings from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep or in REM density, a measure of brain activity linked to dream production.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2022
André Sevenius Nilsen, Bjørn E. Juel, Benjamin Thürer et al.
36 citations
Consciousness is more complex than simply labeling states like deep sleep and anesthesia as "unconscious." Investigations show that behavioral signs and subjective reports can be unreliable, challenging traditional beliefs. For instance, individuals in presumed unconscious states may still report experiences, suggesting that 30-50% of patients under general anesthesia retain some awareness. Reevaluating these assumptions could enhance scientific clarity and improve clinical practices, fostering a deeper understanding of consciousness and its disorders. A nuanced approach is essential for future advancements in the field.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2014
Bruce Greyson, Nathan B. Fountain, Lori L. Derr et al.
35 citations
Out-of-body experiences are rare but real sensations reported by some people with epilepsy during seizures. In a group of 100 patients, 55% recalled some subjective experience with their seizures, and 7 reported out-of-body experiences. No demographic, medical, or seizure-related traits distinguished those who had out-of-body experiences from those who did not. These experiences did not affect epilepsy-related quality of life. Even among those who reported them, out-of-body sensations were extremely infrequent, often occurring only once or twice many years ago, making it impossible to link them to specific seizure characteristics or medications.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
February 16, 2022
Asa Young, Tam Hunt, Marissa Ericson
34 citations
Brain-generated electromagnetic field oscillations are increasingly seen as causal drivers of consciousness. Recent work highlights how the body's endogenous rhythms organize these fields through entrainment. This paper examines evidence of shared oscillations between the brain and other body parts in humans and animals, testing the Slowest Shared Resonance (SSR) principle of General Resonance Theory. The SSR principle states that macro-consciousness in coupled field systems depends on the slowest common denominator frequency. It predicts that a system's SSR decreases with distance between the brain and resonating structures. Observed resonance relationships—between brain and gastric neurons, sensory organs, and spinal cord—generally match these predictions, empirically supporting the SSR principle.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
Omar T Khachouf, Stefano Poletti, Giuseppe Pagnoni
34 citations
Neurophenomenology aims to bridge subjective experience and brain data by treating the body as central to consciousness. This paper argues that the Kantian concept of a priori structures, which make experience possible, can be grounded in biology through an extended theory of autopoiesis. Examples from simple models, bacteria, the immune system, mirror neurons, and the default mode network illustrate how knowledge is enacted. The free-energy principle is presented as a neural framework that fits these ideas. The authors maintain that first-person experience remains essential for understanding brain function because it shares the same transcendental structure, and they discuss how meditation can contribute to this research.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2018
Brice Martin, Nicolas Franck, Michel Cermolacce et al.
32 citations
Distortions in the automatic sense of time may be linked to disturbances in the minimal self in schizophrenia, but timing deficits are hard to measure objectively. This case report describes AF, a 22-year-old man with schizophrenia and no antipsychotic medication, who shows few symptoms and normal cognition but high levels of minimal self disorders. In a variable foreperiod task, AF preserved the ability to distinguish time intervals but had difficulty using the passage of time to anticipate a visual stimulus and struggled to adapt to changing time delays. The impairments were large enough to detect at the individual level. Results suggest that exploring timing deficits individually is feasible and may relate to self disorders.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
July 18, 2023
Nicolas Garel, Julien Thibault Lévesque, Dasha A. Sandra et al.
29 citations
Past environmental exposures can significantly shape psychedelic drug experiences and their therapeutic outcomes, a concept the authors call 'imprinting.' In a clinical trial of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression, two patients' subjective experiences were altered by the type and amount of digital media they consumed in the days before treatment: higher media exposure reduced mystical and emotional qualities of the ketamine experience, overriding standard intention-setting practices and changing therapeutic results. Eight additional patients spontaneously reported past environmental exposures manifesting as visual hallucinations during ketamine sessions. Similar imprinting effects appear in historical reports of other psychedelic drugs and in dreaming. The authors propose expanding the contextual model of psychedelic action to include imprinting, which may help clinicians and researchers better understand these drug effects.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2022
Arnfinn Aamodt, André Sevenius Nilsen, Rune Markhus et al.
29 citations
In a follow-up EEG sleep study, brain signal complexity (Lempel-Ziv complexity, LZC) decreased progressively from wakefulness into deeper non-REM sleep. However, within NREM2 sleep, there was no significant difference in LZC between dream and non-dream awakenings, and no correlation between LZC and subjective ratings of dream vividness, diversity, or perceptual quality. The authors failed to reproduce their earlier finding that posterior LZC increased with more perceptual dream experiences. This raises doubts about whether EEG LZC is a reliable marker of richness of experience within the same sleep stage.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2018
Eddy J Davelaar, Joe M Barnby, Soma Almasi et al.
29 citations
Learning to control one's own brain activity through neurofeedback may depend on the kind of subjective experience trainees have during training. In a short session where participants enhanced mid-frontal alpha power, those who learned reported sensing their inner and outer environment, while non-learners engaged in effortful trying, such as willing a bar to move. A classification system for verbal reports was developed to analyze these differences. The findings suggest that a sensing-oriented mindset, rather than active striving, is associated with successful neurofeedback learning.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
July 3, 2014
Cassandra Gould van Praag, Tom Froese, Adam B. Barrett et al.
29 citations
A detailed phenomenological investigation of sequence-space synesthesia in a single adult (AB) reveals that synesthetic experiences occur within a specific spatial reference frame, a 'mental room' that overlays perception of the physical world, and that AB can voluntarily switch attention between these two rooms. Using the Elicitation Interview method across 9 hours of transcripts, the study found that, contrary to AB's initial report, the synesthetic concurrents usually followed an internal verbalization of the inducer rather than visual presentation, indicating an auditory component. This suggests cross-modal interactions between auditory and visual systems in the development of this synesthetic form.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2024
Brian Lord, Joseph L. Sanguinetti, Lisannette Ruiz et al.
28 citations
Transcranial focused ultrasound (TFUS) aimed at the posterior cingulate cortex reduces functional connectivity along the midline of the default mode network (DMN) in healthy people. In a randomized, single-blind trial with 30 participants, those receiving active TFUS showed significant connectivity decreases and reported increased state mindfulness, reduced vigor, and temporary changes in sense of self, time, and memory recall. The sham group also showed increased mindfulness but no other subjective effects. TFUS can alter DMN connectivity and subjective experience, suggesting it may serve as a research tool and potential therapeutic intervention.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
August 31, 2023
Baoxiang Shang, Feiyan Duan, Ruiqi Fu et al.
28 citations
Short-term mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training produces electroencephalogram (EEG)-detectable state and trait effects. Using convolutional neural networks (deep learning) and support vector machines (SVM) with features from common spatial patterns, classifiers were trained on EEG from 11 novice MBSR practitioners during rest and meditation at early and late training stages. Shallow ConvNet classifiers achieved mix-subject and intra-subject accuracies superior to prior studies for both novice and expert meditators across meditation types. FBCSP+SVM classifiers gave inter-subject accuracies of 68.50% for state effect recognition, 85.00% for trait effect recognition using meditation EEG, and 78.96% using resting EEG. Deep learning outperforms for state effects in novices and is comparable for experts.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
Michael Lifshitz, Emma P Cusumano, Amir Raz
28 citations
Hypnosis can rapidly and dramatically alter subjective experience with just a few words of suggestion, unlike contemplative practices requiring lengthy training. Individuals highly responsive to hypnosis can quickly manifest atypical conscious experiences and override deeply entrenched processes, offering new ways to suspend habitual attention and achieve refined meta-awareness. Hypnosis research also illuminates how suggestion, expectation, and interpersonal factors shape experience beyond hypnotic procedures. Incorporating hypnosis into neurophenomenology could help bridge subjective experience with third-person scientific approaches to the mind.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
June 2, 2016
Fabiana M. Carvalho, Khallil Taverna Chaim, Tiago Arruda Sanchez et al.
26 citations
Updating internal models to predict future events relies on both frontal and parietal brain regions involved in uncertainty-driven updating and a separate network for temporal attention. Using fMRI, this study examined how continuous manipulation of temporal prediction engages these networks. Participants viewed periodic (simple harmonic oscillation) and non-periodic (variable acceleration) motion patterns. Non-periodic motion activated the exogenous temporal orienting network, including ventral premotor and inferior parietal cortices, cerebellum, presupplementary motor area, and motion-sensitive area MT+, with a right-hemisphere bias suggesting explicit timing. Periodic motion activated default-mode network midline areas (left DMPFC, ACC, bilateral PCC/PC), indicating the DMN may process contextually expected information and validate prospective internal models. Findings show continuous temporal prediction engages both temporal expectation representations and task-independent internal model updating.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
March 16, 2021
Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Sergio Hernández, Yaqiong Xiao et al.
25 citations
Long-term daily meditation practice is associated with changes in both brain structure and functional connectivity. In a comparison of 23 Sahaja Yoga Meditation experts and 23 non-meditators, meditators showed increased functional connectivity between the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, regions linked to attention and cognitive control. They also showed reduced connectivity between the left insula and the bilateral mid-cingulate, and between the right angular gyrus and the bilateral precuneus/cuneus cortices, areas of the default mode network. These results suggest that years of meditation may strengthen frontal control networks while weakening their connection to default mode regions.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
November 27, 2018
Marcel Prestel, Paul Steinfath, Michael Tremmel et al.
24 citations
Power fluctuations in delta, theta, beta, and gamma frequency bands of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals correlate with spontaneous blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activity in regions of the default mode network (DMN) during eyes-closed resting state. An EEG component commonly identified as eye movements also correlates with BOLD activity within DMN regions. These correlations are in part stable across time, as shown by repeating analyses one year later. The relationship between the eye movement component and the DMN suggests a behavioral association between DMN activity and eye movement level or neuronal activity in that component. Previous findings of an association between frontal midline theta activity and the DMN were replicated.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2014
Serge Stoléru
24 citations
Sexual drives have four defining features—pressure, aim, object, and source—as described by Freud. Functional neuroimaging studies of sexual arousal reveal neural correlates for these features, largely supporting the Freudian model. However, a key difference emerges regarding the source of drives: psychoanalysis views the source as peripheral excitation, but neuroimaging suggests that in adults, central brain processing of visual or genital stimuli, rather than peripheral processes, determines sexually arousing and pleasurable experiences. Based on these findings, possible refinements to psychoanalytic theory are proposed.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2014
Dobromir G Dotov
23 citations
A radical embodied cognitive neuroscience (RECN) that treats the central nervous system as a nonlinear dynamical system must reconcile with existing neurodynamic approaches. The paper reviews how the brain and behavior are linked through circular causality and criticizes three current methods for linking dynamics to brain function. It proposes that studying brain self-organization without considering ecological embedding is insufficient. The authors argue the central nervous system has two roles: being easily enslaved by behavioral patterns that guide an animal through its environment, and flexibly switching among patterns via a metastable circuit breaker. Motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease, explained as excessive stability of this circuit breaker, support the idea.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
August 23, 2022
Docia Demmin, Steven M. Silverstein, Tracey J. Shors
22 citations
A 6-week virtual program combining meditation with aerobic exercise, called Mental and Physical (MAP) Training, reduced anxiety and work-related stress in K-12 teachers compared to a no-training control group. Participants in the MAP Training group also reported improvements in depressive symptoms, rumination, work-related quality of life, perceived stress, self-compassion, executive functioning, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and fewer sleep disturbances. No changes were observed in the no-training group. The results suggest that virtual MAP Training is an effective intervention for improving mental health and well-being among teachers and may enhance resilience to stressful events like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
August 14, 2020
Justin P. Yuan, Colm G. Connolly, Eva Henje et al.
21 citations
Adolescents who completed a 12-week meditation training program showed decreases in gray matter volume in the left posterior insula, left thalamus, and left putamen, brain regions involved in physical and emotional awareness. No significant changes occurred during a control period before training. These findings differ from studies in adults, where meditation is typically associated with increased gray matter, suggesting the adolescent brain may respond differently to meditation.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 3, 2024
Keisuke Suzuki, Anil K. Seth, David J. Schwartzman
20 citations
Visual hallucinations differ substantially depending on their cause, such as neurodegenerative disease, visual loss, or psychedelic drugs. Using a deep neural network approach called computational (neuro)phenomenology, researchers identified three key dimensions that distinguish these hallucinations: realism (how true-to-life they seem), spontaneity (how much they depend on sensory input), and complexity. By tuning the network along these dimensions, they generated synthetic hallucinations characteristic of each cause. Two studies with patients having Parkinson's disease, Lewy body dementia, or Charles Bonnet syndrome, and people with recent psychedelic experience, confirmed that these synthetic images matched the phenomenology reported by each group. The findings show that a neural network model can capture the distinctive visual features of hallucinations from different origins.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
August 30, 2016
David Papo
19 citations
The entropic brain hypothesis proposes that conscious states are linked to the brain's entropy, with psychedelic states exemplifying primary states where brain activity becomes more random and harder to predict than in normal wakeful consciousness. This suggests psychedelic-induced brain activity exhibits criticality, while normal wakefulness is subcritical. However, the text questions whether entropy can uniquely indicate the quality of consciousness and raises doubts about whether psychedelic-induced activity is truly critical.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
José-luis Díaz
19 citations
Certain first-person narrations of mental processes, especially internal monologues in which an author declares actual thoughts aloud, are particularly suitable for modeling streams of consciousness. A narrative method to extract and depict conscious processes from such texts requires three steps: operational criteria for selecting a phenomenological text, a system for detecting text items indicative of conscious contents and processes, and a procedure for representing these items in formal dynamic system devices like Petri nets. The method is applied to an interior monologue from James Joyce's Ulysses, and an inter-subjective evaluation of mental attributions from Miguel de Unamuno's Intimate Journal is presented using mathematical tools.