bioRxiv
July 22, 2025
Alice Caulfield, Lorraine Li, Famia Askari et al.
preprint
Psychedelics show potential for enhancing associative learning in animals, according to a systematic review of 31 studies (29 animal, 2 human). The review found that psychedelic administration improved learning across classical and operant conditioning paradigms, including fear extinction and reversal learning, though effects varied by dose, timing, training intensity, and sex. Possible mechanisms include increased prediction error sensitivity, serotonin receptor agonism, and structural plasticity. Learning enhancements may persist into the post-acute phase and depend on active environmental engagement. These findings have not yet been confirmed in humans, but suggest a window of enhanced learning that could inform psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
bioRxiv
April 21, 2025
Joanna Kuć, Rosalind McAlpine, Amelia Sellers et al.
preprint
After a single 12 mg dose of the psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT, people's speech patterns shifted toward more cognitive language and fewer social words, and their voices showed increased jitter and shimmer, indicating altered vocal quality. Baseline speech features predicted how psychologically prepared participants were, their anxiety about ego dissolution, emotional breakthrough, and later well-being. The findings suggest that analyzing voice journals can track a shift from external focus to introspection and serve as a tool for monitoring psychological transformation after psychedelic use.
bioRxiv
December 17, 2024
Dian Lyu, Ram Adapa, Robin Carhart-Harris et al.
preprint
The default mode network (DMN) and frontoparietal control network (FPCN), typically anticorrelated at rest in healthy brains, show continuous rather than absolute anatomical boundaries in the posterior precuneus. Connectivity differences along the dorsal-ventral axis follow linear slopes, forming functional gradients that exist only within each network's territory. These gradients flatten in altered states of consciousness (ASC), with the gradient magnitude similarly impaired across different ASC types, while spatial entropy differs between psychedelic and sedative states. The findings suggest the DMN and FPCN, though appearing distinct, may originate from a single integrated mechanism, and the loss of functional differentiation between them characterizes altered conscious states.
bioRxiv
October 26, 2024
Hang Yang, Bruno Herbelin, Chuong Ngo et al.
preprint
Practicing meditation from a third-person perspective in virtual reality, compared with a first-person perspective, produces stronger feelings of detachment and disconnection, a less distinct sense of one's body boundary, and reduced identification with the body. These subjective changes are accompanied by a more negative heartbeat evoked potential amplitude and activation of the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. The findings link altered states of self during meditation to neural and behavioral measures of the bodily self, demonstrating that manipulating perspective in VR can modulate the sense of self during meditation.
bioRxiv
January 29, 2024
Juan Ignacio Piccinini, Yonatan Sanz Perl, Carla Pallavicini et al.
preprint
The brain state induced by psychedelic drugs is often studied as a static snapshot, but this work focuses on the transition itself. Using a time-dependent whole-brain model and fMRI data from 15 volunteers given intravenous DMT, the authors show that the drug briefly pushes the brain near a critical point where it becomes maximally responsive to perturbations. This heightened reactivity is concentrated in fronto-parietal regions and visual cortices and correlates with serotonin 5HT2a receptor density. The findings suggest that even a short psychedelic episode can have a lasting influence because minimal perturbations during this transient achieve maximal effect, with the temporal evolution aligning with the drug's pharmacokinetics.
bioRxiv
December 7, 2023
Joseph Starkey, Robin Carhart-Harris, Andrea Pigorini et al.
preprint
A measure of 'statistical complexity' that calculates the diversity of statistical interactions in neural activity, removing randomness, was tested on human brain data from different sleep stages and from people under ketamine, LSD, and psilocybin. Statistical complexity differentiated sleep stages similarly to the standard Lempel-Ziv complexity measure and increased relative to placebo for all three psychedelic substances. The measure is a useful alternative for investigating neural activity complexity across states of consciousness.
bioRxiv
June 29, 2026
This theoretical paper proposes a new analytical framework for studying consciousness by examining how brain networks balance integration and segregation. The authors introduce an equal and cross-frequency connectivity analysis that partitions neural activity into distinct frequency bands to assess how information is integrated across brain regions versus segregated within specialized networks. The approach aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of consciousness by moving beyond simple measures of overall connectivity to capture the dynamic interplay between global integration and local specialization. The paper argues that consciousness depends on a critical balance between these two processes, and that disruptions in this balance may underlie altered states of consciousness.
bioRxiv
May 6, 2026
The brain's default mode network engages differently during emotional memory recall depending on which features of a past event are remembered. The study shows that the way people recall emotional experiences—not just the emotion itself—shapes how this key brain network activates.
bioRxiv
April 27, 2026
Greater connectivity within the default mode network (DMN) is linked to a stronger tendency to be distracted by stimuli that appear in locations previously associated with task-relevant information. The study shows that individuals with higher DMN connectivity are more captured by distractors placed in learned spatial locations, suggesting that DMN activity may support the automatic retrieval of learned spatial regularities, even when those regularities interfere with current goals.
bioRxiv
April 22, 2026
Conscious experience requires both adequate cerebral metabolism and preserved large-scale neural integration, not just one alone. A cross-study synthesis of published FDG-PET and TMS-EEG data mapped metabolic values and perturbational complexity index (PCI) across states including disorders of consciousness, sleep, and anesthesia. A metabolic lower bound of about 42-46% of normal cortical metabolism and a PCI threshold of approximately 0.31 consistently separated unconscious from conscious conditions. All nine conscious states met both thresholds, while all six unconscious states fell below at least one. NREM sleep, with preserved metabolism but low complexity, was unconscious, indicating metabolic support is necessary but not sufficient without integrative dynamics.
bioRxiv
March 17, 2026
The brain's default mode network, traditionally linked to mind-wandering and self-referential thought, also contributes to goal-directed creative thinking. This work examines how prefrontal and cerebellar regions within the default mode network support remote, associative thinking directed toward a specific goal, suggesting that creativity involves a dynamic interplay between default and executive control networks rather than a simple shift from passive to active modes.
bioRxiv
February 15, 2026
A theoretical framework is proposed for aligning color qualia—the subjective experience of color—across individuals by focusing on structural relationships rather than shared labels. The authors argue that even if two people have systematically different color experiences (e.g., red-green inversion), the internal relations among colors (e.g., similarity, contrast, ordering) can be robustly matched. This structure-based approach suggests a taxonomy of divergent color experiences that respects individual differences while maintaining a common framework for scientific study. The paper outlines a formal method for mapping qualia structures and discusses implications for consciousness research and philosophy of mind.
bioRxiv
December 29, 2025
Meditation produces measurable changes in gene expression and brain function that resemble the effects of certain bioactive compounds. By using connectivity mapping—a computational method that compares gene expression signatures—the research shows that meditation activates pathways involved in immune function, energy metabolism, and neuroplasticity, while downregulating inflammatory responses. These molecular changes correspond with alterations in brain network connectivity observed through neuroimaging. The findings suggest that meditation acts as a systemic biological intervention, not merely a psychological practice, and that its effects can be characterized and potentially optimized using pharmacological frameworks.
bioRxiv
November 17, 2025
Lena Hehemann, Lisa Stetza, Christoph Kayser
preprint
Even one minute of structured breathing can temporarily improve reaction times on a subsequent cognitive task, though it does not change accuracy. In two experiments, participants performed slow or fast breathing, or manipulated their inhalation-exhalation ratio, before a visual emotion discrimination task. Each breathing technique produced distinct, short-lived changes in respiratory patterns after the practice ended. While emotion discrimination accuracy and reaction times did not differ between breathing techniques, all practices led to a brief speeding of responses compared to baseline. This suggests that brief, voluntary control of respiration can transiently enhance attentional or sensorimotor readiness.
bioRxiv
November 11, 2025
preprint
A reanalysis of sleep-stage transitions challenges claims that consciousness changes follow two distinct patterns—gradual versus discrete. Using electroencephalography data from 12 healthy adults, the authors tested 622 transitions between sleep stages. When they selected analysis metrics tailored to each transition (e.g., alpha power for wake-to-sleep), the transition from light sleep (N1) to deeper sleep (N2) appeared uniquely steep, consistent with a discrete threshold. However, when they applied the same metrics uniformly across all transitions, no transition showed meaningful changes; the apparent steepness vanished. The authors conclude that the earlier finding resulted from circular reasoning—choosing metrics that already matched known neurophysiological changes—and serves as a methodological caution for consciousness research.
bioRxiv
May 21, 2025
preprint
People who frequently remember their dreams tend to have specific structural and functional differences in brain regions linked to memory and attention. The medial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, and hippocampus show greater gray matter volume in high dream recallers, while the same regions exhibit stronger spontaneous activity during rest and sleep. These findings suggest that dream recall is not a random phenomenon but is tied to stable, measurable variations in the neural systems that support memory encoding and retrieval.
bioRxiv
April 7, 2025
preprint
A family of functional connectivity measures based on the barycenter—tracking the 'center of mass' between two neural signals—best decoded conscious vision from MEG data, outperforming other measures across brain regions central to both Integrated Information Theory and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory. Neural mass models showed that GNWT-based dynamics, featuring delayed ignition, better matched observed connectivity patterns than IIT-based highly synchronized sensory dynamics. The work introduces a generalizable approach for identifying and testing neural correlates of consciousness in an unbiased, data-driven way.
bioRxiv
March 19, 2025
preprint
Meditation alters brain activity by shifting neural oscillations, increasing brain complexity, and moving the brain toward critical dynamics—a state where neural systems are poised for optimal information processing. These changes, measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG), suggest that meditation may enhance cognitive flexibility and adaptability by promoting a more balanced and responsive neural environment.
bioRxiv
February 12, 2025
preprint
This work examines the brain activity patterns associated with unusual conscious experiences during sleep, including lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, out-of-body experiences, and false awakenings. The authors describe the electrophysiological correlates—such as specific EEG signatures—that accompany these states, showing how different sleep stages and brain regions contribute to each phenomenon. The review synthesizes findings on how conscious awareness can emerge during REM and other sleep phases, highlighting the neural mechanisms that distinguish these experiences from ordinary dreaming and waking consciousness.
bioRxiv
September 19, 2024
preprint
A randomized controlled trial compared cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses to breathwork versus naturalistic stimuli across two environments: a reflective chamber and a VR headset. Breathwork in the reflective chamber led to greater reductions in physiological arousal and improved cognitive performance compared to naturalistic stimuli in VR. The findings suggest that the combination of breathwork and a low-stimulus physical environment may enhance relaxation and cognitive function more effectively than immersive naturalistic content delivered via VR.
bioRxiv
September 15, 2024
I. Treves, Keara D Greene, Zia Bajwa et al.
A systematic review of EEG and fMRI studies that combine mindfulness meditation with neurofeedback (mbNF) found that fMRI studies primarily target downregulation of the default-mode network (DMN). Although some studies report decreases in DMN activation during neurofeedback, there is insufficient evidence for lasting transfer effects, and most studies lacked adequate control conditions such as sham neurofeedback, so DMN decreases may reflect general task-related deactivation rather than a specific effect of mbNF. EEG studies most consistently show modulation of theta band activity. Both EEG and fMRI mbNF have been implemented with high fidelity in clinical populations, but mental health benefits have not been established. The review recommends sham-controlled randomized trials and clearer reporting.
bioRxiv
July 3, 2024
preprint
Nightmares are linked to altered brain activity in regions involved in emotion regulation and fear processing. Using large-scale fMRI data, the study identifies specific neural correlates that distinguish frequent nightmare sufferers from controls, suggesting that hyperactivation in the amygdala and reduced prefrontal control may underlie nightmare generation.
bioRxiv
June 27, 2024
preprint
A multi-centre study combined cognitive-sensory training with wearable EEG to induce lucid dreams, achieving high effectiveness and verified results. The approach significantly increased the frequency of verified lucid dreams compared to control conditions, demonstrating a reliable method for inducing lucid dreaming in a laboratory setting.
bioRxiv
May 16, 2024
preprint
This dataset contains neuroimaging data collected while participants made similarity judgments about sequential color qualia, both with and without verbal reports. The data can be used to study neural correlates of subjective color experience and the effects of reporting on perceptual judgments.
bioRxiv
April 15, 2024
Hyunwoo Jang, G. Mashour, A. Hudetz et al.
preprint
A dynamic balance between integration and segregation in functional brain networks is necessary for consciousness. A new fMRI-based measure, the integration-segregation difference (ISD), was developed to capture both aspects. Using this metric, changes from conscious wakefulness to loss of responsiveness induced by the anesthetic propofol showed a profound shift toward segregation in the whole brain and all subnetworks during anesthesia. Brain networks displayed similar sequences of disintegration and subsequent reintegration during loss and return of responsiveness. Machine learning models identified awake versus unresponsive states and their transitions with up to 93% accuracy. Metastability was more closely linked with integration, while complexity was linked with segregation. Analysis of a sleep dataset revealed similar findings, demonstrating that the integration-segregation balance can differentiate among various conscious and unconscious states.