Biology
September 16, 2026
Claudia Rosciglione
In recent decades, plant sciences have profoundly transformed our philosophical understanding of plants, moving beyond the traditional view of the plant organism as a passive, mechanical entity devoid of agency. Contemporary research into plant physiology, chemical communication and adaptive strategies has helped to outline a theoretical framework: plants emerge as complex systems, capable of...
Biology
January 25, 2026
Claire A. Rice, Robert W. Stackman
Ketamine (KET) administration protocols vary widely in their design, with acute, sub-chronic, and chronic dosing regimens used to induce psychotic-like behavior in rodent models. This review compares representative classic and contemporary studies employing differing KET administration protocols to model psychosis in laboratory rodents. Specifically, we have focused on the behavioral tasks and...
Biology
April 1, 2025
F. R. Azarias, Gustavo Henrique Doná Rodrigues Almeida, Luana Felix de Melo et al.
Simple Summary The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a brain network that becomes active when the brain is at rest. It is crucial for processes like self-reflection, emotional processing, social interaction, and mental exploration. Research has shown that the DMN is not exclusive to humans but is also found in non-human animals, suggesting its evolutionary importance across species. The DMN plays a...
Biology
October 28, 2023
Blerida Banushi, Vince Polito
26 citations
Psychedelic substances have gained significant attention in recent years for their potential therapeutic effects on various psychiatric disorders. This review delves into the intricate cellular neurobiology of psychedelics, emphasizing their potential therapeutic applications in addressing the global burden of mental illness. It focuses on contemporary research into the pharmacological and...
Biology
July 1, 2023
Alexandre Veyrié, A. Norena, J. Sarrazin et al.
Simple Summary Characterizing the brain activity related to the conscious perceptive experience is an important step toward understanding the relationship between brain activity and consciousness. In this study, we use an experimental protocol, where a human subject detects an auditory target embedded in a multitone masker. Since the subject can miss some targets, this experimental protocol...
Biology
April 14, 2023
Alice Tisserand, Nathalie Philippi, Anne Botzung et al.
The insula is a multiconnected brain region that centralizes a wide range of information, from the most internal bodily states, such as interoception, to high-order processes, such as knowledge about oneself. Therefore, the insula would be a core region involved in the self networks. Over the past decades, the question of the self has been extensively explored, highlighting differences in the...
Biology
July 26, 2022
Damisela Linares Gutierrez, Stefan Schmidt, Karin Meissner et al.
This study examined the effects of meditative states in experienced meditators on present-moment awareness, subjective time, and self-awareness while assessing meditation-induced changes in heart-rate variability and breathing rate. A sample of 22 experienced meditators who practiced meditation techniques stressing awareness of the present moment (average 20 years of practice) filled out...
Biology
May 31, 2022
Tobias Esch
Happiness is a feeling, an immediate experience, not a cognitive construct. It is based on activity in the brain's neurobiological reward and motivation systems, which have been retained in evolution. This conceptual review provides an overview of the basic neurobiological principles behind happiness phenomena and proposes a framework for further classification. Three neurobiologically distinct...
Biology
October 12, 2021
Vic Norris
The relevance of bacteria to subjective experiences or qualia is underappreciated. Here, I make four proposals. Firstly, living systems traverse sequences of active states that determine their behaviour; these states result from competitive coherence, which depends on connectivity-based competition between a Next process and a Now process, whereby elements in the active state at time n+1 are...
Biology
August 17, 2021
Lourdes Poyatos, Esther Papaseit, Eulàlia Olesti et al.
26 citations
Considered the β-keto analogue of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy), 3,4-Methylenedioxymethcathinone (methylone) is a synthetic cathinone. Over the years, methylone has been used as a substitute for conventional psychostimulants, such as MDMA. To date, little is known about the human pharmacology of methylone; the only available information has been provided by surveys or...
Biology
March 24, 2021
Nunzia La Maida, Esther Papaseit, Lucía Martínez de Soto et al.
14 citations
Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) are one of the most frequent classes of new psychoactive substances monitored by the EU Early Warning System and World Health Organization. UR-144 is a SC with a relative low affinity for the CB1 receptor with respect to that for the CB2 receptor. As with other cannabinoid receptor agonists, it has been monitored by the EU Early Warning System since 2012 for severe...
Biology
June 29, 2018
Keith Douglas Farnsworth
Two broad features are jointly necessary for autonomous agency: organisational closure and the embodiment of an objective-function providing a ‘goal’: so far only organisms demonstrate both. Organisational closure has been studied (mostly in abstract), especially as cell autopoiesis and the cybernetic principles of autonomy, but the role of an internalised ‘goal’ and how it is instantiated by...