The European journal of neuroscience
December 1, 2021
Francisco J Parada, Alejandra Rossi
48 citations
A revitalized form of emergentism, grounded in the Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) framework and 4E-Cognition theory, can finally synchronize methodology with theory to model cognition as a complex emergent phenomenon arising from brain, body, and world couplings. The work argues that recent technological and theoretical advances allow a long-standing scientific and philosophical challenge—understanding the role of the body and world in the emergence of mind—to be addressed anew. The authors outline the materialist/naturalist view of cognition as emergent and propose that MoBI and 4E approaches together lay new grounds for investigating cognitive phenomena.
The European journal of neuroscience
June 1, 2017
Hector Vargas-Perez, Taryn E Grieder, Ryan Ting-A-Kee et al.
21 citations
A single dose of a 5-HT2A receptor agonist, given systemically or directly into the ventral tegmental area (VTA), blocks the aversive conditioned response to drug withdrawal in rats and mice. The treatment also prevents the neural switch from a drug-naive to a drug-dependent motivational system, which is linked to BDNF-mediated adaptations in the VTA. The findings suggest that 5-HT2A agonists may reverse a drug-dependent state and reduce withdrawal-induced aversion, offering a potential therapeutic approach for substance use disorders.
The European journal of neuroscience
March 1, 2022
Claudia Pascovich, Santiago Castro-Zaballa, Pedro A. M. Mediano et al.
16 citations
Neural complexity, measured by the Lempel-Ziv (LZ) compression algorithm, is lowest during NREM sleep and similar during REM sleep and wakefulness in cats with intracranial electrodes. Under subanaesthetic doses of ketamine (5, 10, and 15 mg/kg), complexity follows an inverted U-shaped curve in some electrodes, primarily in prefrontal cortex, rising at low doses and falling as doses approach anaesthetic levels. The variability in the ketamine dose-response curve across cats and cortices was larger than across sleep stages, highlighting differential local dynamics. These results replicate findings in humans and other species, showing neural complexity is sensitive to changes in conscious state.
The European journal of neuroscience
August 1, 2024
Francisco J Parada, Aitana Grasso-Cladera, Alejandra Rossi et al.
11 citations
The 3E-Cognition perspective—emphasizing the embodied, environmentally scaffolded, and enactive nature of cognition—offers a paradigm shift away from deficit-based views of neurodiversity. By focusing on the dynamic interplay between brain, body, and environment, it promotes inclusive practices in education, workplace, and healthcare. Examples illustrate how spaces, methodologies, and roles can be designed to accommodate diverse strengths. Challenges include the need for technological advances and real-world research, with mobile brain/body imaging suggested as a solution. The perspective values diverse ways of experiencing the world, fostering well-being, innovation, and creativity.
The European journal of neuroscience
April 1, 2024
D Zarka, C Cevallos, P Ruiz et al.
9 citations
Mindfulness as a dispositional trait is linked to specific patterns of spontaneous brain network dynamics. After an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training, participants showed significantly higher mindfulness scores on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), particularly in observing and non-reactivity, compared to a waitlist control group. Resting-state EEG microstate analysis revealed four classes (A-D). The MBSR group had lower duration, occurrence, and coverage of microstate C, and these parameters negatively correlated with non-reactivity scores. Microstate A occurrence negatively correlated with total FFMQ score. Self-reports indicated better sensory-affective integration of auditory interferences in the MBSR group. The findings suggest that microstate C dynamics specifically underlie the non-reactivity facet of mindfulness, supporting further use of microstates to evaluate mindfulness-based interventions.
The European journal of neuroscience
October 1, 2024
Xiaotian Xu, Xiaoya Fan, Jiaoyang Dong et al.
4 citations
Motor imagery (MI) training guided by virtual reality (VR) from the third-person perspective (3PP) can be enhanced by inducing a sense of body ownership over a virtual avatar. A novel paradigm used synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation to create a full-body illusion (FBI), similar to an out-of-body experience (OBE), in 31 healthy participants. Event-related electroencephalograph (EEG) desynchronization (ERD) at motor-related regions was stronger with the FBI induction compared to a control condition. The results demonstrate that eliciting body ownership from 3PP can improve the effectiveness of 3PP MI, offering new possibilities for motor rehabilitation.
The European journal of neuroscience
May 1, 2025
Wolf Singer
2 citations
The relationship between mind and matter and the nature of perception are examined from neurobiological and philosophical perspectives. Neuropsychological and neurophysiological studies are reviewed that connect neuronal processes to consciousness. The 'hard problem of consciousness'—explaining how subjective experience (qualia) arises from neuronal processes—can be alleviated if two conditions are met: perception depends on priors, and some priors are formed through interactions with immaterial realities of cultural concepts. This approach offers a coherent naturalistic explanation but does not resolve cognitive dissonance between intuitions and scientific evidence regarding matter and mind.
The European journal of neuroscience
June 1, 2024
Connor J Haggarty, Anya K. Bershad, Mahesh K Kumar et al.
1 citation
MDMA, but not methamphetamine, enhances the brain's early visual processing of happy and angry facial expressions, as measured by the N170 event-related potential in an EEG oddball paradigm. This effect was specific to emotional faces compared to neutral ones. Methamphetamine did not affect this neural measure, and neither drug altered other components of the response to emotional faces. The findings suggest a unique neural mechanism for MDMA's effects on socio-emotional processing, which may underlie its therapeutic potential for social anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.
The European journal of neuroscience
June 1, 2026
Jenna Houff, Andrew Williams, Obie Allen et al.
A single dose of psilocybin reduced choices for larger, delayed rewards and increased the time rats took to choose them, measured 48 hours after administration. This effect was not tied to the delay length, indicating it did not alter impulsivity. Instead, the pattern suggests psilocybin decreased motivation for rewards. In the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, psilocybin increased the density of neurons that were positive for perineuronal nets, parvalbumin, and c-Fos, pointing to heightened activity of a specific class of inhibitory interneurons. These findings propose that psilocybin lowers appetitive motivation by activating parvalbumin-positive interneurons surrounded by perineuronal nets in this brain region.
The European journal of neuroscience
April 1, 2026
Maria Isabel Carreño-muñoz, Alessandra Ciancone Chama, Pegah Chehrazi et al.
A specific biphasic spiking response in a subpopulation of primary auditory cortex (A1) neurons is elicited by deviant, but not standard, sounds; the second peak is abolished by acute sub-anesthetic injection of ketamine, a partial non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist. The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) responds to deviant, but not repetitive, sounds, and this response depends on intact NMDA receptor-mediated signaling. Weighted phase lag index (wPLI) analyses show functional connectivity between A1 and PPC following deviant detection, which is impaired by ketamine administration. These findings provide novel insights into NMDA receptor-dependent mechanisms underlying auditory novelty processing.
The European journal of neuroscience
September 1, 2024
Alessandra Buccella, Uri Maoz, Liad Mudrik
Neuroscience has shifted from describing the neural basis of mental phenomena to redefining those phenomena based on brain findings, leading some to view it as a missing piece for philosophy. This paper argues against neuroscience replacing philosophy and instead advocates for a collaborative coevolution where both disciplines nourish and influence each other to resolve long-standing questions about human thought and behavior, such as free will.
The European journal of neuroscience
June 1, 2023
Alessandra Tafuro, Chiara Mazzi, Silvia Savazzi
Visual awareness involves a complex interplay of brain rhythms across different frequency bands. In an orientation discrimination task where response bias was induced, EEG recordings showed that alpha and beta bands are especially engaged when contrasting aware versus unaware trials, with a main power suppression for aware trials. Theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands each contribute as prerequisites or post-perceptual processes, rather than a single frequency marking consciousness itself.
The European journal of neuroscience
November 1, 2022
Lau M Andersen, Mikkel C Vinding, Kristian Sandberg et al.
The neural correlates of consciousness may not be fixed within a single brain region; instead, they can shift depending on the task a person performs. Using magnetoencephalography, researchers compared a perceptual task and a conceptual task that used identical visual stimuli. The perceptual task recruited more occipital brain activity than the conceptual task, while frontal activity varied between the two tasks in partly unexpected ways depending on the level of perceptual awareness. These results suggest that what a person is doing—the task at hand—influences which brain areas support conscious perception, challenging the idea that consciousness can be localized to a consistent set of regions.
The European journal of neuroscience
June 1, 2022
Maëlan Q. Menétrey, Lukas Vogelsang, Michael H Herzog
Brain waves (EEG, MEG) and fluctuating behavioral responses are often cited as evidence for discrete perception—the idea that conscious experience occurs in discrete snapshots, such as one percept per alpha cycle. However, the connection between brain waves and discrete perception is often vague. This review examines different models of discrete perception, highlights problems with specific interpretations, and discusses how certain brain wave findings may relate to particular aspects of discrete theories. The main goal is to provide a short overview of discrete perception models and to emphasize the need to clarify which aspects of these theories are addressed by which brain wave findings.
The European journal of neuroscience
August 1, 2021
Jun-Ichi Uemura, Aiko Hoshino, Go Igarashi et al.
Conscious perception of a near-threshold somatosensory stimulus depends on both pre-stimulus brain state and post-stimulus cortical activity, but their roles vary across cortical areas. Using magnetoencephalography during a detection task, researchers found that somatosensory hierarchical processing areas, prefrontal areas, and default mode network regions showed stronger post-stimulus activity for consciously perceived trials. However, activity in the primary somatosensory area (SI) was independent of conscious perception during early stimulus processing. Pre-stimulus alpha oscillations only in SI predicted conscious perception. These results suggest that bottom-up somatosensory information flow following SI and top-down modulation via pre-stimulus alpha fluctuations in SI are crucial for conscious perception.
The European journal of neuroscience
February 1, 2020
Michiel van Elk, Lukas Snoek
Religiosity and mystical experiences show no structural brain differences in gray matter volume. In a confirmatory voxel-based morphometry analysis of 211 participants, region-of-interest testing found no evidence that religiosity is associated with reduced volume of the orbito-frontal cortex or changes in the bilateral inferior parietal lobes. Mystical experiences were not linked to reduced volume of the hippocampus, right middle temporal gyrus, or inferior parietal lobes. Whole-brain analysis also found no structural brain differences related to religiosity or mystical experiences. The authors suggest research should shift from studying structural brain differences to functional and multivariate approaches.
The European journal of neuroscience
April 1, 2001
N P Azari, J Nickel, G Wunderlich et al.
Religious experience, often thought of as a direct, emotional event, may actually be a cognitive process involving evaluation of one's own thoughts. Using functional neuroimaging, brain activity during religious recitation in self-identified religious subjects showed activation in a frontal-parietal circuit—the dorsolateral prefrontal, dorsomedial frontal, and medial parietal cortex. These areas are known to support reflexive evaluation of thought. This suggests that religious experience, while feeling immediate, may arise from cognitive appraisal.