Brain : a journal of neurology
August 7, 2026
Dorottya Szocs, Andrea I Luppi, Peter Coppola et al.
The precise neuromodulatory mechanisms underlying consciousness and its disorders, despite growing evidence in both animals and humans, remain poorly understood at the subcortical level. The basal ganglia, a key component of the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop, are known to play a crucial role in mediating consciousness and behavioural responsiveness to the environment. Here, we...
Brain : a journal of neurology
May 5, 2026
Richard Somervail, Sofija Perovic, Rory John Bufacchi et al.
Sudden and isolated sensory stimuli (SISS) likely signal environmental events demanding immediate behavioural responses. These stimuli-which are widely and persistently used in both basic and clinical neuroscience to explore sensory processing and perception-also trigger some of the largest and most widespread electrocortical responses in the awake mammalian brain. These responses are often...
Brain : a journal of neurology
June 30, 2025
Sara Costi, Chloe Wigg, Erdem Pulcu et al.
3 citations
Ketamine's potential as a rapid-acting antidepressant was first identified in 2000, despite its long-standing use as an anesthetic agent. Clinically, ketamine alleviates depressive symptoms, including the difficult to treat symptom of anhedonia, within hours, with the effects of a single dose lasting for days. Since then, research has focused on uncovering the mechanisms underlying its rapid...
Brain : a journal of neurology
June 12, 2025
Marwan H Othman, Attila Géry Toury-Puel, Karen Irgens Tanderup Hansen et al.
7 citations
In the intensive care unit (ICU), management of unresponsive patients with brain injury focuses on preventing secondary brain damage. Therapeutic strategies that directly promote the recovery of consciousness are urgently needed. In an investigator-initiated, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over trial, we studied the effects of apomorphine and methylphenidate in ICU patients...
Brain : a journal of neurology
June 3, 2025
Abhilasha Vishwanath, Mitchell J Bartlett, Torsten Falk et al.
8 citations
Gamma-band and single-unit neural activity in primary motor cortex are involved in the control of movement. This activity is disrupted in Parkinson's disease (PD) and levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID), a debilitating consequence of dopamine replacement therapy for PD. Physiological features of LID include pathological narrowband gamma oscillations, finely tuned gamma and altered primary motor...
Brain : a journal of neurology
May 13, 2025
Veith Weilnhammer, Marcus Rothkirch, Deniz Yilmaz et al.
11 citations
Perception integrates external sensory signals with internal predictions that reflect prior knowledge about the world. Previous research suggests that this integration is governed by slow alternations between an external mode, driven by sensory signals, and an internal mode, shaped by prior knowledge. Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over experiment in healthy human participants,...
Brain : a journal of neurology
April 25, 2025
Mor Yam, Jolan Nassir, Danielle Galber et al.
3 citations
Pathogenic variants in GRIN2D, encoding one of the subunits of the NMDA receptor (NMDAR), are associated with developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEEs). Unusual for de novo mutations, the recurrent, de-novo, gain of function, missense mutation c.1999G>A (p.Val667Ile) was discovered in multiple patients. We characterized a mouse model carrying the orthologous Grin2d mutation, using...
Brain : a journal of neurology
September 14, 2022
James M Shine, Claire O'Callaghan, Ishan C Walpola et al.
63 citations
The neuromodulatory arousal system imbues the nervous system with the flexibility and robustness required to facilitate adaptive behaviour. While there are well understood mechanisms linking dopamine, noradrenaline and acetylcholine to distinct behavioural states, similar conclusions have not been as readily available for serotonin. Fascinatingly, despite clear links between serotonergic...
Brain : a journal of neurology
July 1, 2019
Célia Lacaux, Charlotte Izabelle, Giulio Santantonio et al.
47 citations
Some studies suggest a link between creativity and rapid eye movement sleep. Narcolepsy is characterized by falling asleep directly into rapid eye movement sleep, states of dissociated wakefulness and rapid eye movement sleep (cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder and lucid dreaming) and a high dream recall frequency. Lucid dreaming...
Brain : a journal of neurology
July 1, 2013
Oliver Sacks
Hallucinations of musical notation may occur in a variety of conditions, including Charles Bonnet syndrome, Parkinson's disease, fever, intoxications, hypnagogic and hypnopompic states. Eight cases are described here, and their possible cerebral mechanisms discussed.
Brain : a journal of neurology
January 2011
Dominic H Ffytche, Semir Zeki
A compelling single case report of visual awareness (visual qualia) without primary visual cortex would be sufficient to refute the hypothesis that the primary visual cortex and the back-projections to it are necessary for conscious visual experience. In a previous study, we emphasized the presence of crude visual awareness in Patient G.Y., with a lesion of the primary visual cortex, who is...
Brain : a journal of neurology
June 1, 2010
Laurène Leclair-Visonneau, Delphine Oudiette, Bertrand Gaymard et al.
Rapid eye movements and complex visual dreams are salient features of human rapid eye movement sleep. However, it remains to be elucidated whether the eyes scan dream images, despite studies that have retrospectively compared the direction of rapid eye movements to the dream recall recorded after having awakened the sleeper. We used the model of rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (when...
Brain : a journal of neurology
August 2009
Marie Arthuis, Luc Valton, Jean Régis et al.
Loss of consciousness (LOC) is a dramatic clinical manifestation of temporal lobe seizures. Its underlying mechanism could involve altered coordinated neuronal activity between the brain regions that support conscious information processing. The consciousness access hypothesis assumes the existence of a global workspace in which information becomes available via synchronized activity within...
Brain : a journal of neurology
May 2006
L Chang, R Yakupov, C Cloak et al.
Attention and memory deficits have been reported in heavy marijuana users, but these effects may be reversible after prolonged abstinence. It remains unclear whether the reversibility of these cognitive deficits indicates that chronic marijuana use does not alter cortical networks, or that such changes occur but the brain adapts to the drug-induced changes. Blood oxygenation-level dependent...
Brain : a journal of neurology
January 2006
Juergen Fell, Guillén Fernández, Martin T Lutz et al.
Compared with waking state attention, volition and semantic processing play a minor role during sleep. Thus, investigating declarative memory formation during sleep may allow us to isolate mnemonic core processes. The most feasible approach to memory formation during sleep is the analysis of dream memories. Lesion and imaging studies have demonstrated that encoding of declarative memories, i.e....
Brain : a journal of neurology
July 1, 2001
A Zeman
Consciousness is topical, for reasons including its renewed respectability among psychologists, rapid progress in the neuroscience of perception, memory and action, advances in artificial intelligence and dissatisfaction with the dualistic separation of mind and body. Consciousness is an ambiguous term. It can refer to (i) the waking state; (ii) experience; and (iii) the possession of any...
Brain : a journal of neurology
October 2000
T D Griffiths
Six subjects with musical hallucinations following acquired deafness are described. The subjects all experienced the condition in the absence of any other features to suggest epilepsy or psychosis. I propose a neuropsychological model for the condition consistent with detailed observation of the subjects' phenomenology. The model is based on spontaneous activity within a cognitive module for...
Brain : a journal of neurology
March 1979
B Libet, E W Wright, B Feinstein et al.
Subjective experience of a peripherally-induced sensation is found to appear without the substantial delay found for the experience of a cortically-induced sensation. To explain this finding, in relation to the putative delay of up to about 500 ms for achieving the "neuronal adequacy" required to elicit the peripherally-induced experience, a modified hypothesis is proposed: for a peripheral...