Apollo (University of Cambridge)
April 26, 2018
Iulia M. Comșa
1 citation
The loss and regain of consciousness involves gradual and rapid brain-activity changes measurable via electroencephalogram (EEG). Falling asleep: a specific EEG microstate whose increased duration predicts behavioral unresponsiveness to auditory stimuli during drowsiness, and which captures increased frontoparietal theta connectivity, a putative marker of losing consciousness before sleep onset. During mild-to-moderate sedation, responsiveness is best predicted by temporal signal complexity at single-channel and low-frequency integration, while drug level is best predicted by spatial-pattern complexity and high-frequency integration. In acute coma, increased variability in delta-network integration early after injury predicts eventual recovery score; a case study shows frontoparietal connectivity re-emergence predicted full recovery long before behavioral improvement. The thesis argues that diversity of dynamical states, especially in the temporal domain, and information integration across brain networks are fundamental to sustaining consciousness.
Apollo (University of Cambridge)
November 17, 2016
Peter Jones, Géraldine Dufour, Julieta Galante et al.
1 citation
A collaborative research project between the University of Cambridge and the NIHR CLAHRC East of England is investigating whether mindfulness can reduce student stress. The article describes the project's purpose, focus, and how mindfulness sessions are delivered to students.
Apollo (University of Cambridge)
July 3, 2026
Tim Dalgleish
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is widely recommended for preventing depressive relapse, but questions about its safety have emerged. Two recent studies documented meditation-related harm in MBCT but lacked control groups, making it impossible to determine if MBCT increases harm. This preregistered secondary analysis of Kuyken et al's individual participant data meta-analysis evaluates odds of symptom worsening for MBCT versus control conditions within randomized trials, allowing causal inference about treatment-related harm.
Apollo (University of Cambridge)
December 30, 2025
Evan Lewis-Healey, Carla Pallavicini, Federico Cavanna et al.
A dose of the fast-acting psychedelic drug DMT rapidly reorganizes both conscious experience and brain activity. In a blinded, counterbalanced study, 19 participants received either 20 mg or 40 mg of freebase DMT. The higher dose caused more extreme visual hallucinations and emotionally intense experiences. Electroencephalography showed that changes in alpha brainwave power and a measure of signal irregularity (permutation entropy) were most strongly linked to moment-by-moment changes in subjective experience. Surprisingly, a measure of neural signal complexity (Lempel-Ziv complexity), previously thought to be a robust marker of psychedelic states, showed the weakest link to experience. This suggests the connection between brain complexity and conscious experience during psychedelic states is less straightforward than previously assumed.
Apollo (University of Cambridge)
October 21, 2017
Hugh Burling
The thesis argues that skepticism about religious experiences arises because traditional methods for distinguishing genuine from illusory experiences require commitment to a particular religious tradition, making it impossible to decide which method to trust. These methods also fail to test whether experiences are veridical and are too coarse-grained for regulating theological beliefs. The thesis develops a new procedure where parties in religious disagreements understand God as a perfect being and use shared moral beliefs from outside their tradition to assign probabilities to putative divine actions, including religious experiences. The likelihood the divine action occurred given those moral beliefs indicates the likelihood the experience was veridical. The procedure addresses different sources of doubt and is applied to debates about divine hiddenness and religious diversity.
Apollo (University of Cambridge)
March 1, 2016
Varun Khanna
This dissertation explores the nature of the Self as Consciousness through the lens of Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993), a 20th-century philosopher of advaita-vedānta and Hindu guru. It draws on core Vedānta texts, the Upaniṣads, and the works of Śaṅkara (788-820 CE). The first two chapters provide a biography and analysis of Chinmayananda's life, noting how the struggle for India's independence influenced his interpretation. Chapters three and four analyze his philosophy as an intellectual biography, comparing his views with predecessors like Swami Vivekananda and Śaṅkara. The final chapter situates him within Hinduism's ongoing hermeneutical process across three strands: Hinduism and science, modernity, and diaspora configurations.