Scientific Reports
September 24, 2023
Tammi R. A. Kral, Helen Y. Weng, Vikramjit Mitra et al.
25 citations
Mind-body interventions such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) may improve well-being by increasing awareness and regulation of physiological and cognitive states. However, it is unclear how practice may alter long-term, baseline physiological processes, and whether these changes reflect improved well-being. Using respiration rate (RR), which can be sensitive to effects of...
Scientific Reports
September 22, 2023
Hanna Molla, Royce Lee, Sonja Lyubomirsky et al.
28 citations
MDMA is a stimulant-like drug with distinctive empathogenic effects. Its pro-social effects, such as feelings of connectedness, may contribute to both its popularity as a recreational drug and its apparent value as an adjunct to psychotherapy. However, little is known about the behavioral processes by which MDMA affects social interactions. This investigation examined the effects of MDMA (100...
Scientific Reports
September 22, 2023
Victor Oswald, Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, Jitka Annen et al.
24 citations
Self-induced cognitive trance (SICT) is a voluntary non-ordinary state of consciousness characterized by a lucid yet narrowed awareness of the external surroundings. It involves a hyper-focused immersive experience of flow, expanded inner imagery, modified somatosensory processing, and an altered perception of self and time. SICT is gaining attention due to its potential clinical applications....
Scientific Reports
September 11, 2023
José Carlos Bouso, Dóra Révész, Genís Ona et al.
9 citations
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of the global population. This paper presents the results of a longitudinal transcultural study that was begun at the peak of the pandemic (in April, 2020). An online survey was used to collect data from English-, Spanish-, and Portuguese-speaking participants. The survey collected information about...
Scientific Reports
August 30, 2023
Chao S. Hu, Yanbin Zheng, Guang-Heng Dong et al.
Default mode network (DMN) may be associated with wisdom (i.e., mature understanding of life featured by perspectival metacognition) when advising from a self-referential perspective due to the involvement of the DMN in reflecting on personal life experiences. After a resting-state functional MRI scan, 52 adults advised some youths going through life dilemmas, half from a second-person...
Scientific Reports
August 24, 2023
Paul Petzold, Sarita Silveira, Malvika Godara et al.
Contemplative practice has demonstrated benefits for mental health and well-being. Most previous studies, however, implemented in-person trainings containing a mix of different, mostly solitary, practices and focused on pre- to post-training outcomes. In this randomized trial, we explore the immediate differential efficacy of two daily app-delivered practices in shifting emotional (valence,...
Scientific Reports
August 22, 2023
Hannes Kettner, Stephen Ross, Richard J. Zeifman et al.
31 citations
Abstract Psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) experiences can range from very positive to highly challenging (e.g., fear, grief, and paranoia). These challenging experiences contribute to hesitancy toward psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy among health care providers and patients. Co-use of 3,4-Methylenedioxy methamphetamine (MDMA) with psilocybin/LSD anecdotally reduces challenging...
Scientific Reports
August 16, 2023
Zümrüt Duygu Sen, Tara Chand, Lena Vera Danyeli et al.
Ketamine is a rapid-acting antidepressant that also influences neural reactivity to affective stimuli. However, the effect of ketamine on behavioral affective reactivity is yet to be elucidated. The affect-modulated startle reflex paradigm (AMSR) allows examining the valence-specific aspects of behavioral affective reactivity. We hypothesized that ketamine alters the modulation of the startle...
Scientific Reports
July 19, 2023
Adelaida Castillo, Julien Dubois, Ryan M. Field et al.
19 citations
Quantifying neural activity in natural conditions (i.e. conditions comparable to the standard clinical patient experience) during the administration of psychedelics may further our scientific understanding of the effects and mechanisms of action. This data may facilitate the discovery of novel biomarkers enabling more personalized treatments and improved patient outcomes. In this single-blind,...
Scientific Reports
June 9, 2023
Brandon Weiss, Aleksandra Wingert, David Erritzøe et al.
32 citations
The present study examined the safety and efficacy of the ceremonial use of ayahuasca in relation to reports of heightened life event reexperiencing under psychedelics. The study examined (1) the prevalence of specific types of adverse life event reexperiencing, (2) characteristics predictive of reexperiencing, (3) the psychological character of reexperiencing, and (4) the impact of...
Scientific Reports
May 22, 2023
Teresa Fazia, Francesco Bubbico, Andrea Nova et al.
62 citations
Pressures and responsibilities of medical school put a strain on medical student's personal wellbeing, leading among all to high rates of anxiety, emotional discomfort and stress. In this work we evaluated the effectiveness of a comprehensive Mindfulness-Based Intervention (MBI) in reducing this load. The intervention comprised 10 twice-a-week Integral Meditation classes, dietary advice, and...
Scientific Reports
May 15, 2023
Adam Haar Horowitz, Kathleen Esfahany, Tomás Vega Galvez et al.
31 citations
The link between dreams and creativity has been a topic of intense speculation. Recent scientific findings suggest that sleep onset (known as N1) may be an ideal brain state for creative ideation. However, the specific link between N1 dream content and creativity has remained unclear. To investigate the contribution of N1 dream content to creative performance, we administered targeted dream...
Scientific Reports
April 17, 2023
Rubén Herzog, Pedro A. M. Mediano, Fernando E. Rosas et al.
51 citations
Psychedelic drugs, including lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and other agonists of the serotonin 2A receptor (5HT2A-R), induce drastic changes in subjective experience, and provide a unique opportunity to study the neurobiological basis of consciousness. One of the most notable neurophysiological signatures of psychedelics, increased entropy in spontaneous neural activity, is thought to be of...
Scientific Reports
April 10, 2023
Najme Soleimani, Kamran Kazemi, Mohammad Sadegh Helfroush et al.
AbstractCannabis is one of the most used and commodified illicit substances worldwide, especially among young adults. The neurobiology mechanism of cannabis is yet to be identified particularly in youth. The purpose of this study was to concurrently measure alterations in brain structural and functional connectivity in cannabis users using resting-state functional magnetic resonance images...
Scientific Reports
March 1, 2023
Paweł Orłowski, Michał Bola
9 citations
Diversity of brain activity is a robust neural correlate of global states of consciousness. It has been proposed that diversity measures specifically reflect the temporal variability of conscious experience. Previous studies supported this hypothesis by showing that perception of meaningful visual stimuli causes richer, more-variable experiences than perception of meaningless stimuli, and this...
Scientific Reports
February 11, 2023
Grant Jones, Joshua Lipson, Erica Wang
2 citations
Abstract Impairment in social functioning is a common source of morbidity across many mental health disorders, yet there is a dearth of effective and easily implemented interventions to support social functioning. MDMA/ecstasy and classic psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD, peyote, mescaline) represent two potential treatments for impairments in social functioning, as evidence suggests these...
Scientific Reports
February 2, 2023
Hairong Lu, Dimitri Van der Linden, Arnold B Bakker
Psychological flow is a state of full task immersion. The present study was conducted to test the hypothesis that psychological flow is positively related to activity of the phasic locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, which supports decisions on whether to engage in or disengage from the current activity. Subjective flow was assessed among 36 participants who engaged in a gamified...
Scientific Reports
January 13, 2023
Thomas Schnell, Christina-Marie Grömm, Nils Klöckner
3 citations
Cannabis use is a common risk factor for psychoses. But although prevalence of consumption as well as potency of cannabis increased, the incidence of schizophrenia remained stable. The discontinuation hypothesis suggests that a potential increase of psychoses incidence may be relativized by more frequent cessation of consumption due to higher rates of adverse psychosis-like intoxication effects...
Scientific Reports
January 9, 2023
Guy William Fincham, Clara Strauss, Jesus Montero-Marin et al.
Deliberate control of the breath (breathwork) has recently received an unprecedented surge in public interest and breathing techniques have therapeutic potential to improve mental health. Our meta-analysis primarily aimed to evaluate the efficacy of breathwork through examining whether, and to what extent, breathwork interventions were associated with lower levels of self-reported/subjective...
Scientific Reports
January 6, 2023
Nicolas G. Glynos, Lily Carter, Soo Jung Lee et al.
17 citations
Indolethylamine N-methyltransferase (INMT) is a transmethylation enzyme that utilizes the methyl donor S-adenosyl-L-methionine to transfer methyl groups to amino groups of small molecule acceptor compounds. INMT is best known for its role in the biosynthesis of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychedelic compound found in mammalian brain and other tissues. In mammals, biosynthesis of DMT is...
Scientific Reports
December 19, 2022
Grant Jones, Diego Arias, Matthew K. Nock
18 citations
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death amongst adolescents and decades of research have failed to curb suicide rates within this population. There is thus a need to better understand factors that correlate with adolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). MDMA/ecstasy and classic psychedelics represent two areas for exploration, as use of these substances has been associated with...
Scientific Reports
December 8, 2022
Paweł Krukow, Kamil Jonak
When performing cognitively demanding tasks, people tend to experience momentary distractions or personal associations that intercept their stream of consciousness. This phenomenon is known as Mind Wandering (MW) and it has become a subject of neuroscientific investigations. Off-task thoughts can be analyzed during task performance, but currently, MW is also understood as a dimension of...
Scientific Reports
November 30, 2022
Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo, Angelia Sia, Anna Fogel et al.
95 citations
There is an established consensus among researchers that contact with nature improves mental health, wellbeing, and quality of life in urbanised environments. Studies tend to examine the health impacts of nature without identifying specific physical and spatial landscape features that could guide health-promoting design of urban green spaces. A growing body of evidence suggests that landscape...
Scientific Reports
October 29, 2022
Marija Franka Žuljević, Ivan Buljan, Mia Leskur et al.
34 citations
Although there is research interest to assess attitudes on psychedelics, no validated instrument exists for this purpose. We aimed to develop and examine the psychometric properties of the Attitudes on Psychedelics Questionnaire (APQ) in a sample of the Croatian general population. A cross-sectional, web-based survey among the general population was conducted on 1153 participants (62.1% female,...
Scientific Reports
October 26, 2022
Takayuki Niizato, Yuta Nishiyama, Kotaro Sakamoto et al.
Human body awareness is adaptive to context changes. The illusory sense of body ownership has been studied since the publication of the rubber hand illusion, where ambiguous body ownership feeling was first defined. Phenomenologically, the ambiguous body ownership is attributed to a conflict between feeling and judgement: it characterises a discrepancy between first- and third-person processes....