Brain and Behavior
August 30, 2026
Waqar Husain, Achraf Ammar, Urwa‐Tul Wusqa et al.
BACKGROUND: Religious and spiritual practices are among the most ancient and universal human behaviors, yet their neurobiological substrates remain incompletely characterized. Neurotheology-the scientific study of the relationship between spiritual experience and brain function-has produced growing evidence that such practices generate measurable, systematic, and neuroplastic changes in brain...
Brain and Behavior
July 1, 2026
Lena K L Oestreich, Nathalie M. Rieser
Psychedelic and substance-assisted therapies are attracting renewed scientific, clinical, and public interest as potential interventions for mental health disorders, particularly treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorders. However, as the field moves from early efficacy trials toward clinical implementation, major questions remain regarding...
Brain and Behavior
June 1, 2026
Christopher Poppe, Liisa Lyck, Laura Bechtold et al.
1 citation
Expectations strongly shape participant experiences in clinical trials, contributing to placebo effects that complicate interpretation of outcomes. While quantitative tools exist to measure expectations, their subjective and multidimensional nature, especially for individuals with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), remains underexplored. This study aimed to explore the motivations and...
Brain and Behavior
June 1, 2026
Aloysius Amos Lau, Shalini Arunogiri, Boen Raner-Galutera et al.
1 citation
Peer Support Workers (PSWs) in mental health and substance use treatment draw on their lived experience (LE) to support clients through mutual understanding and trust. Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is emerging as a mental health and substance use treatment modality. As interest grows, understanding PSWs' perspectives on PAT is critical to inform safe and effective implementation, and the...
Brain and Behavior
June 1, 2026
T Rowe, T Hurzeler, Ellen Towers et al.
1 citation
Psychedelics have received considerable attention due to their potential in treating psychiatric disorders. The "setting" during psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is recognized as playing a central role in the experience, during which music features prominently. Although music is theorized as directing and shaping psychedelic sessions, its precise contribution to acute experience and...
Brain and Behavior
May 1, 2026
Alessandro Bombaci, Alessandra Giordano, Ilaria Lavalle et al.
BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons, leading to muscle atrophy, weakness, and respiratory failure. Numerous studies evaluated the impact of diseases on dream content, and the dream content analysis may be considered an interesting tool in the study of the internalization of...
Brain and Behavior
May 1, 2026
Mauro Cozzolino, Marco Borgese, Giovanna Celia
BACKGROUND: University students face increasing levels of stress, anxiety, and self-efficacy, which may disrupt autonomic balance. While many mind-body interventions require sustained practice, growing evidence suggests that even a single session can yield immediate benefits. This randomized controlled trial compared the immediate and short-term effects of the brain wave modulation technique...
Brain and Behavior
April 1, 2026
Sharon Murphy, Elizabeth Stewart, Jacqueline Ruth. Winship et al.
1 citation
PURPOSE: Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is becoming a clinically available treatment for patients with treatment-resistant conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in several countries. As PAT transitions from research settings into routine clinical practice, there is a growing need for coherent clinical frameworks and evidence-based guidelines to support its...
Brain and Behavior
April 1, 2026
Hamish Grime, Eugenia Drini
1 citation
Psycholytic therapy, utilizing psychoactive compounds such as d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to enhance psychoanalytically oriented therapy, was once the most common form of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Despite its historical prominence, little attention has been given to the reasons behind its decline, and there is a lack of standardized guidance for new clinical trials. This review...
Brain and Behavior
April 1, 2026
Livio Tarchi, Lorenzo Lasagni, Leonardo Ubaldi et al.
Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder marked by specific cognitive and clinical disturbances, for which neuroimaging biomarkers remain elusive. Novel theoretical and computational frameworks, such as integrated information decomposition, offer promising approaches to provide interpretable biomarkers for neuroimaging alterations in schizophrenia, potentially capturing disruptions...
Brain and Behavior
February 1, 2026
Simon Halm
1 citation
Psychedelic- and substance-assisted therapies, including MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine, are gaining attention for conditions such as PTSD and depression, yet their development and implementation remain largely concentrated in high-income settings. This graphical abstract summarizes the central argument of the commentary: while these interventions may hold relevance for global mental health,...
Brain and Behavior
February 1, 2026
Rachel Ham, John Gardner, Adrian Carter et al.
1 citation
Although commonly used in psychedelic-assisted therapy, the role of therapeutic touch remains loosely defined and ethically sensitive. Gaining insight into how participants experience and interpret touch during psychedelic sessions is essential for informing safe and effective clinical practice. Participants were sampled from a large randomized clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy that...
Brain and Behavior
February 1, 2026
Burçin Ün, Zeki Akarsakarya, Özlem Yorulmaz Özü et al.
Previous studies have suggested that adenosinergic system in the central nervous system may play a role in both behavioral changes and the physiopathology induced by Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and this is thought to be mediated by adenosine A2A receptors (A2ARs). However, the contribution of the adenosinergic system to the anxiety-like behaviors in response to THC in mice is not well...
Brain and Behavior
2026
Filipa Alves Da Silva, Rita Avelar, Bernardo Peixoto et al.
Depression affects around 280 million people worldwide, and about 30% of patients have treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine has significant scientific evidence supporting its use as an antidepressant, making it a promising approach for treatment-resistant cases. Combining ketamine with psychotherapy may enhance therapeutic response and support longer-lasting cognitive and behavioral change....
Brain and Behavior
October 1, 2025
Pauline Fritz, Anaïs Pichelin, Aurore Ancion et al.
2 citations
This case, set within its medical and pharmacological context, provides a unique opportunity to study NDEs and their precipitating context. The reported transformations underscore the importance of recognizing NDEs for their possible long-term effects on patients and relevance to medical practice.
Brain and Behavior
September 1, 2025
Maliheh Fallah, Hamidreza Mohajerani, Abdullah Omidi et al.
Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is increasingly recognized as a behavioral addiction linked to deficits in executive functioning, emotion regulation, boredom susceptibility, and impaired time perception. Emerging therapies such as body awareness psychotherapy (BAP) aim to improve cognitive and emotional self-regulation through embodied mindfulness. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness...
Brain and Behavior
July 1, 2025
Megan Calnan, Grace Blest‐hopley, Chris Busch et al.
4 citations
Abstract Background : Military veterans are at risk of various mental health conditions, with profound implications for post‐deployment quality of life. Current treatment options encounter high dropout rates and non‐responsiveness, and overlook the importance of community building in veterans’ holistic recovery. Preliminary research suggests psychedelics offer therapeutic benefits for...
Brain and Behavior
July 1, 2025
Hugh McGovern, L Bajo, G Hassed et al.
1 citation
The phenomenology of psychedelic experiences has been a long-standing point of interest to researchers. However, internal experience has been relatively relegated, with much work done on the clinical outcomes of psychedelic therapies. Our reflexive thematic analysis revealed that structurally, people on fora write about their experiences sequentially, considering factors prior to (preparatory),...
Brain and Behavior
June 1, 2025
Alessandro Agostini, Sara Ventura, Silvia Tempia Valenta et al.
Crohn's disease (CD) is associated with psychological disorders and insecure attachment styles, potentially reflecting the long-lasting disease effect. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies revealed differences in CD patients relative to HC, the brain properties underlying the attachment dimensions in CD remain scarcely investigated. We carried out an fMRI study to...
Brain and Behavior
June 1, 2025
Chenyi Wan, Menghua Li, Yanyan Yu et al.
Cytotoxic lesions of the corpus callosum (CLOCCs) are a rare clinicoradiologic syndrome, exceptionally rare in association with coronavirus disease (COVID-2019). This study aimed to investigate the neurological features of COVID-19-associated CLOCCs and gain insights into their underlying pathophysiology. A retrospective evaluation was conducted on patients with COVID-19-associated CLOCCs...
Brain and Behavior
February 28, 2025
Léa Dobler, Océane Richard, Emmanuelle Clerici et al.
2 citations
INTRODUCTION: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) affects nearly half of women worldwide and is associated with sleep disturbances, though the specific relationship between PMS and nightmares remains underexplored. Clinical observations suggest a potential link, leading this study to investigate whether women with PMS experience more frequent or intense nightmares compared to those without PMS....
Brain and Behavior
2025
Hoang Cuu Long, Ho Minh An, Pham Thi Phuong Dung et al.
4 citations
The practice of mindfulness is becoming more widespread among employees, with potential benefits for workplace outcomes. However, there is a paucity of research on the mechanisms linking mindfulness to job performance. This study investigated the mediating functions of emotional intelligence and psychological capital in the relationship between mindfulness and job performance among 263 office...
Brain and Behavior
December 1, 2024
Na Mi, Shu-Ting Zhang, Xiao-Li Sun et al.
5 citations
Adjuvant chemotherapy can promote the 5-year overall survival rate of pancreatic cancer (PC) patients to 16%-21%. However, the negative emotions of patients, such as anxiety, are usually omitted. Moreover, their disease burden concentrates on pain symptoms, seriously affecting the quality of life of patients. How to improve the negative emotions of PC patients, alleviate their pain, and...
Brain and Behavior
December 1, 2024
Weirui Xiong, Lu Yu
1 citation
The generation of consciousness poses a complex scientific challenge. Neuroscience and biological sciences have extensively studied this phenomenon, yielding numerous theories and hypotheses. However, to date, no reliable evidence has emerged to exclude any hypothesis conclusively, nor has any theory garnered unanimous agreement. This study aims to offer novel insights for further in-depth...
Brain and Behavior
November 1, 2024
Jules S Mitchell, Toomas E Anijärv, Adem T. Can et al.
Subanesthetic doses of ketamine are a promising novel treatment for suicidality; however, the evidence for predictive biomarkers is sparse. Recently, measures of complexity, including Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC) and multiscale entropy (MSE), have been implicated in ketamine's therapeutic action. We evaluated electroencephalogram (EEG)-derived LZC and MSE differences between responders and...