Abstract Introduction Mindfulness meditation has successfully been applied to cultivate skills in self‐regulation of emotion, as it employs the unbiased present moment awareness of experience. This heightened attention to and awareness of sensory experience has been postulated to create an optimal therapeutic exposure condition and thereby improve extinction learning. We recently demonstrated...
Brain and BehaviorAugust 30, 2020Natalia M Kleinhans, Julia Sweigert, Matthew Blake et al.
The smell of cannabis is a cue with universal relevance to cannabis users. However, most cue reactivity imaging studies have solely utilized visual images, auditory imagery scripts, or tactile cues in their experiments. This study introduces a multimodal cue reactivity paradigm that includes picture, odor, and bimodal picture + odor cues.
Cultural traditions attribute to pineal gland an important role for spiritual experiences. Mediumship and spirit possession are cultural phenomena found worldwide which have been described as having dissociative and psychotic-like characteristics, but with nonpathological aspects. A sympathetic activation pattern in response to spirit possession has been reported in some studies, but empirical...
Brain and BehaviorMay 1, 2020Disha Bhanushali, Rahul Tyagi, Nitin Limaye (Rishi Nityapragya) et al.
Abstract: Introduction: Incidence of high altitude‐related sickness is increasing due to more number of people visiting the areas of high altitude which may result in life‐threatening conditions including acute mountain sickness (AMS), high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), and High‐altitude pulmonary hypertension (HAPH). We hypothesized that an advanced yoga...
Brain and BehaviorApril 23, 2020Masoomeh Zarenejad, Mansooreh Yazdkhasti, Mitra Rahimzadeh et al.
Abstract Objective The aim of the study was to assess the effect of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) on anxiety and self‐efficacy in coping with childbirth. Material and Methods This randomized controlled trial was conducted on 70 pregnant women in Abyek city of Qazvin province in Iran. The convenient sampling method was recruited. Samples were assigned to control and intervention...
Introduction: One of the hardest challenges of the third century is to develop theories that could joint different results for a global explanation of human consciousness. Some important theories have been proposed, trying to explain the emergence of consciousness as the result of different progressive changes in the elaboration of information during brain processing, giving particular...
Brain and BehaviorNovember 2019Laurie A Manwell, Tanya Miladinovic, Elana Raaphorst et al.
Anxiogenic and anxiolytic effects of cannabinoids are mediated by different mechanisms, including neural signaling via cannabinoid receptors (CBRs) and nicotinic cholinergic receptors (nAChRs). This study examined the effects of prior nicotine (the psychoactive component in tobacco) exposure on behavioral sensitivity to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; the psychoactive component of cannabis)...
Background/objective: The present research investigated potential effects of mindfulness training on emotion regulation and mood of future schoolteachers in a nonrandomized pre-post design, and whether these are influenced by the yoga component of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and/or by homework practice. Method: N = 169 university students received either mindfulness training...
Brain and BehaviorMarch 2019Luca Baldelli, Olga Addimanda, Marco Burattini et al.
To investigate the prevalence of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) in patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) to ascertain if RBD could be an internal red flag signaling a fluctuating state of inflammation based on the theory of "protoconsciousness". One hundred and three patients with a confirmed diagnosis of IA were consecutively recruited. The patients underwent general (IA activity,...
INTRODUCTION: While cross-sectional studies have shown neural changes in long-term meditators, they might be confounded by self-selection and potential baseline differences between meditators and non meditators. Prospective longitudinal studies of the effects of meditation in naïve subjects are more conclusive with respect to causal inferences, but related evidence is so far limited. METHODS:...
Brain and BehaviorJune 22, 2018Tabea Kamp, Bettina Sorger, Caroline Benjamins et al.
Background: Linking individual task performance to preceding, regional brain activation is an ongoing goal of neuroscientific research. Recently, it could be shown that the activation and connectivity within large-scale brain networks prior to task onset influence performance levels. More specifically, prestimulus default mode network (DMN) effects have been linked to performance levels in...
Self-referential processing is a key component of the emotional self-concept. Previous studies have shown that emotional self-referential processing is related to structure and function of cortical midline areas such as medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and that it can be altered on a behavioral level by specific mental training practices. However, it remains unknown how behavioral...
Abstract Objective COMT rs4680 (Val158Met) genotype moderates the effect of cannabis on the age of onset of psychosis (AoP). We investigated the association between rs4680 and AoP, after adjusting for relevant covariates, in a Canadian Caucasian sample. Methods One hundred and sixty‐nine subjects with psychosis were recruited. AoP, defined as age of DSM‐IV diagnosis was established using the...
Abstract Objective This research was aimed to evaluate the behaviors of short‐ or long‐term antidepressant effects of ketamine in rats exposed to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). Background Ketamine, a glutamate noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist, regulates excitatory amino acid functions, such as anxiety disorders and major depression, and plays an important role in synaptic plasticity...
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) reduces depression, anxiety, and pain for people suffering from a variety of illnesses, and there is a growing need to understand the neurobiological networks implicated in self-reported psychological change as a result of training. Combining complementary and alternative treatments such as MBSR with other therapies is helpful; however, the time...
Mantra (prolonged repetitive verbal utterance) is one of the most universal mental practices in human culture. However, the underlying neuronal mechanisms that may explain its powerful emotional and cognitive impact are unknown. In order to try to isolate the effect of silent repetitive speech, which is used in most commonly practiced Mantra meditative practices, on brain activity, we studied...
Loving kindness is a form of meditation involving directed well-wishing, typically supported by the silent repetition of phrases such as "may all beings be happy," to foster a feeling of selfless love. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural substrate of loving kindness meditation in experienced meditators and novices. We first assessed group differences in blood...