Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2023
Raquel Ruiz-íñiguez, Ana Carralero Montero, Francisco A Burgos-Julián et al.
10 citations
A randomized crossover trial with 104 mental health professionals in Havana, Cuba compared two brief mindfulness-based interventions for reducing anxiety, work stress, and burnout. One intervention used body-centered practices (body scan and Hatha yoga); the other used mind-centered practices (focused attention and open monitoring meditation). Groups received the interventions in opposite orders. After the first intervention, there was a between-group difference for burnout syndrome, but effect sizes were similar. After both practices were implemented, groups showed the largest effect sizes, and a between-group difference emerged for antecedents of burnout. Results were partially maintained at 6-month follow-up. Mind-centered practices can be as effective as body-centered ones; combining both may be most effective, and teaching mind-centered practices first may reduce antecedents of burnout.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2023
Nicolas Langlitz
10 citations
Psychedelic research has been largely shaped by biomedical science, but it raises questions beyond what labs and clinics can answer. The emerging field of psychedelic humanities examines the historical assumptions, philosophical gaps, and political dimensions of different approaches to psychedelics. Scholars can either evaluate these alternatives normatively or instead increase complexity by opening new perspectives, leaving readers to reduce that complexity in novel ways. This allows practitioners to use or abuse such scholarship for their own ends. The article describes the institutionalization of this work at The New School's Psychedelic Humanities Lab.
Frontiers in Psychology
November 11, 2021
Andrew B. Newberg, Nancy Wintering, Chloe Hriso et al.
10 citations
A meditation practice augmented by clitoral stimulation, called orgasmic meditation (OM), alters resting brain functional connectivity in both male and female participants. After a 15-minute session where the male stimulates the female's clitoris, functional magnetic resonance imaging showed significant changes in brain regions including the left superior temporal lobe, frontal lobe, anterior cingulate, and insula for the entire group. Females showed additional connectivity changes in the cerebellum, thalamus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, while males showed changes in the supramarginal gyrus, cerebellum, and orbitofrontal gyrus. These changes represent a hybrid of patterns seen in meditation and sexual stimulation, suggesting a dynamic relationship between sexuality and spirituality.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Carlos Avilés, José A Navia, Luis-Miguel Ruiz-Pérez et al.
10 citations
Learning in sports and physical education can be understood through enactive and ecological psychology. The enactive perspective emphasizes sense-making and sensorimotor schemes, while natural learning environments support human development. Research methods like neurophenomenology and self-confrontation interviews reveal the meanings, sensations, and emotions performers experience. The ecological approach focuses on attunement, calibration, education of intention, and representative experimental designs. The paper compares both approaches and advocates for a common project combining their main elements.
Frontiers in Psychology
August 9, 2019
Andreas Nordin, Pär Bjälkebring
10 citations
Counterintuitiveness theory, which holds that concepts violating basic cognitive categories are especially memorable and likely to be treated as religious, is tested on religious dream imagery. The article adopts a fractionated approach focusing on supernatural agent (SA) cognitions as building blocks of purportedly religious dreaming. It maps contemporary theorizing about counterintuitiveness onto empirical data, exploring the pervasiveness of cognitive counterintuitiveness in dreams, testing Barrett's counterintuitiveness coding scheme for intercoder reliability, and examining base rate frequencies of counterintuitiveness in dream reports. The work aims to contribute methodology and cross-cultural base rates for future research on religious dream cognition.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Constance Karing
9 citations
A combined mindfulness intervention (face-to-face sessions plus the 7Mind app) was compared to single interventions (face-to-face only or app only) and an active control group among 177 university students over 12 months. At post-intervention and at 4- and 12-month follow-ups, the combined intervention did not produce better outcomes than the single interventions or the active control on mindfulness, mental health, emotion regulation, or attentional abilities. No statistically significant differences were found between any intervention group and the active control. All groups, including the active control, improved in mindfulness, body awareness, emotion regulation, stress, and attentional abilities over time. Higher app usage was linked to increased body awareness but also to higher stress, suggesting that greater reliance on a mindfulness app may negatively affect stress.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 27, 2023
Inder S. Chaudhary, Gary C.‐w. Shyi, Shih-Tseng Tina Huang
9 citations
Buddhist meditation is traditionally described as a state of relaxed alertness that must avoid both drowsiness and restlessness. Most scientific research has focused on its relaxing, hypoarousing effects, neglecting its wake-promoting properties. This systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 fMRI studies aimed to identify brain regions associated with alertness during meditation. The most significant activation peaks were in the medial frontal gyrus and precuneus. The analysis failed to find areas commonly linked to alertness, such as the medial prefrontal cortex, superior parietal lobule, basal ganglia, or thalamus, likely because few studies used wakefulness-promoting meditation techniques. The authors recommend future research use multi-modal methods and include clinically diagnosed participants to complement therapies like mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2023
Jaime Navarrete, Marta Fontana-Mcnally, Ariadna Colomer-Carbonell et al.
9 citations
The Spanish versions of the Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS) and the State Mindfulness Scale (SMS) show adequate reliability and validity for measuring state mindfulness, though the SMS specific factors have poor reliability when controlling for the general factor. Data from six non-clinical Spanish samples (TMS n=119, SMS n=223) were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. The best-fitting model for the TMS was a correlated two-factor structure (curiosity and decentering). For the SMS, a bifactor structure (general factor, mindfulness of body, and mindfulness of mind) fit best. Both scales detected changes in state mindfulness after meditation practices. The patterns of correlations with measures of trait mindfulness, decentering, non-attachment, depression, anxiety, stress, affect, self-criticism, and self-reassurance were mostly as expected.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 28, 2022
Giorgio Marchetti
9 citations
Conscious information processing is distinguished by its phenomenal aspect (PAC), the what-it-is-like for an agent to experience something, which provides a sense of self and informs how the self is affected by the agent's own operations. The PAC originates from attention detecting the state of the self (S), a hierarchy of innate and acquired values expressed via the nervous system that maps the agent's body, cognitive capacities, and environmental interactions. This detection modulates the energy level of the organ of attention (OA), its neural substrate, generating the PAC. The PAC has five dimensions—qualitative, quantitative, hedonic, temporal, and spatial—each traceable to a specific feature of that modulation.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 22, 2022
Junling Gao, Hang Kin Leung, Jicong Fan et al.
9 citations
Compassion meditation, a component of the Awareness Training Program, can help regulate negative emotions by modulating brain activity and physiological responses. After seven weeks of training, middle-aged adults with moderate stress who practiced compassion meditation showed greater prefrontal brain activity (measured by the N400 component) when viewing negative pictures, compared to a control group. Compassion meditation also increased heart rate variability, indicating better emotional regulation. These effects occurred across stages of attention, cognitive processing, and behavioral response, with the prefrontal lobe playing a key role.
Frontiers in Psychology
September 14, 2021
Tamara Fischmann, Gilles Ambresin, Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber
9 citations
Transformation of manifest dreams, analyzed with a precise empirical coding system, may serve as a promising indicator of therapeutic changes in unconscious mental functioning during psychoanalysis. The Zurich Dream Process Coding System (ZDPCS), grounded in a dream generation model by Moser and von Zeppelin that integrates interdisciplinary sleep and dream research, provides a valid and reliable method for this analysis. Two dreams from a severely traumatized, chronically depressed patient—one from the beginning and one from the third year of the LAC Depression Study—were analyzed using the ZDPCS. The authors hypothesize that dream transformation measured by this system results from memory processes involving traumatic embodied memories during dreaming.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Giancarlo Frigato
9 citations
A growing number of authors argue that the neural correlates of consciousness have no selective or executive function; instead, attention unconsciously selects contents for consciousness, which then formats them for high-level processors like working memory and language. Dehaene locates the correlates of access consciousness in a widespread fronto-parieto-temporal network, while Tononi places phenomenal consciousness in a posterior temporo-parietal hot zone. Close examination of their work suggests these correlates coincide, making the two consciousnesses two aspects of a single consciousness with both cognitive and subjective contents.
Frontiers in Psychology
May 13, 2020
H. Cassol, E. Bonin, C. Bastin et al.
9 citations
Memories of near-death experiences (NDEs) are recalled with more detail and a stronger sense of reality than memories of other real or imagined events. In a study of 25 people who had lived through an NDE, verbal recollections of the NDE contained more internal/episodic details than flashbulb memories or other autobiographical memories. NDE memories were also the most central to a person's identity, followed by other autobiographical memories, then flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories were associated with lower intensity of feelings during recall, lower personal importance, less reactivation, and a less frequent first-person perspective compared to NDE and control memories. The findings indicate that NDE memories are unique and highly impactful.
Frontiers in Psychology
April 25, 2025
Antonio Metastasio, Elisabeth Prevete, Sofia Venturini et al.
8 citations
People who took psilocybin without other substances reported lasting increases in emotional sensitivity, empathy, and connection to others, along with deeper insights into their lives and values. The experience also led to profound shifts in behavior, attitudes, and interests, suggesting psilocybin can catalyze personal growth. This qualitative study used phenomenological methods to systematically describe the subjective psychedelic experience, aiming to inform its integration into psychotherapy.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2025
Antonio L Crego, José Ramón Yela, María Ángeles Gómez-martínez et al.
8 citations
Standard 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction trainings both produced benefits on anxiety, depression, perceived stress, positive and negative affect, and psychological flexibility compared with a control group. These gains were maintained over a year of continuous practice. The two programmes showed a similar trajectory over the measurement periods. The 8-week MSC programme and regular practice of mindfulness and self-compassion appear to be an effective intervention for promoting mental health in the general population, with benefits similar to those from MBSR.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2025
Farah R Zahir, M Walid Qoronfleh
8 citations
Spiritual meditative practices from the Islamic tradition, such as dhikr and Quran recitation, have historically demonstrated efficacy as treatments for addiction and anxiety. While rigorous empirical research in epigenomics and neuroscience has confirmed that religious and spiritual experiences impact psychology and physiology, Islamic practices have received less scientific attention compared to traditions like mindfulness. A millennium and a half of historical data supports their use as psychotherapy, and they show potential for integration into modern mental health treatments for people of all faiths. Listening to Quranic recitation and forms of dhikr therapy are noted for ease of administration and uniformly positive results, though more empirical studies are needed to translate them into modern complementary and alternative medicine.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 31, 2024
Maggie Yu, Guang Bo Dou, Chen Gong
8 citations
A 7-week mindfulness training program reduced competition state anxiety in Chinese sprinters. Twenty-four sprinters were assigned to either a mindfulness group (weekly 60-minute sessions) or a control group receiving regular psychological guidance. The mindfulness group showed significant reductions in somatic and cognitive state anxiety and improvements in state self-efficacy compared to the control group, as measured by the Competition State Anxiety Scale and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. No significant differences were present at baseline. The results suggest mindfulness training can alleviate competition anxiety in sprinters.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Nathaniel J Johnson, Ryan J Smith, Hali Kil
8 citations
A Canadian lifespan sample aged 14 to 90 years completed questionnaires on five facets of mindfulness, life satisfaction, existential well-being, and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. Using latent profile analysis, five mindfulness profiles emerged: high mindfulness, moderate mindfulness, low mindfulness, nonjudgmentally aware, and judgmentally observing. People in the high mindfulness and nonjudgmentally aware profiles tended to be older and reported the best mental health and well-being. Those in the low mindfulness and judgmentally observing profiles had worse mental health. The moderate mindfulness profile fell between these groups on age and well-being outcomes.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Zoran Josipovic
8 citations
The real achievement of evolution is not merely phenomenal consciousness but consciousness that recognizes itself—a non-conceptual, nondual awareness whose core property is non-representational reflexivity. This review examines reflexivity from the perspective of consciousness itself, proposing that different types of reflexivity in current theories form a gradation of relational distances between consciousness as knower and consciousness as known. This spectrum ranges from fully representational and dual forms, through various qualified monisms, to fully non-representational and nondual reflexivity.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Peter Bruza, Makiko Yamada et al.
8 citations
A new hypothesis called Quantum-like Qualia (QQ) proposes that qualia—the qualities of conscious experience—are best described by the mathematical structure of quantum theory, rather than as points in a dimensional space. The standard view assumes qualia can be measured without changing them, but empirical findings show that internal attention can alter qualia during measurement. QQ treats qualia as observables, sensory inputs and internal attention as states, and measurement outcomes as probabilistic. This structure predicts that qualia can be indeterminate, which can be tested through order effects or violations of Bell inequalities. Confirmation would suggest that quantum mathematics offers novel insights into consciousness.
Frontiers in Psychology
June 16, 2023
Gina Ratkovic, Mike Sosteric, Tristan Sosteric
8 citations
An Indigenous therapist/psychonaut evaluated the Copenhagen Music Program for Psilocybin during a 3.5 gram psilocybin journey and found that its musical selections evoke colonial and religious contexts and are psychologically and emotionally coercive, designed to steer the experience along a predetermined path. The program is deemed unsuitable for Indigenous travelers. The authors suggest curating a broader range of playlists and incorporating music aligned with traditional shamanic practices as a more appropriate approach to psychedelic therapy.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 10, 2022
L. Lundh
8 citations
Contemplative practices, such as mindfulness and gratitude, are engaged in for the experiences they afford, yet the field of Contemplation Studies lacks agreed definitions. This paper proposes that experimental phenomenology—the investigation of how intentional variations in attention and attitude shape experience—can advance the field. Contemplative practices are a subcategory of phenomenological practices. Two varieties of experimental phenomenology are described: an informal kind that historically generated diverse contemplative traditions and can inform personalized health interventions, and a rigorous scientific kind that systematically tests experiential effects. The latter may uncover general principles and help develop new contemplative practices.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2022
Gijs Huisman
8 citations
Research on mediated social touch (MST) often relies on theory theory or simulation theory of social cognition, but these frameworks fail to explain real-world MST interactions. This paper argues for an interaction theory approach, grounded in enactivism and phenomenology, which better accounts for participatory sense-making and haptic engagement. Three future research directions are proposed to advance the study of MST outside laboratory settings.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2022
Raymond Romand, Günter Ehret
8 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs), including out-of-body experiences (OBEs), can be explained by neuro-functional models of altered brain states. By comparing reports from original NDEs with those from experimental settings—such as drug consumption, epilepsy, brain stimulation, ischemic stress, and fighter pilot tests under gravitational stress causing cephalic nervous system ischemia—a large overlap of themes emerged. These models offer scientifically appropriate causal explanations for NDEs. The generation of OBEs can be localized to the temporo-parietal junction, a multimodal association area. The literature suggests that NDEs may arise as hallucination-like phenomena from a brain in altered states of consciousness.
Frontiers in Psychology
December 2, 2021
Rami Gabriel
8 citations
Spiritual emotions generated through imaginative culture—myth, ritual, and art—help fix metaphysical beliefs by making certain information feel salient and true. Evolved affective systems are domesticated through social practices, adapting people to cooperative group life. Conditioning, symbols, and language bond groups via shared imaginative formats. Art, as a form of self-knowledge, provides motivated understanding of oneself in the world. In sacred states produced by arts and religious acts, affect infuses experience with a noetically distinct sense of meaning, making humans attentive to subtle signs and broad truths. This salience, saturated with emotion and alterity, becomes the basis for belief fixation. The theory draws on mimetic arts and arts of immanence to explain how sensible affective knowledge is mediated through affective systems, direct perception, and imagination.