Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Oulmann Zerhouni, Sandra Loisy, Renaud Bouthier et al.
1 citation
A prevention program targeting ecstasy, cannabidiol, and nitrous oxide used four actions: training for 84 association workers, on-site interventions with 248 students, social media posts reaching 186 young people, and providing prevention tools to 148 party organizers. After training, workers' understanding of emerging substances improved from an average score of 15.76 to 18.29. Among young people, intentions to use MDMA shifted from 15.89 to 19.17, and awareness of CBD effects increased from 14.18 to 17.60. Instagram posts about nitrous oxide led to more negative attitudes, with scores changing from 8.16 to 8.42. A website providing information showed no significant effect.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Ivana Buric, Maja Wrzesien, Jelica Milojičić et al.
1 citation
Self-compassion supports psychological health and can be improved through meditation, but it is unclear how to make meditation more effective. In a study with 71 students, a 3-minute sensory or semantic priming task was given before a 15-minute guided self-compassion meditation. Sensory priming reduced self-criticism more than semantic priming or a control condition, though the self-criticism scale had reliability issues. Neither priming type changed self-compassion, positive affect, or negative affect, nor did they boost the meditation's effects on these measures or the appeal of the meditation. The study was underpowered, with post hoc power estimates from 0.20 to 0.42, but offers preliminary insights for future research.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Klaus Gärtner, João L Cordovil
1 citation
The standard view that higher-level properties are grounded in micro-physical properties fails even in physics and chemistry, so arguments that phenomenal consciousness is a special exception to physicalism are misguided. The paper introduces a general notion of grounding, then examines the zombie and knowledge arguments against physicalism about consciousness. It shows that in particle physics and chemistry, the expected reductive relation does not hold, undermining the claim that consciousness is uniquely problematic. The authors propose an alternative way to naturalize phenomenal consciousness within the natural world.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Tania Badia-Aguarón, Estíbaliz Royuela-Colomer, Vanessa Pera-Guardiola et al.
1 citation
A 5-month randomized controlled trial will test whether adding Mindfulness for Health, cognitive training using the NeuronUP® platform, or their combination to usual care improves outcomes for 120 children aged 7–12 with ADHD. The study will assess ADHD symptoms, executive functions, and comorbid symptoms before and after the interventions and at a 5-month follow-up. It will also explore whether mindfulness and emotional regulation mediate clinical outcomes and whether certain characteristics predict treatment response. This is the first test of the combined intervention and of cognitive training alone in this setting, aiming to lay groundwork for a larger definitive trial.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Aleš Oblak, Matic Kuclar, Katja Horvat Golob et al.
1 citation
A detailed case study of a patient with multiple psychiatric comorbidities, maladaptive coping mechanisms, and adverse childhood experiences followed for two years. Using phenomenological interviews, neuropsychological assessments, language analysis, and semi-structured interviews, a personalized network model of the patient's lifeworld was constructed. The core psychopathological theme identified was 'the crisis of objectivity'—a persistent mistrust of any information appraised as originating in his subjectivity, developmentally traceable to adverse childhood experiences and a psychotic episode. Correspondence was found between subjective reports and other data sources. Social sensorimotor, positive valence, and negative valence system dysfunctions likely relate to a primary deficit from childhood adversity, while cognitive symptoms may be tied to maladaptive coping mechanisms or the primary disorder.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Garret Yount, Sitara Taddeo, Tadas Stumbrys et al.
1 citation
Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), a marker of autonomic nervous system activity, was measured in 20 participants with PTSD symptoms who attended a six-day workshop teaching dreamwork and lucidity techniques. Participants collected saliva immediately upon waking and 30 minutes later; healing lucid dreams were those where the dreamer attained lucidity and intended a healing experience. Among four participants with usable samples who experienced healing lucid dreams, statistical tests were not significant due to low power, though nonsignificant positive associations appeared between more healing lucid dreams and increased waking sAA slope. The results did not show a consistent effect, and larger samples with stricter saliva collection controls are needed.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Xixi Yan, Zhongwei Xiong, Huimin Sun et al.
1 citation
Online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) reduces caregiver burden, anxiety, and depression, and improves mindfulness in main caregivers of children with allergic rhinitis. Allergic rhinitis in children is common worldwide, including in China, and harms children's physical and mental health while placing a heavy care burden on caregivers, who often experience mental health problems. The modified online MBCT intervention was found applicable and effective for these caregivers.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Hirotaka Uchitomi, Yuma Yamamoto, Kishiko Ueno et al.
1 citation
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) can be induced scientifically and are of interest for applications in the Metaverse and medicine. This study replicated a 2007 experiment to test whether native language influences the ability to have such experiences. Nineteen age-matched native English and Japanese speakers completed the experiment, and their experiences were assessed via questionnaires. No significant differences were found between the two language groups; OBEs were induced similarly in both, suggesting that people respond to the same stimuli regardless of native language. However, differences in introspective reports indicated that the quality of the experiences may differ, possibly due to linguistic background. Understanding these cultural and cognitive factors could inform OBE applications in borderless virtual environments and healthcare.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Louis N Irwin
1 citation
A new symbolic profile uses three observable behaviors—volition, interaction, and self-direction—to represent subjective experience across animals with a centralized nervous system. Each behavior is quantified by frequency, variety, and dynamism, creating a 3-by-3 matrix that can be displayed as a bidirectional heatmap. This approach allows quick comparison of subjective experience between species, from crustaceans to primates, highlighting similarities and differences without relying on human-centered metrics or empirical data. The profile is a theoretical construct based on markers of consciousness in humans but grounded in behaviors measurable in any animal.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2022
J Kevin O'Regan
1 citation
Two fundamental aspects of phenomenal experiences—their locus (whether they seem external, internal, or mental) and their imposingness (how present they feel, including spatio-temporal presence)—are linked to voluntary control over bodily actions. The external/internal/mental dimension depends on how voluntary bodily actions influence sensorimotor information flow. The degree of imposingness and spatio-temporal presence depends on how voluntary actions are impeded or aided by innate attention-grabbing mechanisms. This account, combined with prior work on inter- and intra-modal differences, suggests a path toward a scientific theory explaining why experiences feel like something rather than nothing.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Alexandra Kitson, Alice Chirico, Andrea Gaggioli et al.
1 citation
correction
This notice corrects an error in a previously published article. No new findings or arguments are presented.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
Konstantinos Moutoussis
1 citation
A percept emerges when the brain is activated in a certain way, and all perceptual experiences—whether veridical, illusory, or hallucinatory—share this common neural cause. What distinguishes them is the separate external cause of that activation pattern. The article argues that everyday language’s separation of the perceptual event from its hypothetical content creates unnecessary ontological complications. A clear distinction is made between physical properties of the real world (e.g., wavelength reflectance) and psychological properties of perceptual experiences (e.g., color). Although perception is a way of acquiring knowledge, this acquisition is a cognitive process separate from and following perception, which should remain neutral regarding the truth of the knowledge acquired.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 13, 2026
Wen-Ming Liang, Inga Griškova-bulanova, Jing Xiao et al.
Combining Liuzijue breathing, a traditional Chinese practice of controlled abdominal movements and low-pitched vocalization, with mindful breathing produced more sustained relaxation in anxious male university students than mindful breathing alone. In a randomized crossover trial of 24 male participants aged 21 ± 2 with anxiety symptoms, the combination sequence (5 minutes Liuzijue breathing followed by 10 minutes mindful breathing) led to greater continued reductions in heart rate and greater progressive increases in heart rate variability compared to 15 minutes of mindful breathing alone. Participants also reported significantly higher concentration during mindful breathing after Liuzijue breathing. During Liuzijue breathing, respiration rate was lower and peripheral oxygen saturation was higher, with end-tidal carbon dioxide lower during minutes 2–5. These physiological changes may explain the enhanced relaxation.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 10, 2026
Katharina Voltmer, Annette M. Klein
Breath-based state mindfulness, but not self-reported trait mindfulness, was positively associated with emotion understanding in German primary school children over an eight-month school year. The multilevel model, controlling for gender, working memory updating, and concentration performance, showed a significant effect of state mindfulness on emotion understanding alongside time and working memory updating. The authors suggest that brief mindfulness practices may support social-emotional competences even without explicit social-emotional learning components, highlighting their potential relevance in school contexts.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 10, 2026
Baran Kahraman, Lena Rader, Siegfried Gauggel et al.
Two studies examined whether decentering and self-compassion can be trained to improve self-esteem regulation. In Study 1 (230 participants), decentering was linked to higher self-affirmation, and self-compassion to lower self-protection; meditators reported higher self-esteem, decentering, and self-compassion than non-meditators. In Study 2 (66 participants), brief guided audio meditations increased decentering and self-compassion relative to a control condition, with the decentering intervention showing the strongest effects. The authors argue that enhancing decentering and self-compassion through brief practices may help improve self-esteem regulation and resilience in people vulnerable to mental health problems.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 9, 2026
Farah A. Mili, Emily K. Lindsay
Childhood abuse is linked to depersonalization symptoms in young adults, but trait mindfulness—especially the tendency to accept present-moment experience without judgment—may weaken that link. Among 81 participants aged 18–29, childhood abuse was associated with depersonalization. However, those with high overall mindfulness showed a much weaker association. The buffering effect was strongest when participants reported both high observation of experience and high nonjudgmental acceptance. In contrast, those who observed their experience without accepting it still showed a strong abuse-depersonalization connection. Acceptance alone also reduced the link. The findings suggest that mindfulness, particularly its accepting quality, may protect against depersonalization after trauma.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 8, 2026
Yuanji Liu, S W Wang
A 22-year-old man who used the veterinary anesthetic Zoletil 50 (a mix of tiletamine and zolazepam) recreationally by insufflation about once or twice a week developed a 4-month history of low mood, loss of interest, and feelings of detachment from self and surroundings. After repeated use, he experienced acute episodes of intense panic, terror, rapid heartbeat, and palpitations lasting 30–60 minutes. The case suggests that recreational use of Zoletil 50 or tiletamine-containing e-cigarettes can lead to addiction, depressed mood, panic attacks, and other psychiatric symptoms, and overdose can be fatal.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 7, 2026
Sonu Sharma, Pradeep Kumar, Vishva Chaudhary et al.
This conceptual paper compares Indian philosophical traditions—Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, and the teachings of J. Krishnamurti—with contemporary psychology, which typically aims to build a cohesive self for wellbeing. These traditions critique the idea of a fixed self-identity. The paper relates these comparisons to contemplative neuroscience, focusing on the default mode network, self-referential processing, and meditation-related changes in self-experience. It proposes a spectrum model: self-referential processing as an ordinary mode, meta-awareness as a trainable capacity, and non-self experience as a transformed outcome. The framework suggests wellbeing may involve flexible regulation of self-identification rather than simple self-enhancement. Implications for research, clinical practice, and cultural interpretation are discussed.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 3, 2026
Fredric Schiffer
Space and time are irreducible dimensions of nature, and life and experience are proposed as similarly irreducible dimensions, together called lifeexperience. From this dimensional ground emerges the Force of Experience, a candidate fifth fundamental force whose causal reality is evidenced by human civilization. Physics fails to explain consciousness and life by treating them as derivable from lower-level processes rather than as foundational dimensions.
Frontiers in Psychology
June 30, 2026
Yiwen Zhang
Jung's theory of individuation reaches a structural limit that Vijnanvada (Yogacara) Buddhist philosophy can identify and continue. Prior comparative scholarship that mapped Jungian archetypes onto Buddhist categories conceals a more fundamental asymmetry between the two traditions. Both traditions posit a subliminal mind (collective unconscious or alaya-vijnana) in response to the insufficiency of surface consciousness. Jung's integrative methodology misreads the structural self-grasping of manas as content available for integration. The Jungian Self archetype reproduces at a more sophisticated level the same atma-graha structure that manas enacts in lived experience. Vijnanvada's doctrine of 'turning consciousness into wisdom' articulates a transformation of cognitive mode that Jung's framework approaches but does not formulate. Individuation functions as precondition for the subtler work of transforming the structural orientation of cognition itself.
Frontiers in Psychology
June 29, 2026
Bruno Forti
Conscious vision, according to Extended Information Theory, lets us know how objects extend into space, compensating for limitations of neuro-computational systems that handle point-like information. This paper explores links between spatial extension and two other properties of phenomenal experience: subjectivity and qualitative aspect. The author identifies thingness—the materialization of something extending into space—as an underlying property from which subjectivity and quality derive. Subjectivity involves a structure where a third-person world forms within a first-person world, creating egocentric knowledge. Quality conveys how something materializes based on its degree of differentiation from other qualities, transforming unconscious into conscious knowledge. A hypothesis is proposed for how qualities may originate from physical brain processes.
Frontiers in Psychology
June 24, 2026
Xiaodong Luo
Self-consciousness originated in an animal ancestor when repeated exposure to its own mirror image triggered illusory transformations and discontinuous leaps in the brain's conscious reaction, eventually leading to mental self-consciousness. The Mirror-Induced Leap of Consciousness (MLC) model formalizes this eight-stage evolutionary process. Consciousness is defined as the brain's reaction to a percept's attribute, formalized as C = R(a(p)). The principle of percept drift explains how repetitive mirror stimulation drives conscious change, supported by the rubber hand illusion experiment. The framework integrates behavioral experiments, logical reasoning, and mathematical modeling to address the generation, transformation, and definition of consciousness.
Frontiers in Psychology
June 22, 2026
Junhong Zhu
This article argues that the Confucian Analects and the Daoist Zhuangzi, often seen as opposing traditions, actually address a shared problem: how to reorient the heart-mind under conditions of suffering and attachment. Through close textual analysis, it shows that Confucian materials associated with Yan Hui address this by giving desire and conduct an ethical form through ritual discipline and moral commitment, while the Daoist Zhuangzi loosens evaluative fixation through stillness and release from rigid concepts. The article proposes an integrative dual-path model where Confucian moral anchoring and Daoist cognitive release are complementary responses to a common human difficulty, offering insights for psychological adjustment and self-cultivation.
Frontiers in Psychology
June 22, 2026
Thurston Lacalli
Conscious vision presents a challenge for theories of consciousness because it involves a 2-dimensional perceptual display. A modular/constitutive model requires that awareness of visual stimuli has position-dependence, meaning the physical location of each module contributing to visual experience has perceptual consequences. Conscious gaze control registers salient visual features in a way that has no preconscious counterpart and helps visual experience acquire meaning. The analysis justifies Merker's ideas on vision and gaze control as core functions of consciousness, where postnatal refinement of visual skills equates to learning agency. It provides a framework for the hard problem and suggests conscious experience for non-visual species may incorporate position-dependent components based on something other than light perception. The adaptive advantage of consciousness depends on both position-dependent contents and valence to assign meaning to experience.
Frontiers in Psychology
June 12, 2026
Annahita Nezami, Elisa Raffaella Ferrè
Earth's gravity acts as a deeply ingrained '1G super-prior' in the brain's predictive architecture, stabilizing how the brain integrates sensory information and organizes large-scale networks. When people enter microgravity, disrupted vestibular signals destabilize this super-prior, causing widespread prediction errors that force recalibration across brain systems. This process extends beyond sensorimotor adaptation to reshape conscious experience—altering self-location, emotional regulation, and perceptual coherence, and potentially triggering transformative phenomena. Drawing computational parallels with psychedelic states, the authors propose that microgravity transiently relaxes high-level priors and enhances global integration, offering a non-pharmacological way to probe the foundations of human awareness.