Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2017
Stefano Gallotto, Alexander T. Sack, Teresa Schuhmann et al.
Conscious experiences are linked to brain activity, known as the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). This review focuses on spontaneous brain oscillations—rhythmic fluctuations of neuronal activity characterized by frequency, amplitude, and phase. It surveys oscillatory measures that correlate with conscious perception and discusses techniques like entrainment for studying their causal role. Findings suggest that alpha-band activity (7-13 Hz) may index or causally support conscious perception. However, results highlight a challenge in NCC research: separating neural activity that is a prerequisite for consciousness from the substrate or consequences of conscious experience.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2017
Xianglong Zeng, Floria H. N. Chio, Tian P S Oei et al.
A systematic review of 22 interventions using the Four Immeasurables Meditations (loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity) found that increased meditation practice time generally did not lead to better outcomes. Only five studies reported that more than half of the calculated associations between practice amount and results were significant. Short-term influence of meditation practice showed a better association with outcomes than total practice amount, but this was examined in fewer studies. The review identifies two promising mechanisms for how practice may lead to daily-life changes and highlights common methodological issues, such as lack of experimental manipulation and inaccurate measurement of meditation practice.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2017
Giulia Piredda
The extended mind hypothesis holds that some mental states can be realized by non-biological external resources. Two main criticisms—the coupling-constitution fallacy and the alleged lack of a mark of the cognitive—have been raised against this view. This paper argues that neither criticism is effective. The mark of the cognitive proposed by critics does not secure the position that cognition is always intracranial, and the coupling-constitution fallacy attacks extended cognition on the very point the theory was designed to defend: that coupling relations between agents and environmental resources are the best way to individuate cognitive systems.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2017
Florian Kurth, Nicolas Cherbuin, Eileen Luders
Meditation may protect the aging brain, but how it does so is not well understood. This review first examines normal brain aging, focusing on telomeres, inflammation, stress regulation, and macroscopic brain anatomy. It then summarizes evidence suggesting meditation has positive effects on brain aging, and discusses possible mechanisms mediating these effects. Critical questions remain unanswered, and existing research needs better integration.
Frontiers in Psychology
December 22, 2016
José Felipe Rodriguez de Sá, Sérgio Arthuro Mota-Rolim
Sleep paralysis is a dissociative state during awakening marked by inability to move, visual hallucinations, chest pressure, and fear. While most people experience it rarely, it becomes a parasomnia when recurrent or distressing. Across cultures, sleep paralysis has been interpreted supernaturally: Canadian Eskimos attribute it to shamans' spells, Japanese tradition to a vengeful spirit, Nigerian culture to a female demon, and modern accounts to alien abductions. This review examines the Pisadeira, a Brazilian folk figure who tramples the chest of those sleeping on a full stomach, and compares it with other cultural manifestations. The work argues that sleep paralysis is a biological phenomenon shaped by cultural context.
Frontiers in Psychology
December 22, 2016
Firat Soylu
Understanding is a common but poorly defined psychological construct, studied less than learning or memory. Studying it requires integrating first-person experience, behavior, and neural data. Psychological understanding has been defined as conscious knowing, while a biofunctional approach includes unconscious, implicit, automatic, and intuitive cognition. To bridge these, an embodied and evolutionary perspective situates biofunctional understanding within embodiment theories. Simulation theories of cognition, which treat simulation of sensorimotor and affective states as central, can connect biofunctional and psychological understanding.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 4, 2016
Gunther Meinlschmidt, Jong-Hwan Lee, Esther Stalujanis et al.
Daily smartphone-based micro-interventions guided by short video-clips and based on psychotherapeutic techniques (viscerosensory attention, emotional imagery, facial expression, contemplative repetition) elicited short-term mood improvements in 27 men over 13 days. Mixed models showed better mood, increased wakefulness, and greater calmness from pre- to post-intervention. Improvements in good-bad mood from pre- to post-intervention were associated with overall mood change across the study period, but not for awake-tired or calm-nervous dimensions. The findings suggest these micro-interventions are a feasible complement to other psychotherapeutic approaches in real-world settings.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 4, 2016
Tomer Fekete, Cees van Leeuwen, Shimon Edelman
A computational measure of consciousness (MoC) must be graded, applicable across systems and times, but faces a boundary problem: any MoC that labels a system conscious will also label many of its subsystems, irrelevant extensions, and aggregates of conscious individuals as conscious, implying either that the measured properties are epiphenomenal or that minds proliferate bizarrely. The authors propose solving this by requiring MoCs to measure intrinsic or systemic properties—those that distinguish systems whose existence is a matter of fact from those existing only by interpretation. They argue that a systemic MoC resolves boundary issues and analyze Integrated Information Theory and Geometric Theory of consciousness as test cases.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 8, 2016
Talis eBachmann
This opinion article argues that the contrastive analysis approach, which compares neural activity during conscious versus unconscious perception, has been the most productive method in consciousness research. It contends that this method is not merely a tool but has shaped the very questions researchers ask about consciousness. The author suggests that focusing on the contents of consciousness, particularly through criterion contents of report, provides a more tractable path forward than seeking a single neural correlate of consciousness. The article concludes that the contrastive approach will continue to yield progress by refining our understanding of the neural differences underlying conscious experience.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 4, 2016
Jennifer Streiffer Mascaro, Alana eDarcher, Lobsang Tenzin Negi et al.
A coherent theoretical model is lacking for how kindness-based meditation alters the brain and body, despite its growing use to enhance prosocial emotions and social cognition. This paper links contemplative accounts of compassion and loving-kindness practices with social cognitive neuroscience and social psychology to generate predictions. Depending on the specific practice, kindness-based meditation may enhance neural systems for faster perceptual or motor simulation, simulation of another's affective body state, slower perspective-taking, emotion regulation, and self/other discrimination. The model is discussed alongside best practices for testing it and implications for future research.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 4, 2016
Gustav eMarkkula
A model-based analysis proposes that the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) may not be experiment-independent. The author argues that perception and action selection are fundamentally similar, referring to perceptual neuronal activations as covert behavior. A narrative behavior model is outlined, describing how the brain selects covert and overt behaviors to construct a multi-level narrative about what it is like to be the individual. The hypothesis suggests that we admit conscious experience of X when we find ourselves acceptably capable of performing narrative behavior describing X. The account reconciles conflicting empirical results from competing theories and suggests well-defined, experiment-independent NCCs are unlikely to exist. The analysis also discusses how an organism could adopt notions of subjective experience and explanatory gaps.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 4, 2016
Baland eJalal
A novel meditation-relaxation (MR) therapy is proposed as a direct treatment for sleep paralysis (SP), a state of involuntary immobility at sleep onset or offset often accompanied by terrifying hallucinations. The intervention combines focused inward-attention meditation with muscle relaxation in four steps: reappraisal of the attack, psychological distancing, inward-focused meditation, and muscle relaxation. It aims to shift attention away from frightening hallucinations and paralysis toward a positive internal object, potentially reducing panic and arousal. A Panic-Hallucination (PH) Model describes how fear creates a positive feedback loop worsening attacks and driving hallucination content. Case examples illustrate feasibility, though no controlled trial data are presented.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 4, 2016
Taylor W. Webb, Michael S A Graziano
The attention schema theory proposes that subjective awareness arises from the brain constructing a simplified internal model of its own attention process, similar to how it builds a body schema. This model helps improve top-down control of attention by providing the brain with a useful abstraction of how attention works. The theory accounts for dissociations between awareness and attention, explains awareness of both internal and external events, and makes testable predictions—such as that attention without awareness should show control deficits. The authors review evidence suggesting these predictions are supported.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
Clayton H. Mcclintock, Elsa Lau, Lisa Miller
Five universal dimensions of spirituality—love, unifying interconnectedness, altruism, contemplative practice, and religious and spiritual reflection and commitment—were identified across China, India, and the United States. Love, interconnectedness, and altruism were associated with lower risk of depression, suicidal ideation, generalized anxiety, and substance-related disorders in all three countries. Religious and spiritual reflection and commitment and contemplative practice were linked to lower risk in India and the United States but to greater risk in China. Education correlated positively with spiritual awareness in India and China but negatively in the United States. The findings suggest spirituality is a universal phenomenon with dimensions that may offer protective effects against psychiatric conditions.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
Nick Medford, Mauricio Sierra, Argyris Stringaris et al.
In depersonalization disorder (DPD), a condition marked by a diminished sense of self and dampened emotional experience, functional MRI revealed that emotional processing is altered. Before treatment, patients showed reduced brain activity in the insula—a region linked to interoceptive awareness and feeling states—along with attenuated autonomic responses to emotional visual stimuli. After pharmacological treatment, clinical improvement in DPD symptoms was associated with increased insula activity. A right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex area also appeared to be involved in top-down inhibition of emotional responses. These findings connect emotional numbing in DPD to disrupted interoception and self-related processes.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
correction
This is a correction notice for an earlier article. It specifies the corrected page and volume for the original publication, identified by its PubMed ID. No new findings, methods, or arguments are presented.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
Jim Hopkins
The free energy neuroscience developed by Karl Friston parallels Freud's Project for a Scientific Psychology, including a virtual reality generator producing fictive prior beliefs akin to Freud's primary process. The brain minimizes free energy aroused by sensory and interoceptive impingements by constructing a model that increases accuracy in waking and reduces complexity in sleep through synaptic pruning and REM dreaming. Complexity partly reflects emotional conflict and trauma, and dreams and symptoms both reduce complexity from adverse amygdala-related arousals. Mental disorder arises from computational complexity and evolved complexity-reduction mechanisms like synaptic pruning. A dream fragment analysis shows complexity reduction resembling Bayesian model selection.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
Jesus Montero-Marin, Marta Puebla-Guedea, Paola Herrera-Mercadal et al.
A one-month Vipassana meditation retreat, involving 8-9 hours of daily practice, a vegetarian diet, and compulsory silence, increased non-attachment, mindfulness (observing), well-being (positive affect, balanced affect), and cooperativeness in experienced meditators compared to matched controls who did not attend the retreat. Decreases occurred in describing, negative views of others, reward dependence, and self-directedness. Non-attachment partly explained changes in decentering, acting with awareness, non-reactivity, negative affect, balanced affect, self-directedness, and life satisfaction, and moderated changes in describing and positive views of others. The retreat appears to improve psychological outcomes even in experienced meditators, with non-attachment potentially enabling further gains beyond non-intensive practice.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
Michelle Maiese
The surrounding world can help sustain and amplify both cognition and emotion. Affective niches—environmental resources and interpersonal scaffolds—not only evoke specific emotions and bodily affective styles but also support self-awareness and interpersonal understanding. In psychotherapy and peacebuilding, these affective scaffolds facilitate self-knowledge, enhance social cognition, and build trust among participants. This is because affectivity shapes how subjects frame and attend to their surroundings; regulating and modifying emotion opens up new interpretive frames and establishes new habits of mind. Thus, creating an affective niche can significantly contribute to various modes of cognition.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
Nicolas Ribeiro, Yannick Gounden, Véronique Quaglino
Lucid dreaming (LD) is a state where the dreamer knows they are dreaming and may control the dream. This study compared two questionnaire methods for measuring LD frequency in French students: one giving a definition of LD and another asking separate questions about dream awareness and control. No significant difference in LD frequency was found between the methods; 81.05% of participants reported LD at least once with the definition-based questionnaire, and 73.38% with the indicator-based questionnaire. However, correlations between LD prevalence and factors like vividness of mental imagery and parasomnia differed by questionnaire type, suggesting that methodology can influence findings in LD research.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2016
Sascha Benjamin Fink
A widely accepted definition of the neural correlate of consciousness (NCC), proposed by Chalmers in 2000, defines an NCC as a neural system minimally sufficient for a conscious experience. This definition has several shortcomings: it focuses on the capacity to experience rather than actual experiences, fails to address cases motivating NCC research, does not match how scientists use the term, and prevents comparative hypothesis testing. An improved operationalization, called NCC2.0, is proposed that avoids these problems while retaining compatibility with extended, embedded, enacted, or embodied accounts of consciousness and allowing for non-biological or artificial experiencers.
Frontiers in Psychology
December 2, 2015
T. V. van Leeuwen, W. Singer, D. Nikolić
Synesthesia, where sensory stimuli or cognitive concepts trigger additional perceptual experiences, offers a valuable window into consciousness. The authors argue that studying synesthesia helps identify mental and physiological processes underlying conscious experience. They review research emphasizing the role of semantics in forming synesthetic associations in the brain. The interplay between semantics and sensory input, particularly using ambiguous stimuli to induce synesthesia, can aid in studying neural correlates of consciousness. Additionally, alterations in brain networks and functional connectivity associated with synesthesia provide insights into consciousness.
Frontiers in Psychology
July 3, 2015
K. Bærentsen
The authors propose that Patanjali's definition of meditation as the 'restriction (or stilling) of the fluctuations of the mind' can serve as a starting point for fMRI research. They argue that an operational definition of the neural substrate of meditation adequate to this definition can be developed from a non-reductionistic understanding of the mind's neural underpinnings in terms of dynamical functional brain systems.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 6, 2015
Boris Bornemann, B. Herbert, W. Mehling et al.
A 3-month contemplative intervention involving daily Body Scan and Breath Meditation improved five of eight measured aspects of interoceptive body awareness (IA) in 148 participants, compared to a retest control group. The strongest improvements occurred in regulatory aspects—how the body is used for self-regulation in daily life—while the Noticing aspect (awareness of bodily changes) showed no significant change. Participants with low baseline IA changed most. Practice duration weakly predicted individual differences, but liking the practices and integrating them into daily life predicted changes on most scales. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire, tested in a German version with 1,076 participants, showed good reliability and validity.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2015
Peter Payne, Peter A Levine, Mardi A Crane-Godreau
A theory of human trauma and chronic stress, grounded in the practice of Somatic Experiencing (SE) therapy, proposes that these conditions arise from a functional dysregulation of a subcortical network—the core response network (CRN)—that integrates autonomic, limbic, motor, and arousal systems. SE guides attention to interoceptive, kinesthetic, and proprioceptive experience to complete thwarted self-protective responses and discharge excess autonomic arousal, restoring CRN functionality. A composite case study illustrates the approach. The authors argue that such somatic methods supplement cognitive and exposure therapies, and that similar mechanisms may underlie benefits of meditation and other somatic practices.