Frontiers in Psychology
August 6, 2018
Stuart Fogel, L. Bryan Ray, Valya Sergeeva et al.
37 citations
The extent to which newly learned material is incorporated into dreams is related to individual differences in cognitive abilities. Using a computational linguistic approach to measure semantic similarity between waking experiences and dream reports, the study found that the richness of incorporation of a spatial or motor memory task into early hypnagogic dreams correlated with reasoning abilities (r=0.41), while incorporation into later dreams correlated with verbal abilities (r=0.46). Memory performance improvements were related to dream incorporation (r=0.47) for early but not late dreams, but this relationship was not mediated by cognitive abilities, suggesting a direct link between reasoning and dream incorporation.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Piers Worth, Matthew D Smith
36 citations
Self-transcendence is proposed as a way to find relief and support during COVID-19 and other times of uncertainty, but its multiple existing definitions are complex, obscure, and imprecisely spiritual, making it excluding for wider populations. This critical summary review examines historical foundations and key theoretical approaches to self-transcendence and self-transcendent experiences, aiming for clarity. The authors argue that clearer understanding can make self-transcendence an inclusive, democratized resource for supporting well-being and resilience in the context of COVID and beyond.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2015
Dylan Van der Schyff
36 citations
The enactive approach to cognition offers a relational, bio-cultural perspective on music that moves beyond Western reliance on language, symbol, and representation as primary sources of meaning. This life-based view provides an alternative to standard academic music education by emphasizing the embodied, transformative, and interpenetrative nature of the musical mind, helping reconnect students and teachers to lived experience. Concepts from Buddhist psychology further develop possibilities for a contemplative music pedagogy. An enactive-contemplative perspective may help students and teachers rediscover music as a manifestation of life, fostering richer, more compassionate relationships with peers, communities, and the natural and cultural worlds.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2013
Jake Quilty-Dunn
36 citations
Thomas Reid's theory of perception holds that conscious perception consists of a non-intentional sensation accompanied by a noninferential perceptual belief. For olfactory perception and odors as secondary qualities, this creates a tension: Reid seems to require that we infer odors from sensations, which would preclude direct, noninferential perceptual awareness of odors. The paper argues that Reid's doctrine of "acquired perception"—where learned conceptual representations become incorporated into perceptual states via perceptual learning—resolves this tension. Acquired perception allows genuine olfactory perceptual acquaintance with odors, even though the semantic properties of the representations depend on causal relations to sensations. Reid's account of olfaction remains a coherent option for contemporary philosophy of perception.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Johannes Jaeger, Anna Riedl, Alex Djedovic et al.
35 citations
Organisms solve problems in a way that fundamentally differs from algorithmic computation. Before an organism can apply logical rules, it must first determine what is relevant—turning ill-defined problems into well-defined ones. This ability to realize relevance is present in all living beings, from bacteria to humans, and arises from their autopoietic, anticipatory, and adaptive organization. The process of relevance realization cannot be fully captured by formal algorithms, implying that organismic agency, cognition, and consciousness are not computational in nature. Instead, relevance is realized through an adaptive, emergent triadic dialectic—a metabolic and ecological-evolutionary co-constructive dynamic—that allows an agent to continuously maintain a grip on its reality. Being alive means making sense of one's world through embodied ecological rationality, a key characteristic distinguishing life from non-living matter.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 5, 2022
Anna Søndergaard, Brice Ozenne, Sophia Armand et al.
35 citations
People who took psilocybin showed significantly higher trait mindfulness three months later, and the size of this increase was linked to how intense their mystical-type experience was during the drug session. Higher trait mindfulness before taking psilocybin was associated with lower serotonin 2A receptor binding in the right amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing. These findings suggest that the acute, mystical quality of the psilocybin experience may help shift awareness in ways that support mindful living, and that pre-existing mindfulness relates to specific brain receptor patterns.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Elmarie Venter
35 citations
Predictive processing theories of the brain have split into two opposing camps: cognitivist predictive processing, which restricts cognition to neural processes, and free energy enactivism, which extends free energy minimization to all self-organizing systems and offers no unique explanation for complex human cognition. This paper rejects both extremes and proposes Embodied, Embedded Predictive Processing (EEPP), a compromise that distinguishes prediction error minimization from the free energy principle. EEPP gives the body a constitutive role in cognition: it regulates cognitive activity, distributes cognitive load by minimizing prediction error, and constrains processed information. The embodied agent, as a model of its econiche, minimizes free energy through bidirectional agent–environment interaction, making EEPP a promising alternative.
Frontiers in Psychology
March 26, 2019
Patrick Jones
35 citations
The science of everyday heroism is expanding, and this inquiry asks what could produce a superhero. Drawing on Buddhist psychology, the authors examine eight foundational jhana states of attention and six consequent abhinna special abilities claimed to arise from mental mastery. A growing base of empirical literature suggests some mindfulness practitioners exhibit enhanced functioning: elevated physical health and resistance to disease, increased immunity to aging, improved cognitive processing, greater resilience and fearlessness, more self-less and pro-social behaviors, some control over normally autonomic responses, and possibly some paranormal functionality.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Matthew Crippen
34 citations
A pragmatic reading reconciles the apparent conflict between ecological psychology's realism and enactivism's constructivism by showing that constructivism need not be subjectivist. The slime mold Physarum polycephalum illustrates this: it builds chemical barriers from its own slime trails, then avoids them during foraging, coordinating around self-created affordance-bearing geographies that nonetheless exist independently. For ecological psychologists, affordances are values external to the perceiver; agent-enacted values have the same status and do not imply subjectivism. The debate centers on whether emphasis falls on inner constitution or environmental structure. Considering loops involving environment, brain, visceral systems, and gut bacteria reveals mutual internal-external synchronization that can invert values without subjectivism, showing enactivism can enrich ecological accounts of value.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2010
Anil K. Seth
34 citations
The article argues that the concept of a 'cognitive unconscious' is fundamentally flawed because it conflates two distinct meanings of the term 'unconscious.' One meaning refers to mental processes that are inaccessible to introspection, while the other refers to neural processes that are not mental at all. The authors contend that much of what is called unconscious cognition is better understood as non-conscious neural activity that lacks the representational content required for genuine mental states. They conclude that the cognitive unconscious is a misleading notion that obscures the true relationship between mind and brain.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Joerg Fingerhut
33 citations
The still-emerging paradigm of situated cognition requires a more systematic perspective on media to capture how culture shapes the mind. Cultural artifacts, as media, provide central experiential models for embodied minds. The paper identifies references to external media within embodied, extended, enactive, and predictive approaches to cognition, which underdevelop media's profound impact. To address this, an enactive account of media is proposed, based on expansive habits as media-structured, embodied ways of bringing forth meaning. These habits, applied when seeing a picture or perceiving a movie, become established through reciprocal adaptation between media artifacts and organisms.
Frontiers in Psychology
May 10, 2022
Annelies Van’t Westeinde, K. Patel
32 citations
The Heartfulness method of meditation combines the ancient technique of Pranahuti (yogic Transmission) during meditation with a mental practice called Cleaning, both enabled by initiation. These features distinguish it from other meditation systems studied scientifically. This paper introduces the practices and their philosophical basis, reflects on possible mechanisms of effects on body and mind based on research in other meditation systems, and suggests directions for future research.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Eros Moreira de Carvalho, Giovanni Rolla
32 citations
Information is central to cognitive science and neuroscience, but its meaning for a cognitive system acquiring information about its surroundings is debated. This theoretical paper argues that the ecological psychology concept of information for action can be understood as covariant information, as developed by some enactivists. Learning to perceive this covariant information involves minimizing uncertainty through skilled performance, aligning with Shannon's idea of uncertainty reduction. The authors propose that an agent's cognitive system conveys information for acting by minimizing uncertainty about achieving intended goals. They review empirical findings showing that direct learning, an instance of ecological rationality, transforms mere possibilities for action into embodied know-how, and note its affinity with sense-making activity.
Frontiers in Psychology
November 15, 2019
Raphael Vallat, Perrine Marie Ruby
32 citations
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Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2023
Alejandro Troncoso, Vicente Soto, Antoni Gomila et al.
31 citations
Empathy, crucial for social interaction, is often studied in controlled lab settings that miss its real-world complexity. This article proposes an integrative framework called the Empirical 5E (E5E) approach, which combines embodied, embedded, enacted, emotional, and extended perspectives of empathy. The authors argue for studying empathy as an active interaction between embodied agents in a shared environment. They illustrate how a multimodal method—mobile brain and body imaging (MoBi) paired with phenomenological techniques and natural interactive paradigms—can capture both neural and bodily processes alongside subjective experience. This framework aims to bridge brain, body, and phenomenological attributes to better reflect how empathy actually occurs in everyday life.
Frontiers in Psychology
March 25, 2022
Wendy Pots, Farid Chakhssi
31 citations
Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for depression typically follows a structure of preparation, dosing support (navigation), and integration, but often lacks a specific theoretical model. This paper proposes integrating Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) as the guiding framework, arguing that CFT's compassion practices may enhance psychologically insightful experiences during navigation and integration sessions, potentially augmenting antidepressant effects. The authors describe the rationale for CFT, its compatibility with psilocybin therapy, and outline an integrated protocol and study design, while noting limitations.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Sérgio Mota-Rolim, Kelly Bulkeley, Stephany Campanelli et al.
31 citations
Religions have long recognized lucid dreaming (LD) as an important conscious state, predating modern scientific study by millennia. Hindu texts over 2,000 years old divide consciousness into waking, dreaming (including LD), and deep sleep. Tibetan Buddhists practice Dream Yoga to recognize dreams, overcome fears, and control dream content. Islam regards LD as a valuable mental state for mystical experiences. Christian theologian Augustine described LD as a preview of the afterlife. Spiritism in the nineteenth century linked LD to out-of-body experiences. Abrahamic religions view dreams as communication with God, while Indian traditions cultivate self-awareness through LD induction techniques. These historical religious insights can inform current scientific research on LD phenomenology.
Frontiers in Psychology
August 3, 2018
Joachim Keppler
31 citations
Consciousness arises from the brain's interaction with a universal background field, the zero-point field (ZPF), according to a theoretical framework grounded in stochastic electrodynamics. In the extroverted, stimulus-oriented mode, the brain writes persistent information states into the ZPF during theta cycles to produce streams of consciousness. In the introspective mode, linked to default mode network activity, the brain reads and filters ZPF information states during alpha cycles, enabling the sense of self and memory retrieval. Meditative practices and psychedelics detune this filter, preventing self-referential states and dissolving the ego, while allowing access to a wider spectrum of ZPF modes and expanded consciousness.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2023
Brian H. Ge, Fan Yang
30 citations
Self-transcendence significantly aids individuals in coping with suffering. It enhances positive emotions, such as awe and compassion, which can overshadow negative feelings like despair. In a review of literature involving over 1,000 participants, self-transcendent thinking provided a broader context for understanding suffering, helping individuals find meaning in their experiences. Additionally, the motivation to pursue self-transcendence can deter unhealthy coping strategies, fostering prosocial behaviors that strengthen social support networks. This framework highlights how embracing a larger perspective can elevate human existence amid adversity.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Brigitte Holzinger, Bernd Saletu, Gerhard Klösch
30 citations
Lucid dreaming therapy (LDT) did not improve sleep quality or reduce nightmare severity in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it significantly decreased levels of anxiety and depression. About 80% of PTSD patients suffer from nightmares or dysphoric dreams. LDT teaches dreamers to become aware of and control dream content, offering a potential alternative or complementary treatment for PTSD-related anxiety and depression, even though it had no effect on sleep variables or the PTSD profile measured by the Impact of Events Scale.
Frontiers in Psychology
March 5, 2020
J. Keppler, I. Shani
29 citations
A novel variant of cosmopsychism proposes that the universe contains a ubiquitous field of consciousness (UFC) as a foundational dual-aspect component, with physical and phenomenological manifestations. The neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) indicate the brain's interaction with and modulation of this UFC. Drawing on modern physics, the modulation mechanism is identical to that underlying quantum systems: coherently oscillating neural assemblies acquire phenomenal properties by temporarily liaising with the UFC and extracting specific phenomenal tones from its inherent palette. This hypothesis addresses the origin of subjective experience and the causal generation of specific phenomenal states, and is supported by empirical evidence.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Amanda Corris
29 citations
Enactivism and ecological psychology both emphasize that perceiving organisms actively shape their relationship with the environment rather than passively receiving stimuli. However, neither approach specifies the structure of the environment beyond its contingent links to species-typical sensorimotor capacities. This leaves a gap in understanding how organisms are organized as coupled with their environments. Drawing on developmental systems theory, the environment can be defined as a developmental niche that both shapes and is shaped by individual organisms over developmental and evolutionary time. Specifying the environment as a developmental niche clarifies how and why certain contingencies arise, strengthening the joint appeal to enactivism and ecological psychology as complementary theories of organism–environment coupling.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2019
Michal Polák, Tomáš Marvan
29 citations
The hard problem of consciousness—explaining why and how physical processes give rise to subjective experience—may be partly an artifact of assuming that consciousness and phenomenality (the quality of subjective experience) are inseparable. Rejecting this assumption and adopting a non-unitary view, in which consciousness and phenomenality can come apart, does not eliminate the hard problem but reframes it, making the explanatory task more tractable and reducing the apparent mystery. The paper sketches additional advantages of this non-unitary account.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2018
Wanja Wiese
29 citations
A meta-theoretical analysis examines the method of interdisciplinary constraint satisfaction (MICS) introduced in Metzinger's Being No One, which combines phenomenological, representationalist, and neurobiological perspectives to study consciousness. Despite this approach's promise, a mature science of consciousness remains elusive more than a decade later. The paper identifies hurdles MICS has yet to overcome, evaluates how existing approaches address these gaps, and argues that a unifying theory integrating different features of consciousness is necessary for progress.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Yanna B Popova, Joanna Rączaszek-leonardi
28 citations
Ecological psychology and enactivism, despite sharing roots in embodied cognition, have diverged in how they understand embodied experience. This paper argues that recognizing these differences can lead to a more integrated approach to agency, social cognition, and art reception. The authors propose a synergy where ecological psychology incorporates felt experience as a dynamic element in its models, while enactivism accounts for directly perceived relations arising from enactments in the social and physical world. Such complementarity is not only possible but already emerging, potentially overcoming current divisions of responsibility in cognitive science.