Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
David H V Vogel, Mathis Jording, Christian Kupke et al.
18 citations
Cognition is not only shaped by space and body but also by time. The authors argue that situated cognition, typically defined by embodiment, enaction, extension, and embedding, must include a temporal dimension. On a subpersonal level, information processing requires a minimal temporal extension to form basic perceptions and actions (microlayer of time). On a personal level, lived experiences and narratives create broader temporal horizons (macrolayer of time). The macrolayer emerges from the microlayer, with neurobiological processes constraining the former and complex social affordances shaping the latter. Cognition is a continuous dynamic process transitioning between situated states, with the flow of time as its driving force. Examples from everyday life and psychopathology illustrate how understanding enduring situations benefits cognitive science.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Ines Testoni, Lucia Ronconi, Gianmarco Biancalani et al.
18 citations
A death education program using psychodramatic techniques and Tibetan bell meditation helped Italian high school students process traumatic grief after two classmates died in a car accident and a suicide. The intervention aimed to prevent the Werther effect—imitative suicide. Among 82 students who completed pre- and post-test surveys (45 in the experimental group, 37 in the control group), the experimental group showed reduced fear of death and avoidance, and normalized death as a natural part of life, improving well-being. The findings suggest well-being arises not from the absence of suffering but from the capacity to think creatively about trauma.
Frontiers in Psychology
August 22, 2014
Michael S. Franklin, Stephen Baumgart, Jonathan W. Schooler
18 citations
The article argues that the concept of the 'neural correlate of consciousness' (NCC) is fundamentally flawed because it conflates correlation with causation and relies on an outdated, Cartesian view of the mind. It proposes that consciousness is not a product of specific brain regions but an emergent property of dynamic, whole-brain interactions. The authors contend that searching for a single NCC misdirects research and that a more holistic, systems-level approach is needed to understand consciousness. They advocate for a paradigm shift away from localizationist assumptions toward studying the complex, self-organizing dynamics of neural networks.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Anya Daly, Rosa Ritunnano, Shaun Gallagher et al.
17 citations
Mental disorders involve complex alterations of the self that arise from interactions among cognitive, bodily, affective, social, narrative, cultural, and normative elements. The pattern theory of self (PTS) provides a non-reductive account consistent with embodied-enactive cognition and phenomenological psychopathology, emphasizing the multi-dimensionality of subjects and situated embodiment. This article develops the Examination of Self Patterns (ESP), a flexible methodological framework that front-loads the self-pattern into a minimally structured phenomenological interview. The ESP avoids internalist or externalist assumptions about mind and is guided by person-specific interpretations rather than diagnostic categories, offering advantages for tackling the complexity of mental health research and clinical protocols.
Frontiers in Psychology
April 3, 2023
Daniel Meling, Milan Scheidegger
17 citations
Psychedelics are psychoactive substances whose effects involve changes in biochemistry, brain activity, and subjective experience, but how these levels relate is debated. Two current views are the integration view and the pluralistic view. This article proposes an enactive perspective that re-evaluates the molecule-brain-experience relationship. It applies the concept of autonomy to the causal link between the drug and brain activity, and dynamic co-emergence to the link between brain activity and experience. This enactive view emphasizes interdependence and circular causality across multiple levels, supporting and enriching the pluralistic view by offering a principled account of how layered processes interact. It has implications for understanding causality in psychedelic therapy and research.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2022
Daniel Meling
17 citations
Non-dual-oriented contemplative practices aim to shift experience into a mode where self-other and subject-object distinctions dissolve, de-reifying the sense of a separate observing witness. Despite the importance of such non-dual insight in traditions like Zen, Mahāmudrā, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta, contemplative science has rarely studied these practices. This article uses an enactive cognitive science framework to model the requirements for a temporary experiential shift free from subject-object structure. It outlines common elements of non-dual practices, presents an enactive model of pure non-dual experience, and compares this model with Mahāmudrā meditation from Tibetan Buddhism to evaluate external coherence. The article concludes with a research agenda for studying non-dual practices.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Madhumita Chattopadhyay
17 citations
Buddhist meditation aims to transform the individual's personality from a self-centered "I" to a collective "we," achieving peace of mind and global peace. The practice of vipassanā (insight) leads to supreme enlightenment by breaking internal fetters through seven types of purity: morals, mind, views, and insight. Meditation involves not solitary mindfulness but also cultivating higher qualities like compassion and friendliness. The ideal practitioner, the Bodhisattva, must perfect wisdom (prajñā-pāramitā) and skill in means (upāyas), which do not create new bondage. Attaining this broad outlook is the highest contemplation and ultimate goal of Buddhist meditation.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Nicolas Ribeiro, Yannick Gounden, Véronique Quaglino
17 citations
Lucid dreaming, where one is conscious of dreaming and may control or observe the dream, was studied for its frequency and relation to sleep quality. In a French student group (n=274) and a general population sample (n=681), dream experience frequencies and sleep quality (measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) were compared. Predictive models of sleep quality, controlling for age and gender, were not significant for students and only marginally predictive for the general population. However, the models' significance was driven solely by gender, not by dream experience frequencies, indicating that lucid dreaming frequency does not help predict sleep quality. The findings are discussed in light of prior research, and methodological improvements for future studies are suggested.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2019
Chunyun Yu, Heyong Shen
17 citations
Lucid dreaming (LD) is a state where the dreamer knows they are dreaming while still asleep, involving metacognitive abilities like self-reflection. This study first investigated the prevalence of LD in China, finding that 81.3% of subjects had experienced LD at least once, similar to Western countries. Comparing bizarreness density (BD) between LD and non-LD dreams, BD was significantly lower in LD. Self-reflection and insight traits were inversely associated with dream bizarreness, suggesting that self-consciousness traits extend from waking to both LD and non-LD states.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2014
Steven M Miller
17 citations
Consciousness science aims to find the neural basis of conscious experience, but a key problem is distinguishing neural correlates (brain activity that merely accompanies consciousness) from neural constitution (brain activity that actually generates consciousness). This paper reviews that distinction problem, arguing that current methods like recording, inhibition, and stimulation cannot reliably separate the two. The Jenga analogy illustrates why identifying minimal neural correlates is an insufficient goal. Even combined inhibition and stimulation strategies may reveal some constitutive activities but not the whole neural constitution. The author proposes new foundational claims for the field to address this challenge.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Ping Qu, Xiaoqing Zhu, Hui Zhou et al.
16 citations
Adding explicit mindfulness instruction to standard Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) training improves beginners' mental and physical health more than TCC alone. In a randomized trial with 119 healthy college students new to TCC, those who received a 10-week Mindfulness-enhanced Tai Chi Chuan (MTCC) program showed significantly greater gains in mindfulness, lower anxiety and stress, and better health- and skill-related physical fitness compared with a standard TCC group. No difference in depression was found between the two groups. The findings suggest that MTCC offers additional mental health benefits while also improving physical fitness, making it a useful intervention for beginners.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2023
Pascal Michael, David Luke, Oliver Robinson
16 citations
A naturalistic field study analyzed the content of breakthrough experiences after inhaling 40-75 mg of DMT in non-clinical home settings. Based on 36 interviews with experienced users (83% Caucasian, eight women, mean age 37), five overarching categories emerged: onset effects (sensory, emotion, body, space-time shifts), bodily effects (pleasurable, neutral, uncomfortable), sensorial effects (open-eye, visual, cross-modal), psychological effects (memory, language, awareness, sense of self, time distortions), and emotional effects (positive, neutral, challenging). The findings systematically detail the rich, self-referential content of the DMT state and its resonances with alien abduction, shamanic, and near-death experiences.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2022
Sucharit Katyal
16 citations
Consciousness is often described as having a subject-object structure, but studying its subjective aspects empirically is challenging. Meditation traditions, particularly Buddhist ones, have been used to manipulate this structure. This paper presents the Tantric Yoga tradition, especially the Ananda Marga school founded by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, as an alternative framework. It translates Tantric Yoga philosophy into a systematic phenomenological account of consciousness divided into four structures spanning from subject to object. Stepwise meditation procedures are detailed that allow a practitioner to experientially reduce these structures from object to subject, aiming for self-realization. The paper discusses how these states overlap with those from other traditions and could advance empirical consciousness research.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2022
Jun-Hui Ning, Qing-Wei Hao, Da-Cai Huang
16 citations
A mindfulness training program called MAIC improved mindfulness, flow state, and mental health in college swimmers. Forty-seven swimmers were randomly assigned to either the MAIC program or no training. After the intervention, the MAIC group showed significantly higher mindfulness and flow state, lower anxiety and depression, and greater satisfaction with training and competition. These benefits persisted at a follow-up test, except that anxiety increased slightly but significantly from post-test to follow-up. The program appears to produce lasting improvements in psychological well-being and sports experience.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Denholm J Adventure-Heart
16 citations
The International Lucid Dream Induction Study compared five combinations of lucid dream induction techniques in 355 participants interested in lucid dreaming. After a one-week baseline recording of sleep and dream recall, participants practiced the techniques for another week. The MILD and SSILD techniques were similarly effective for inducing lucid dreams, while a hybrid of the two showed no advantage. Better general dream recall and falling asleep within 10 minutes of completing the techniques predicted successful induction. Lucid dream induction did not harm sleep quality, and the techniques worked regardless of prior lucid dreaming frequency or experience.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2018
Tobias Schlicht
16 citations
Intentionality—the aboutness of mental states—has resisted naturalistic explanation partly because most theorists treat it as equivalent to mental representation. This paper argues instead that intentionality is a feature of whole embodied agents (organisms) that can be directed at objects and states of affairs, while representation belongs to mental states and their mechanisms. The distinction is applied to Metzinger's project of naturalizing phenomenal representation. The paper challenges enactivism's equation of cognition with biology, proposing that a theory of intentionality and representation should delineate cognitive science's subject matter and allow for artificial intelligence.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Hanani Abdul Manan, Imtiyaz Ali Mir, Syeda Humayra et al.
15 citations
A systematic review and meta-analysis of eight randomized controlled trials involving 623 coronary artery disease patients found that mindfulness-based interventions significantly improve mental health. The interventions reduced anxiety, depression, and stress, with effect sizes ranging from moderate to large. Subgroup analyses showed no significant regional differences for anxiety or depression, but a significant effect for stress. The trials had satisfactory methodological quality overall, though all lacked allocation concealment and blinding, and some had gender imbalances and inadequate follow-up. More rigorous studies with equal gender representation and long-term follow-up are needed.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2023
Yuehang Yang, Dawei Cao, Teng Lyu et al.
15 citations
A meta-analysis of 22 randomized controlled trials involving 2,216 patients found that mindfulness yoga exercise significantly reduces depressive symptoms, with a large combined effect size. The analysis included 1,101 patients in yoga intervention groups and 1,115 in control groups. Results showed substantial heterogeneity across studies, but the overall effect indicates yoga is effective for preventing and treating depression and improving mental health. Mindfulness yoga may serve as a non-medical, low-cost adjunct to pharmacological treatment for depression.
Frontiers in Psychology
May 3, 2022
Débora González, Marc Aixalà, Robert A Neimeyer et al.
15 citations
A woman suffering from complicated grief after her mother's suicide participated in an ayahuasca ceremony followed by Restorative Retelling sessions to process the psychedelic experience. The case report describes how ayahuasca evoked key psychological content related to her loss, and how the adapted Restorative Retelling technique helped integrate that content into autobiographical memory, fostering meaning-making. Evaluations before the ayahuasca experience and after Restorative Retelling suggest reductions in symptoms of complicated grief and general psychopathology. The authors propose that Restorative Retelling can effectively process and integrate psychedelic experiences, though they note limitations of a single case.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 28, 2021
Bernd Brabec de Mori
15 citations
Ayahuasca has become popular among non-Indigenous people outside the Amazon, often promoted as an ancient natural remedy for shamanic healing. However, this neo-shamanic and recreational use differs fundamentally from traditional Indigenous practices and modern medical research. Indigenous use treats ayahuasca as a means to amplify communication with non-human beings in animal, plant, or spirit realms, where efficacy depends on correct interaction with these powers, not the drug itself. Modern medicine focuses on neurochemical processes like MAO inhibition and DMT activity to trigger psychological and somatic responses for treating mental conditions. The author argues an ontological incommensurability exists between Indigenous and medicinal concepts, so one cannot legitimate the other, and the coloniality of appropriating Indigenous practices must be questioned.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
S Shaun Ho, Yoshio Nakamura, James E Swain
15 citations
Compassion meditation, rooted in Buddhist philosophy, may help protect mental health amid intensifying conflicts. The practice involves attuning equally to friend, enemy, and neutral person, aiming to suspend identity-based conceptual thoughts and ego-preserving biases that obscure reality. A Bayesian active inference framework models the person as a Bayesian Engine that constructs phenomena from aggregates (forms, sensations, discriminations, actions, consciousness). Rigid identity-grasping beliefs cause the engine to malfunction by blocking updates from prediction errors. The proposed brain model has three components: Relation-Modeling (Default-Mode Network), Reality-Checking (Frontoparietal and Ventral Attention Networks), and Conflict-Alarming (Salience Network). Compassion meditation may strengthen brain regions that suspend prior beliefs and enhance attunement to others.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Andrea Pintimalli, Tania Di Giuseppe, Grazia Serantoni et al.
15 citations
The Sphere Model of Consciousness (SMC) describes subjective experiences using geometric coordinates, with a central 'Place of Pre-Existence' (PPE) representing an experience of overcoming habitual self and memory conditioning, causally linked to self-determination. Silence may act as an intentional inner environment that focuses self-perception on the present moment, improving body awareness. In a preliminary study, 481 volunteer PPE technique practitioners completed questionnaires before and after a 3-day meditative training. Results showed a shift from mental to spatial dimensions dominating experience after training. Silence was reported more often after training and was mainly associated with mental and emotional experiences.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Brigitte Holzinger, Lucille Mayer
15 citations
Lucid dreaming is a state where dreamers know they are dreaming and can deliberately control the dream's content. This study examined seven awareness criteria of lucid dreaming, originally proposed by Paul Tholey, and mapped each to its underlying brain circuits. The results showed that multiple brain regions are involved, and during lucid dreaming a coordinated brain network emerges that is more than the sum of its parts. The findings suggest that lucid dreaming involves a distributed neural network rather than a single area, though further research is needed to fully understand the neurological basis.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Valeria Sebri, Silvia Francesca Maria Pizzoli, Chiara Marzorati et al.
14 citations
A study protocol will test whether an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program helps breast cancer survivors become more aware of inner body sensations (interoception) and improves their mood, body perception, anxiety, and depression. Changes will be measured at three time points to track effects over time. The authors suggest MBSR may promote emotional well-being by enhancing body awareness and regulating interoceptive feelings, offering directions for future psychological interventions.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Alejandro Troncoso, Kevin Blanco, Álvaro Rivera-Rei et al.
14 citations
Empathy involves bodily, emotional, and cognitive connections with others. Observing people in pain triggers whole-body responses, but the timing of these bodily reactions and their link to understanding others' experiences was unclear. This study introduces "bodyssence," blending "body" and "essence," to describe three temporal phases of empathetic bodily response. Thirty-five participants watched videos of extreme sportspersons having accidents while their postural sway, electrodermal activity, and heart rate were measured, followed by interviews. In the forefeel phase, participants anticipated the accident with minimal movement and high heart rate. In fullfeel, they experienced strong negative emotions and increased movement with lower heart rate. In reliefeel, emotional intensity decreased, postural control stabilized, and heart rate stayed low. Electrodermal activity remained high throughout. The findings reveal how bodily experience temporally attunes to others' pain.