Bridging the gap of brain and experience - Converging Neurophenomenology with Spatiotemporal Neuroscience.
Georg Northoff, Bianca Ventura
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews June 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106139 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Depression Meditation |
| Keywords | Neurophenomenology Self Temporo-spatial dynamics |
| Citations | 21 |
| Key points | Proposes that integrating Neurophenomenology and Spatiotemporal Neuroscience yields complementary insights and deeper understanding of the brain-mind connection. |
Abstract
Neuroscience faces the challenge of connecting brain and mind, with the mind manifesting in first-person experience while the brain's neural activity can only be investigated in third-person perspective. To connect neural and mental states, Neurophenomenology provides a methodological toolkit for systematically linking first-person subjective experience with third-person objective observations of the brain's neural activity. However, beyond providing a systematic methodological strategy ('disciplined circularity'), it leaves open how neural activity and subjective experience are related among themselves, independent of our methodological strategy. The recently introduced Spatiotemporal Neuroscience suggests that neural activity and subjective experience share a commonly underlying feature as their "common currency", notably analogous spatiotemporal dynamics. Can Spatiotemporal Neuroscience inform Neurophenomenology to allow for a deeper and more substantiative connection of first-person experience and third-person neural activity? The goal of our paper is to show how Spatiotemporal Neuroscience and Neurophenomenology can be converged and integrated with each other to gain better understanding of the brain-mind connection. We describe their convergence on theoretical grounds which, subsequently, is illustrated by empirical examples like self, meditation, and depression. In conclusion, we propose that the integration of Neurophenomenology and Spatiotemporal Neuroscience can provide complementary insights, enrich both fields, allows for deeper understanding of brain-mind connection, and opens the door for developing novel methodological approaches in their empirical investigation.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on depression, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Psilocybin-assisted therapy of major depressive disorder using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a therapeutic frame | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Yale Manual for Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy of Depression (using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Therapeutic Frame) | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Neuroinflammation and neuroprogression in depression: Effects of alternative drug treatments | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Improving cognitive functioning in major depressive disorder with psychedelics: A dimensional approach | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 15
- From Experience to Symptoms: A Multilayer Hierarchy of Psychopathological Dimensions in Schizophrenia. Psychopathology June 30, 2025
- Active inference, computational phenomenology, and advanced meditation: Toward the formalization of the experience of meditation. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews March 1, 2026
- Consciousness, mindfulness, and introspection: integrating first- and second-person phenomenological inquiry with experimental and EEG data to study the mind. Frontiers in Psychology September 8, 2025
- Phainesthai Formalised? Cogito, ergo ‘res’ sum in Conscious Agent Theory Metaphilosophy September 23, 2026
- Qualities, subjectivity and spatial extension: is there a common factor? Frontiers in Psychology June 29, 2026
and 10 more in the library
Cites 63
- Experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system contributions to mind wandering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 26, 2009
- The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014
- Theories of consciousness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience July 1, 2022
- The default mode network: where the idiosyncratic self meets the shared social world Nature Reviews Neuroscience January 22, 2021
- Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience April 22, 2015
and 58 more in the library