Neuroplastogens, small molecules that induce beneficial neuronal growth and plasticity, are a class of compounds emerging as new drugs for treating a range of central nervous system conditions. Clausenamide is a plasticity-promoting natural product isolated from the leaves of Clausena lansium, an evergreen native to Southeast Asia and southern China. Herein, we report an efficient synthesis of...
May 20, 2026Chuong Ngo, Lionel A Newman, Monika Stasytyte et al.
preprint
Advanced meditative absorption states remain difficult to study scientifically because they are rare, challenging to elicit under controlled conditions, and depend strongly on first-person phenomenology. This study presents a neurophenomenological case report of an advanced Yogic meditator with more than 20 years of sustained practice who reliably entered a deeply absorbed state referred to by...
Dreams remain one of the most intriguing phenomena in psychology and neuroscience. Recent brain imaging studies have revealed that the cortex—especially the prefrontal cortex—plays a variable role in dream processes depending on the level of consciousness. This article discusses the role of the cortex in conscious (lucid) and unconscious (normal) dream processes in light of current experimental...
This chapter is designed to offer a comprehensive overview of five core psychedelic medicines—ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and ayahuasca—highlighting their distinct pharmacological properties, cultural origins, therapeutic applications, and clinical research. Although each substance offers a unique entry point into expanded states of consciousness, they share a common potential to catalyze...
Diminished drive is one of the core symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnosis, yet its underlying neural mechanisms remain elusive, primarily due to a lack of appropriate animal models. We developed a novel Multilevel Exploration Test (MET) apparatus to evaluate exploratory behavior, which is captured as a dynamic, stage-dependent process involving "search", "attend/investigate",...
Generalisation-optimal learning favours weak rules that keep many futures open. Adaptation under this heuristic yields a hierarchy of selves. Previous Stack Theory results show this hierarchy is necessary for human-like consciousness. A first-order self tags intervention versus observation, enabling causal learning and underpinning subjective experience. A second-order self models the listener,...
The goal of detecting, measuring, and engineering machine consciousness depends on making explicit key metaphysical assumptions about the nature of consciousness that may be lying dormant in the minds of AI researchers. In this position paper, we lay out a small set of arguments that call into question a particular family of these assumptions. These assumptions all arise from the dominant...
Current AI systems are largely organized around prediction-error minimization and reward optimization. While these frameworks have been highly successful, they do not address how AI systems can develop the kind of integrated, self-maintaining world-model widely regarded as central to consciousness. This paper proposes autocatalytic constraint closure as a necessary organizational principle for...
Abstract Functional connectivity (FC) is a statistical measure that reflects the degree of phase consistency between two signals and provides insights about potential interactions between two brain regions. Previous studies have reported conflicting results on the effect of meditation on FC, with some showing enhancement while others reporting suppression of FC. However, even though meditation...
Derecho y cambio social.May 18, 2026Paulo Cesar Moreira, Terezinha Das Graças Laudares, Stephânia de Oliveira Laudares Moreira et al.
This article establishes a deep comparative analysis between the dynamics of transference in Neo-Pentecostal healing rituals and the practice of contemporary psychoanalytic clinics. The starting point of the investigation focuses on specific clinical manifestations, such as somatization and depression, seeking to demonstrate how the so-called "symbolic efficacy" acts in the remission of...