Consciousness requires a dynamic balance of integration and segregation in functional brain networks. An optimal integration-segregation balance depends on two key aspects of functional connectivity: global efficiency (i.e., integration) and clustering (i.e., segregation). We developed a new fMRI-based measure, termed the integration-segregation difference (ISD), which captures both aspects. We...
Background and Objectives: Loneliness is prevalent among residents of long-term care settings, posing significant challenges to their mental wellbeing. Insecure attachment has been identified as a contributing factor to loneliness in this population. Previous research has suggested that meditation may have beneficial effects on mental health outcomes. This study aimed to examine the...
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ' ecstasy' ) is re-emerging in clinical settings as a candidate for the treatment of specific psychiatric disorders (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder) in combination with psychotherapy. MDMA is a psychoactive drug, typically regarded as an empathogen or entactogen, which leads to transporter-mediated monoamine release. Despite its therapeutic...
Who will staff the psychedelic resurgence? Erika Dyck, Professor and Canada Research Chair in History of Health & Social Justice from the University of Saskatchewan, provides an intriguing answer to this question. On 6th February 2024, a research team at Le Grau-du-Roi Hospital in the south of France, led by addictologist Amandine Luquiens, put their first subject through a clinical trial with...
Psilocybin, and its metabolite psilocin, induces psychedelic effects through activation of the 5-HT2A receptor. Psilocybin has been proposed as a treatment for depression and anxiety but sometimes induces anxiety in humans. An understanding of mechanisms underlying the anxiety response will help to better develop therapeutic prospects of psychedelics. In the current study, psilocybin induced an...
Jhāna meditation was little known in the West before the 1980s, historically shrouded in mystery and mostly confined to monastic traditions in Buddhist countries. In recent years, however, deep states of meditation in general, but particularly the jhānas, have been attracting interest from neuroscience researchers as another avenue to explore neural networks and functions in the human brain....
3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) is a synthetic drug very similar to hallucinogens and stimulants. This drug is also called ecstasy or molly. It produces feelings of pleasure, warmth, distorted sensory time and perception. MDMA increases the activity of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. It causes various health effects such as nausea, sweating, chills, muscle...
Ayahuasca (AYA) is a psychedelic brew used in religious ceremonies. It is broadly used as a sacred medicine for treating several ailments, including pain of various origins. To investigate the antinociceptive effects of AYA and its mechanisms in preclinical models of acute and chronic pain in mice, in particular during experimental neuropathy. The antinociceptive effects of AYA administered...
The Word, as the creative principle of life, is a concept found in many cultures, from the Hebraic to the Uitotos (or Murui) of the Colombian Amazon. The author finds parallels between the immersion of Joyce´s Finnegans Wake in the Word as the key to unlocking different but interrelated dimensions of reality, and the cosmo-vision of the Murui. Finnegans Wake presents a panoptic view of...
Law enforcement officers (LEOs) are exposed to significant stressors that can impact their mental health, increasing risk of posttraumatic stress disorder, burnout, at-risk alcohol use, depression, and suicidality. Compromised LEO health can subsequently lead to aggression and excessive use of force. Mindfulness training is a promising approach for high-stress populations and has been shown to...