This “Designer Drugs 2.0” issue of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics focuses on novel psychoactive substances, primarily cannabinoids and cathinones, and the repurposing of established psychoactive compounds (e.g., modafinil, psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide, and 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine) that simultaneously offer new pharmacotherapies and pose serious health problems. Novel...
Quantification of complexity in neurophysiological signals has been studied using different methods, especially those from information or dynamical system theory. These studies revealed the dependence on different states of consciousness, particularly that wakefulness is characterized by larger complexity of brain signals perhaps due to the necessity of the brain to handle varied sensorimotor...
This paper interweaves a ‘micro’ theme concerning shame and guilt and a ‘macro’ theme concerning self-regulation generally. Neither shame nor guilt is more other-independent than the other. Moreover, because other-dependence in either emotion is not a mark of heteronomy, neither emotion is more characteristic of a well-functioning moral consciousness. Then, relying on phenomena described by...
Abstract Cultivating empathy is a presumed benefit of mindfulness, but this possibility has rarely been investigated experimentally. We examined whether a five-minute mindfulness exercise would cultivate empathy relative to two equally brief control exercises: relaxation and mind-wandering. We further examined whether mindfulness would be especially beneficial for people with autistic or...
Woodruff’s target article provides a detailed review of comparative studies on brain and behavior in teleosts. However, the relevance of the scientific data to the question of consciousness rests solely on the validity of a small set of so-called "requirements for consciousness." I use the target article to demonstrate that the neuroscientific study of animal consciousness in general relies on...
Purpose: Breathing can be controlled either unconsciously or consciously. In Asian countries, various conscious breathing-control techniques have been practiced for many years to promote health and wellbeing. However, the exact mechanism underlying these techniques has not yet been established. The purpose of this study is to explore the physiological mechanism explaining how conscious...
The experience of having a body is the key aspect for self-consciousness and it has been recognized that such a coherent bodily self relies on ongoing multisensory integration of bodily sensory inputs. A coherent bodily self is mostly taken for granted, despite being highly influenceable. To induce comparable bodily illusions in healthy participants, experimental paradigms have been developed...
Even though Big History (BH) has successfully folded World History into Natural History, its method risks falling into a reductionist or materialist ideology we might label, scientism. BH’s windows remain closed to a fundamental human phenomenon, namely, the subjective experience of transcendent reality. Cosmic History, which augments BH, opens the big historian and the history student to...
Tinnitus is experienced by up to 15% of the population and can lead to significant disability and distress. There is rarely a medical or surgical target and psychological therapies are recommended. We investigated whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) could offer an effective new therapy for tinnitus. This single-site randomized controlled trial compared MBCT to intensive...
PLoS One2017Lina Rådmark, Linda L Magnusson Hanson, Eva Bojner Horwitz et al.
This study aims to identify any differences regarding gender, age, socioeconomic status (SES), self-rated health, perceived stress and the purchase of prescribed drugs among people who practice mind and body exercises (MBE) extensively compared to people who do not. The study includes 3,913 men and 4,803 women aged 20-72 who participated in the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health...