Classic psychedelic-induced ego dissolution involves a shift in the sense of self and a blurring of the boundary between the self and the world. A similar phenomenon is identified in psychopathology and is associated with the balance of anticorrelated activity between the default mode network, which directs attention inward, and the salience network, which recruits the dorsal attention network...
In this paper we present an exploratory study on the understanding of reality among scientists. The nature of reality has been a conundrum for generations of theologians, philosophers, and scientists as well as the lay public. It also appears as a scientific problem in various disciplines, from physics to psychiatry and neuroscience. For the purpose of our study, we employed Chamber REST...
Objectives Contemplative practice can occasion powerful psychological experiences. Yet few empirical studies have investigated whether their occurrence is associated with intensive meditation-based interventions. Here, we assess the prevalence of profound, meaningful, and mystical experiences in experienced meditators during a month-long insight meditation retreat compared to a control group of...
A central question in neuroscience is how consciousness arises from the dynamic interplay of brain structure and function. Here we decompose functional MRI signals from pathological and pharmacologically-induced perturbations of consciousness into distributed patterns of structure-function dependence across scales: the harmonic modes of the human structural connectome. We show that...
NMDA-receptor hypofunction is increasingly considered to be an important pathomechanism in schizophrenia. However, to date, it has not been possible to identify patients with relevant NMDA-receptor hypofunction who would respond to glutamatergic treatments. Preclinical models, such as the ketamine model, could help identify biomarkers related to NMDA-receptor function that respond to...
Abstract Quantifying neural activity in natural conditions (i.e. conditions comparable to the standard clinical patient experience) during the administration of psychedelics may further our scientific understanding of the effects and mechanisms of action. This data may facilitate the discovery of novel biomarkers enabling more personalized treatments and improved patient outcomes. In this...
Scientific studies of perception use motoric reports as the principal means of communicating subjective experience. In such experiments, a widely held and implicit assumption is that the motor action conveys but does not tamper with perceptual experience. We tested nine observers on a luminance detection task in a cross-over repeated measures design. In separate conditions, observers reported...
Shared-death-experiences (SDEs) and after-death-communication-experiences (ADCEs) are non-ordinary mental experiences related to the death of a known or unknown person. These experiences were investigated by surveying four samples with different cultural backgrounds: Italian, Mexican, Brazilian and Taiwanese people. One-hundred-twenty-one participants reported 146 experiences of this type....
Hypnotic trance can be defined as a non-ordinary state of consciousness that is accompanied by a number of neurophysiological changes, including brain electrophysiology. In addition to subjective measures, corresponding objective parameters are needed in experimental and clinical hypnosis research but are complex, impractical, or unspecific. A similar challenge exists for the measurement and...
The 10th and 11th editions of the WHO Classification discuss the possession trance disorder (PTD) chapter on dissociative disorders.ICD-11 defined the concept as "a significant alteration in the individual's state of consciousness and sense of personal identity replaced by an external identity 'possession' in which the possessed agent controls the individual's actions or movements."Moreover,...