Functional MRI
December 1, 2018
Nasim Mortazavi, Cécile Staquet, Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse et al.
This chapter reviews current knowledge of the effects of hypnotic anesthetic agents on brain resting-state networks (RSNs) that sustain consciousness. Although full exploration of the networks under anesthesia is not yet available, current evidence indicates that anesthetic agents with hypnotic properties dose-dependently modulate RSN functioning. Each anesthetic agent has specific effects that...
Psychopharmacology
November 26, 2018
Steliana Yanakieva, Naya Polychroni, Neiloufar Family et al.
169 citations
RATIONALE: Previous research demonstrating that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) produces alterations in time perception has implications for its impact on conscious states and a range of psychological functions that necessitate precise interval timing. However, interpretation of this research is hindered by methodological limitations and an inability to dissociate direct neurochemical effects...
Music & Science
November 13, 2018
R. Parncutt
Actors, sportspeople, and politicians may be idolised for their appearance, personality, skills, or ideals. The idolisation of musicians additionally involves transcendental musical emotions. Fans devote extraordinary amounts of time, energy and money to following, empathising with, identifying with and imitating their idols. During great performances, fans experience altered states of...
Scientific Reports
November 5, 2018
Matthieu Darracq, Chadd M. Funk, Daniel Polyakov et al.
49 citations
Sleep and anesthesia entail alterations in conscious experience. Conscious experience may be absent (unconsciousness) or take the form of dreaming, a state in which sensory stimuli are not incorporated into conscious experience (disconnected consciousness). Recent work has identified features of cortical activity that distinguish conscious from unconscious states; however, less is known about...
Human Brain Mapping
November 2018
Zirui Huang, Jun Zhang, Jinsong Wu et al.
Variability quenching is a widespread neural phenomenon in which trial-to-trial variability (TTV) of neural activity is reduced by repeated presentations of a sensory stimulus. However, its neural mechanism and functional significance remain poorly understood. Recurrent network dynamics are suggested as a candidate mechanism of TTV, and they play a key role in consciousness. We thus asked...
Acta Psychologica
November 1, 2018
Chiara Valzolgher, Mara Mazzurega, M. Zampini et al.
In our study, we aimed to reduce bodily self-consciousness using a multisensory illusion (MI), and tested whether this manipulation increases Self-objectification (the psychological attitude to perceive one's own body as an object). Participants observed their own body from a first-person perspective, through a head-mounted display, while receiving incongruent (or congruent) visuo-tactile...
2018 14th Symposium on Neural Networks and Applications
November 1, 2018
D. Raković
Tesla’s visions and inventions realized in his controlled altered states of consciousness, are proposed to be manifestations of his meditation insights and macro-quantum correlations of individual and collective consciousness, with significant quantum-holographic creative-educational and psychosomatic-spiritual implications. In wider context, this could help improve future holistic strategies...
Neuropharmacology
November 1, 2018
Robin Carhart-Harris
The entropic brain hypothesis proposes that within upper and lower limits, after which consciousness may be lost, the entropy of spontaneous brain activity indexes the informational richness of conscious states. Here the hypothesis is revisited four years on from its original publication. It is shown that the principle that the entropy of brain activity is elevated in the psychedelic state is...
Psychology Press eBooks
October 24, 2018
Arthur M. Arkin
A typical feature of night terror and daytime hypersomnia episodes, sequellae of experimental sleep deprivation, and frequently of REM narcolepsy-cataplexy events is the occurrence of spontaneous vocalization with and without speech, which appears to reflect internal experience rather than external stimuli, and for which there are strong amnestic tendencies. It is therefore of interest to...
Neuroimage
October 15, 2018
Christoph M. Michel, Thomas Koenig
The present review discusses a well-established method for characterizing resting-state activity of the human brain using multichannel electroencephalography (EEG). This method involves the examination of electrical microstates in the brain, which are defined as successive short time periods during which the configuration of the scalp potential field remains semi-stable, suggesting...