Immersive ethnographic research can be profoundly destabilising for researchers’ sense of identity, and the attempt to inhabit and reconcile dual identities as researcher and participant can take a severe emotional toll. Prior to the reflexive turn in qualitative sociology, this identity work remained largely unacknowledged. Feminist critiques of positivist social science, along with personal...
Decades ago, several authors have proposed that disorders in automatic processing lead to intrusive symptoms or abnormal contents in the consciousness of people with schizophrenia. However, since then, studies have mainly highlighted difficulties in patients' conscious experiencing and processing but rarely explored how unconscious and conscious mechanisms may interact in producing this...
The neuropsychological effects of naturally occurring psychoactive chemicals have been recognized for millennia. Hallucinogens, which include naturally occurring chemicals such as mescaline and psilocybin, as well as synthetic compounds, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), induce profound alterations of human consciousness, emotion, and cognition. The discovery of the hallucinogenic...
Scientific ReportsDecember 13, 2016Jinyi Long, Qiuyou Xie, Qing Ma et al.
Existing evidence suggests that the default-mode network (DMN) and fronto-pariatal network (FPN) play an important role in altered states of consciousness. However, the brain mechanisms underlying impaired consciousness and the specific network interactions involved are not well understood. We studied the topological properties of brain functional networks using resting-state functional MRI...
Acute adverse psychological reactions to classic hallucinogens (“bad trips” or “challenging experiences”), while usually benign with proper screening, preparation, and support in controlled settings, remain a safety concern in uncontrolled settings (such as illicit use contexts). Anecdotal and case reports suggest potential adverse acute symptoms including affective (panic, depressed mood),...
Anesthetic agents are neurotropic drugs capable of inducing significant alterations in the thalamocortical system, promoting a profound decrease in awareness and level of consciousness. There is experimental evidence that general anesthesia affects large-scale functional networks, leading to alterations in the brain's state. However, the specific impact on the network structure assumed by...
According to recent findings stressful experiences may influence various physiological disturbances and also neuroanatomical changes and some studies also show that psychotherapy and meditation may influence brain functions. Traumatic stress is frequently related to a dissociative response that disintegrates conscious experience. In this context, self-reflection is an essential principle in the...
Cannabinoids are still classified as illegal psychoactive drugs despite their broad and increasingly acknowledged therapeutic potential. These substances are most famous for their wide recreational use, particularly among young adults to either alter the state of consciousness, intensify pleasure induced by other psychoactive substances or as an alternative to the previously abused drugs. It is...
The entropic brain hypothesis holds that the key facts concerning psychedelics are partially explained in terms of increased entropy of the brain's functional connectivity. Ayahuasca is a psychedelic beverage of Amazonian indigenous origin with legal status in Brazil in religious and scientific settings. In this context, we use tools and concepts from the theory of complex networks to analyze...
La boisson amazonienne ayahuasca génère de profonds états modifiés de conscience et s’ingère “traditionnellement” lors de rituels dans un but précis : apprentissage, guérison, divination... Le sens de l’expérience est consubstantiel au rituel dans la culture chamanique où l’accès au “monde-autre” appartient au champ des possibles. La globalisation de cette boisson a vu naître de nouveaux...