Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
July 29, 2005
Najat R. Khalifa, Tim Hardie
79 citations
Religion remains a powerful influence on notions of health and disease.1 One Islamic concept that has entered into western mythology is that of the jinn or genies, as in the story of Aladdin. However, according to Islamic belief, jinn are real creatures that form a world other than that of mankind, capable of causing physical and mental harm to human beings. An example of such harm is...
Current Biology
July 26, 2005
John-Dylan Haynes, Geraint Rees
Can the rapid stream of conscious experience be predicted from brain activity alone? Recently, spatial patterns of activity in visual cortex have been successfully used to predict feature-specific stimulus representations for both visible and invisible stimuli. However, because these studies examined only the prediction of static and unchanging perceptual states during extended periods of...
British Journal of Pharmacology
July 18, 2005
Sotiria Bexis, James R. Docherty
43 citations
3,4‐Methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA) produces complex effects on body temperature, including hypo‐ and hyperthermic components that vary with ambient temperature and strain of rat. We have previously reported that MDMA is an α 2 ‐adrenoceptor agonist, and α 2 ‐adrenoceptor agonists such as clonidine produce hypothermia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of MDMA on core...
American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics
June 17, 2005
Ulrich Ott, Martin Reuter, Juergen Hennig et al.
96 citations
Absorption represents a disposition to experience altered states of consciousness characterized by intensively focused attention. It is correlated with hypnotic susceptibility and includes phenomena ranging from vivid perceptions and imaginations to mystical experiences. Based on the assumption that drug-induced and naturally occurring mystical experiences share common neural mechanisms, we...
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
June 1, 2005
Jeffrey M Schwartz, Henry P. Stapp, Mario Beauregard
Neuropsychological research on the neural basis of behaviour generally posits that brain mechanisms will ultimately suffice to explain all psychologically described phenomena. This assumption stems from the idea that the brain is made up entirely of material particles and fields, and that all causal mechanisms relevant to neuroscience can therefore be formulated solely in terms of properties of...
Current Biology
June 1, 2005
Olivia Carter, David E. Presti, C. Callistemon et al.
262 citations
Neuroscientific studies of the mind are likely to benefit from the insights and skills of Tibetan Buddhist monks who have practiced the historic tradition of meditative training over many years — a point made recently at a forum between a selection of Buddhist leaders and distinguished scientists [1]. Perceptual rivalries, such as binocular rivalry [2] and motion induced blindness [3], are...
March 24, 2005
A. Powell
This book argues that dominant psychoanalytic approaches to horror films neglect the aesthetics of horror. Yet cinematic devices such as mise en scene, editing and sound, are central to the viewer's visceral fear and arousal. Using Deleuze's work on art and film, Anna Powell argues that film viewing is a form of 'altered consciousness' and the experience of viewing horror film an 'embodied...
Neuropsychopharmacology
January 26, 2005
Olivia Carter, John D. Pettigrew, Felix Hasler et al.
122 citations
Binocular rivalry occurs when different images are presented simultaneously to corresponding points within the left and right eyes. Under these conditions, the observer's perception will alternate between the two perceptual alternatives. Motivated by the reported link between the rate of perceptual alternations, symptoms of psychosis and an incidental observation that the rhythmicity of...
Neurorehabilitation
January 22, 2005
Steven Laureys
The interest of functional imaging in patients in a vegetative state is twofold. First, the vegetative state continues to represent a major clinical and ethical problem, in terms of diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, everyday management and end-of-life decisions. Second, it offers a lesional approach to the study of human consciousness and adds to the international research effort on identifying...
Psychopathology
2005
Josef Parnas, Peter Handest, Lennart Jansson et al.
Our research group has for several years conducted philosophically informed, phenomenological-empirical studies of morbid alterations of conscious experience (subjectivity) in schizophrenia (Sz) and its spectrum of disorders. Some of these experiential alterations constitute, in our view, the vulnerability markers to Sz – indicators that are intrinsic to this disorder and which were...