medRxivOctober 30, 2026Claudia Squire, Aminah Isiaq, Nicholas Peiper et al.
preprint
Xylazine, a veterinary sedative not approved for human use, has emerged as a consequential adulterant in the U.S. illicit fentanyl supply. Although a growing body of qualitative research has documented the experiences of fentanyl consumers exposed to 'tranq' in large Northeastern cities, little is known about how xylazine is experienced in rural or Southern regions where the evolution of the...
Serotonergic psychedelics have revitalized psychiatric research by producing rapid and potentially sustained clinical benefits in selected neuropsychiatric conditions. However, the mechanisms linking receptor activation to neural plasticity, altered conscious experience, and clinical improvement remain incompletely understood, while the evolutionary origins of psychedelic signaling and the...
Frontiers in PsychologyOctober 27, 2026Nasiru Mohammed Abdullahi, Rashid Menhas, Patience Osose Nasir et al.
Background: Clinical research on psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) has expanded substantially in recent years, particularly for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive disorders. Contemporary studies have generally evaluated psychedelic administration within controlled therapeutic settings that include psychological support, preparation, and integration. However, variability in...
Consciousness, which underpins human perception, cognition, and behavioural responses, has long been a major focus of neuroscience and medicine. Alterations in consciousness occur not only during reversible processes such as sleep and anaesthesia, but also in pathological conditions, including disorders of consciousness (DOC) and brain injury. With recent advances in the synchronized...
End-of-life dreams and visions (ELDVs) are meaningful subjective experiences commonly reported by dying patients. While prior research has shown their emotional and existential value, evidence from non-Western settings remains scarce. This study explored the lived experiences and meanings of ELDVs among Iranian patients with advanced cancer. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA),...
Across biology, artificial intelligence and social systems, interacting components develop specialised functions and collective capabilities that were not individually specified in advance. Examples range from reorganised living cells to functionally differentiated neural networks and collective decisions in animal groups. What organisational principles might account for these outcomes—and for...
Abstract: The concept of an “invisible hand” driving lexical-semantic change is deeply entrenched in contemporary cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics. That said, numerous instances of sociocultural significance reveal identifiable visible factors that influence these changes. This article examines the semantic evolution of the word soznaniye ‘consciousness’ from the early nineteenth...
Background: Subjective experiences featuring altered self-awareness, temporal perception, or spatial boundaries—termed Non-Ordinary Experiences (NOEs)—occur across clinical neurology, psychiatry, and psychedelic medicine, including in insular ecstatic seizures, meditation, breathwork, hypnosis, and psychedelic therapy. Objective: To synthesize neurobiological and clinical literature on NOEs for...
Anomalous self-experiences (ASEs) are a core feature of psychotic disorders and reflect disturbances in ipseity. Impairments in corollary discharge mechanism have been proposed as a neurobiological substrate of ASEs, and an imbalance between brain network integration and segregation, may impair the coherent flow of mental contents, thereby disrupting their fluid and implicit character. However,...
This paper examines the evolution and possible varieties of consciousness through comparative animal behaviour, human metacognition, social conditioning, and artificial intelligence. It proposes that individuality, behavioural divergence, and adaptive responses to novel challenges can provide evidence about cognition, while recognizing that none alone establishes subjective experience. A...