Psilocybin is a psychedelic serotonergic compound that is renowned for its potent psychoactive effects. Over the past 15 years, an increasing number of controlled clinical trials showed that it has a fast-acting and sustainable efficacy in treating various psychiatric disorders. Neuroimaging studies have been conducted with the objective of elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying...
Ketamine, a psychoactive medication, exerts both analgesic and dissociative effects. However, whether its analgesic effect stems from its dissociative properties is a topic of debate. Our study aimed to determine whether ketamine’s analgesic and dissociative effects are supported by distinct neural mechanisms. In a within-subject, placebo-controlled study, 37 healthy volunteers were...
medRxivJuly 29, 2025Yuwen He, Shan Lei, Wangli Si et al.
preprint
Abstract Background Somatic awareness is a fundamental practice for novice mindfulness practitioners. It has been proposed that mindfulness meditation training (MMT) enhances brain function through somatic awareness in both non-clinical and clinical populations. However, the neural signatures underlying this mechanism remain poorly understood. Methods In our study, we conducted mindfulness...
Abstract Classical psychedelics such N,N -dimethyltryptamine (DMT), psilocybin, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) modulate consciousness via serotonergic receptor agonism, and are increasingly investigated for their psychotherapeutic potential. When combined with the monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) inhibitor harmine—mimicking the pharmacological profile of ayahuasca—oral DMT induces a...
Background: The brain is never truly at rest. Even in the absence of external tasks, it remains active, continuously organizing itself into large-scale resting-state networks involved in shaping our internal thoughts and experiences. Understanding the networks' structure and dynamics is key to uncovering how the brain functions as a whole. While previous studies have mapped resting-state...
The search for neurophysiological markers of consciousness and their neural substrates remains a focal point in neuroscience research. The integrated information theory (IIT) provides a promising quantitative framework for consciousness assessment, but computational limitations of existing Φ estimation methods hinder an in-depth understanding of large-scale cortical integration. Here, we...
Early life adversity (ELA) disrupts default mode network (DMN) integrity subserving self-referential processes involved in emotional awareness and regulation. Mindfulness training (MT) reduces self-referential processing and down-regulates the DMN. We employed neurofeedback-augmented mindfulness training (NAMT), combining a core mindfulness strategy (focusing on breath) with real-time fMRI...
The brain mechanisms underlying patient improvement after interventions remain poorly understood. Identifying the shared and distinct neural pathway between improvement mechanisms across distinct treatment modalities might improve our understanding of brain-behavior relationships and inform personalized approaches. To investigate the neural correlations of symptom improvement in Generalized...
The intricate interplay between visual perception and emotion determines how waking experience influences mentation through a 'day residue' at once conspicuous yet hard to predict. Here we set out to map the neural sources associated with the visuo-affective processing of the 'day residue' during hypnagogic sleep. To this end, we assessed 28 healthy participants on a combined nap protocol with...
This paper introduces the “First-System Perspective” in Artificial Intelligence (AI), a novel mode distinct from its conventional “Third-System Perspective.” Drawing parallels with human cognition, including the Default Mode Network (DMN) and first-person subjective experience, we propose that AI can be guided to discern subtle informational dynamics beyond explicit linguistic cues. Traditional...