Neuroimage
February 25, 2015
Kieran C. R. Fox, R. Nathan Spreng, Melissa Ellamil et al.
717 citations
The neural basis and cognitive functions of various spontaneous thought processes, particularly mind-wandering, are increasingly being investigated. Although strong links have been drawn between the occurrence of spontaneous thought processes and activation in brain regions comprising the default mode network (DMN), spontaneous thought also appears to recruit other, non-DMN regions just as...
European Neuropsychopharmacology
January 16, 2015
José Carlos Bouso, Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, Antoni Rodrı́guez-fornells et al.
221 citations
Psychedelic agents have a long history of use by humans for their capacity to induce profound modifications in perception, emotion and cognitive processes. Despite increasing knowledge of the neural mechanisms involved in the acute effects of these drugs, the impact of sustained psychedelic use on the human brain remains largely unknown. Molecular pharmacology studies have shown that...
Annual Review of Psychology
January 3, 2015
Jonathan Smallwood, Jonathan W. Schooler
Conscious experience is fluid; it rarely remains on one topic for an extended period without deviation. Its dynamic nature is illustrated by the experience of mind wandering, in which attention switches from a current task to unrelated thoughts and feelings. Studies exploring the phenomenology of mind wandering highlight the importance of its content and relation to meta-cognition in...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
2015
Florian Kurth, Allan MacKenzie-Graham, Arthur W Toga et al.
Previous studies have revealed an increased fractional anisotropy and greater thickness in the anterior parts of the corpus callosum in meditation practitioners compared with control subjects. Altered callosal features may be associated with an altered inter-hemispheric integration and the degree of brain asymmetry may also be shifted in meditation practitioners. Therefore, we investigated...
Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience
December 26, 2014
Georg Northoff
65 citations
While several hypotheses about the neural mechanisms underlying auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) have been suggested, the exact role of the recently highlighted intrinsic resting state activity of the brain remains unclear. Based on recent findings, we therefore developed what we call the 'resting state hypotheses' of AVH. Our hypothesis suggest that AVH may be traced back to abnormally...
Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior
November 2014
Nir Lipsman, Takashi Nakao, Noriaki Kanayama et al.
High activity of the default mode network (DMN) has been proposed to be central in processing self-relevant events. Thus far, this hypothesis of DMN function has not been tested directly using neurophysiological techniques. To test for the link between frontal midline DMN activity and self-relevant processing we measured neuronal activity (single-neurons' firing rates) in human subcallosal...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
October 1, 2014
Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Joseph Glicksohn, Abraham Goldstein
The default mode network (DMN) has been largely studied by imaging, but not yet by neurodynamics, using electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity (FC). mindfulness meditation (MM), a receptive, non-elaborative training is theorized to lower DMN activity. We explored: (i) the usefulness of EEG-FC for investigating the DMN and (ii) the MM-induced EEG-FC effects. To this end, three MM...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
September 22, 2014
John eThomas, Graham eJamieson, Marc eCohen
Meditation proficiency is related to trait-like (learned) effects on brain function, developed over time. Previous studies show increases in EEG power in lower frequency bands (theta, alpha) in experienced meditators in both meditation states and baseline conditions. Higher gamma band power has been found in advanced Buddhist meditators, yet it is not known if this occurs in Yoga meditation...
Frontiers in Psychology
September 16, 2014
Mattie eTops, Maarten A S Boksem, Markus eQuirin et al.
In the present paper we will apply the Predictive And Reactive Control Systems (PARCS) theory as a framework that integrates competing theories of neural substrates of awareness by describing the default mode network (DMN) and anterior insula (AI) as parts of two different behavioral and homeostatic control systems. The DMN, a network that becomes active at rest when there is no external...
Frontiers in Psychology
August 26, 2014
Megan Wang, Biyu J. He
What neural mechanisms underlie the seamless flow of our waking consciousness? A necessary albeit insufficient condition for such neural mechanisms is that they should be consistently modulated across time were a segment of the conscious stream to be repeated twice. In this study, we experimentally manipulated the content of a story followed by subjects during functional magnetic resonance...