Introduction Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a well-known intervention for treatment resistant mood disorders but not indicated for dissociative disorders. To date, only few case reports have described incidental improvements in dissociative symptomatology following ECT administered for comorbid depression. Emerging neuroimaging evidence suggests that ECT modulates large-scale brain networks...
Introduction Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) remains a major clinical challenge, with limited efficacy of available therapies. Psilocybin, a serotonergic psychedelic, has shown promising antidepressant effects. As recent studies have shown altered default mode network activity following psilocybin administration, further neuroimaging research in clinical populations is needed to clarify...
The human brain exhibits inherent multistability, with Energy Landscape Analysis (ELA) providing effective frameworks for investigating this property through BOLD signals. However, traditional amplitude-based approaches fundamentally neglect critical phase synchronization dynamics that mediate large-scale neural coordination, while existing phase-based methods like Leading Eigenvector Dynamic...
Brain ConnectivityJune 1, 2026Geeta Prem Chandoo Damisetti, C M Markan, Sona Ahuja et al.
Brain networks and meditation have recently gained attention, with studies suggesting that more efficiently organized meditation brain networks are linked to better cognitive performance. This efficiency is exemplified in small-world brain networks, which combine local segregation with global integration, facilitating optimal information processing. This study examines the small-world...
Aims: To examine whether psychedelic-like states of consciousness can be induced through brain stimulation techniques, evaluate their potential advantages over pharmacological psychedelics, and explore how stimulation-assisted psychotherapy may offer a clinically viable model for mental health treatment. Methods: A structured narrative review was conducted using PubMed and PsycINFO,examining...
Recent clinical trials have suggested the safety and efficacy of psychedelic therapy for treatment-resistant depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, addiction, and end-of-life distress. While neurobiological mechanisms such as 5-HT2A receptor activation, increased neural entropy, and default mode network modulation have been well-characterized, significantly less attention has been given to...
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and β-carboline alkaloids that induces marked alterations in perception, emotion and self-referential processing. However, the multiscale biological organization linking peripheral metabolism, brain network dynamics, neurochemistry, and subjective experience in humans remains poorly understood. Here, we applied an...
Abstract Understanding how the sense of self can be attenuated or reconfigured without loss of consciousness remains a central challenge in contemporary consciousness science. We propose a multidimensional framework of graded self-attenuation, in which the self is conceptualized as a dynamic configuration of distributed neural processes. Within this framework, contemplative practice attenuates...
In a world understood through Existential Realism (ER) – where only the present moment truly “exists” – and under Minimal-Dual Awareness (MDA) – a mode of consciousness with reduced self–other splits and narrative thought – a puzzle arises: What grounds our obligations, commitments, and ethical agency when the “story-self” dissolves? We propose that ethical authority is rooted in the relational...
The publication of Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900/2000) marked the birth of psychoanalysis in the public consciousness. Since then, therapeutic work with dreams has formed a central element for the practice and teaching of all schools in the tradition of psychoanalysis and depth psychology. Nevertheless, it is precisely this core element of work with unconscious contents...