Meditation-based mental training interventions show great benefits for physical and mental health. However, it remains unclear how different types of mental practice differentially affect emotion processing at both the neuronal and the behavioural level. In the context of the ReSource project, 332 participants underwent an fMRI scan while performing an emotion reactivity task before and after...
Sage OpenAugust 19, 2020Juan Shi, Rou-Jia Wang, Feng-yan Wang
Liu Zi Jue , a traditional mind–body health technique, is highly regarded and has been widely spread nowadays due to its easy learning, easy operation, and demonstrable physical and psychological therapeutic value. However, due to the lack of understanding of its complex development process, practitioners and researchers are easily confused by different versions. This study identified the...
Subjective Experience (SE) is part of the ancient mind-body problem, which continues to be one of deepest mysteries of science. Despite major advances in many fields, there is still no plausible causal link between SE and its realization in the body. The core issue is the incompatibility of objective (3rd person) public science with subjective (1st person) private experience. Any scientific...
Abstract Attentional lapses are ubiquitous and can negatively impact performance. They correlate with mind wandering, or thoughts that are unrelated to ongoing tasks and environmental demands. In other cases, the stream of consciousness itself comes to a halt and the mind goes blank. What happens in the brain that leads to these mental states? To understand the neural mechanisms underlying...
For Advaita Vedānta, consciousness is to be distinguished from all contents of consciousness that might be introspectively detectable: It is precisely consciousness of whatever contents it is conscious of and not itself one of these contents. Its only nature is, Advaita holds, prakāśa (manifestation); in itself it is devoid of any content or structure and can never become an object. This paper...
A strategy to replace the ethylamine side chain of 2,5-dimethoxy-4- iodoamphetamine (DOI, 1a), and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine (DOB, 1b) with a cyclopropylamine moiety was successful in leading to compounds with high affinity at the 5-HT 2 family of receptors; and the more potent stereoisomer of the cyclopropane analogues had the expected (-)-(1R,2S)- configuration. Screening for affinity...
Many traditions in the East have proposed that consciousness without content is possible and could be achieved with mental training. However, it is not clear whether such a state is possible given that intentionality is a critical property of mentality and consciousness in many theories of consciousness. A prominent recent attempt to account for such states of "minimal phenomenal experience" is...
The scope of human consciousness includes states departing from what most of us experience as ordinary wakefulness. These altered states of consciousness constitute a prime opportunity to study how global changes in brain activity relate to different varieties of subjective experience. We consider the problem of explaining how global signatures of altered consciousness arise from the interplay...
August 1, 2020J. S. Reddy, Alfredo Pereira, Edilene De Souza Leite et al.
Abstract What forms the basis for validating any knowledge? Should it be always verified based on the objective and analytical methods that we adapt according to our progressive advancements in science or is there any other way of conceiving knowledge? This is the context where modern sophistication should embrace an ancient perspective. Recently, there have been great advancements in the...
Meditation is a type of mental exercise that aims to increase a person's capacity for selfawareness.A new state of awareness is induced, resulting in positive outcomes for all of humanity.Focusing on a single point, such as the breath, body, or mantra, is possible. People use it for everythingfrom pain relief to stress relief to enhanced mental clarity. Having an optimistic outlook on life is a...