Juensung J. Kim
preprint
Recent academic discussion of magic has largely fallen into three camps: the psychological study of magical thinking, in an effort to explain it away; the sociological or anthropological study of magical beliefs and practices, remaining agnostic about their efficacy; and some attempts to make magic presentable as a subject of serious cognitive science. The present paper presents an alternative...
Vincent Rochas, Kevin Mammeri, Laurence Bayer et al.
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Previous studies on the neural correlates of dreaming using high-density EEG (hdEEG) and the serial awakening paradigm have identified posterior brain regions related to dreaming, with maximal activity over occipital areas. Based on these results, we have hypothesized that neural activity during dreaming is mainly driven by sensory experiences (e.g., vision, audition), which predominate our...
Sergei Kuzeev
Despite several decades of intense scrutiny, the problem of the “explanatory gap” remains one of the most topical issues in today’s cognitive sciences. This paper argues that, if re-articulated as the (relative) ineffability of phenomenal properties of sensory experiences, it can become an object of linguistic treatment to a sensible effect. The paper proceeds from discussing the problem of...
Prakash Chandra Kavi, Gorka Zamora-López, Daniel Ari Friedman
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The emergence of cognition requires a framework that bridges evolutionary principles with neuro-computational mechanisms. This paper introduces the novel “thoughtseed” framework, proposing that cognition arises from dynamic interactions of self-organizing units of embodied knowledge called “thoughtseeds” within the Global Workspace of consciousness. By leveraging evolutionary theory, neuronal...
Henri-Pierre Mathieu
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Phenomenal consciousness is proposed to arise when the second-order dynamics of memory change (ΔΓ = d²M/dt²) exceed system constraints. Building on recent evidence that consciousness functions as a delayed memory system (Budson et al., 2022), this framework demonstrates that ΔΓ dynamics provide the computational substrate for both temporal binding (via covariance: Φ(t) = Cov(ΔΓ₁, ΔΓ₂, ...)) and...
Carolyn M. Amir, Dara G. Ghahremani, Sarah E. Chang et al.
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Abstract Importance Rates of prenatal cannabis exposure (PCE) are rising with increasingly permissive legislation regarding cannabis use, which may be a risk factor for psychosis. Disrupted reward-related neural circuitry may underlie this relationship. Objective To elucidate neural mechanisms involved in the association between PCE and youth-onset psychotic-like experiences by probing...
Matthias Forstmann, Christina Sagioglou
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After decades of stagnancy, research on psychedelic substances (such as LSD, psilocybin or DMT) has experienced a renaissance over the last 10 years, with various major research programs being conducted across Europe and the United States. This research primarily investigates the potential of psychedelics in the treatment of mental health disorders, their short and long term effects on...
Nestor Girala
Introduction There is a growing and renewed interest in the use of hallucinogenic drugs in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, especially since the FDA approval of esketamine treatment for resistant depression. The response to hallucinogenic psychedelic substances (ayahuasca, psilocybin, LSD, ketamine) in the treatment of depression and addictions calls for a theoretical explanatory model....
Teneisha M. Myers, Noah C. Neverette, Aaron S. Devanathan et al.
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Abstract Rationale Cannabis is the most widely used illicit substance in the United States, and its use is increasing with the recent push for legalization and decriminalization, as well as the growing use for medicinal purposes. While cannabis can have positive effects in some individuals, there are potential negative consequences including dependence, psychosis, and cognitive impairments. The...
Ágota Vass, Gábor Csukly, Kinga Farkas
16 citations
preprint
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) are diagnostically demarcated disorders, yet overlapping pathological functioning is reported at several levels of organisation starting from brain circuitry to behaviour, complicating diagnostic differentiation. In particular, what the two disorders seem to share is anomalous minimal self experience, which is a trait-like, phenomenological...