This article introduces the issue of Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session entitled "Beyond Meditation: Mindfulness-Related Clinical Practices." In the article, I describe how the "sisters of mindfulness"-forgiveness, gratitude, loving-kindness, compassion, acceptance, and best-self visualization-are each interconnected and important forms of mindfulness as well as tenets of Buddhist...
Mindfulness, a psychological process reflecting attention and awareness to what is happening in the present moment, has been associated with increased well-being and decreased depression and anxiety in both healthy and patient populations. However, little research has explored underlying neural pathways. Recent work suggests that mindfulness (and mindfulness training interventions) may foster...
Cerebral CortexApril 2013Naoki Adachi, Tadahiro Numakawa, Emi Kumamaru et al.
Repeated administration of phencyclidine (PCP), a noncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blocker, produces schizophrenia-like behaviors in humans and rodents. Although impairment of synaptic function has been implicated in the effect of PCP, the molecular mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. Considering that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in...
Xenomelia, the “foreign limb syndrome,” is characterized by the non-acceptance of one or more of one’s own extremities and the resulting desire for elective limb amputation or paralysis. Formerly labeled “body integrity identity disorder” (BIID), the condition was originally considered a psychological or psychiatric disorder, but a brain-centered Zeitgeist and a rapidly growing interest in the...
Abstract We previously showed that developmental 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) treatment induces long-term spatial and egocentric learning and memory deficits and serotonin (5-HT) reductions. During brain development, 5-HT is a neurotrophic factor influencing neurogenesis, synaptogenesis, migration, and target field organization. MDMA (10 mg/kg × 4/d at 2 h intervals) given on...
The field of contemplative science is rapidly growing and integrating into the basic neurosciences, psychology, clinical sciences, and society-at-large. Yet the majority of current research in the con-templative sciences has been divorced from the soteriological context fromwhich these meditative practices originate and has focused instead on clinical applica-tions with goals of stress...
Abstract Serotonin was discovered in 1949 and has been detected in all living aerobic organisms and in every tissue of the human body. In animals, serotonin functions both as a neurotransmitter and a trophic factor. As a neurotransmitter, serotonin can modify a variety of biological and behavioural functions, including sex, aggression, appetite, locomotor activity, learning and memory, sleep...
Increasing preclinical and clinical evidence underscores the strong and rapid antidepressant properties of the glutamate-modulating NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine. Targeting the glutamatergic system might thus provide a novel molecular strategy for antidepressant treatment. Since glutamate is the most abundant and major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, pathophysiological changes in...
Recent findings illustrate how changes in consciousness accommodated by neural correlates and plasticity of the brain advance a model of perceptual change as a function of meditative practice.During the mindbody response neural correlates of changing awareness illustrate how the autonomic nervous system shifts from a sympathetic dominant to a parasympathetic dominant state.Expansion of...
We have previously reported that a single injection of an ultra-low dose of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana) protected the brain from pentylenentetrazole (PTZ)-induced cognitive deficits when applied 1-7 days before or 1-3 days after the insult. In the present study we expanded the protective profile of THC by showing that it protected mice from...