Abstract The proportion of people who change their metaphysical beliefs after psychedelic experiences is not yet known with specificity. However, it appears that belief changes can occur in some cases, and evidence more precisely estimating the prevalence and magnitude of such belief changes is accruing. The evidence for metaphysical belief changes is reviewed and the potential psychological...
BACKGROUND: The occurrence of visual hallucinations in visually impaired people without mental impairment is known as Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS). To date, the prevalence of CBS has been reported with high variance. The present study aims at evaluating the prevalence of CBS among low-vision patients. METHODS: From March 2018 to February 2022, 194 patients with a visual acuity ≥ 0.5 logMAR...
Chronic pain is a common disorder with enormous sociomedical importance. A major part of primary and secondary costs of illness is caused by the various pain syndromes. Nociception - the sensory perception of a painful stimulus - is a complex process relying on an intricate system of anatomical, neurophysiological and biochemical networks. This applies even more so to pain - the state of...
The recent "Conscious Turing Machine" (CTM) proposal offered by Manuel and Lenore Blum aims to define and explore consciousness, contribute to the solution of the hard problem, and demonstrate the value of theoretical computer science with respect to the study of consciousness. Surprisingly, given the ambitiousness and novelty of the proposal (and the prominence of its creators), CTM has...
Double bookkeeping is a term introduced by Eugen Bleuler to describe a fundamental feature of schizophrenia where psychotic reality can exist side by side with shared reality even when these realities seem mutually exclusive. Despite increasing theoretical interest in this phenomenon over the recent years, there are no empirical studies addressing this issue. We have, therefore, conducted a...
The emergence of cognition requires a framework that bridges evolutionary principles with neurocomputational mechanisms. This paper introduces the novel "thoughtseed" framework, proposing that cognition arises from the dynamic interaction of self-organizing units of embodied knowledge called "thoughtseeds" within the Global Workspace of consciousness. Leveraging foundational concepts from...
Introduction Philosophy of mind grapples with fundamental questions concerning the Consciousness, the Mind-body problem, the Identity, and Free will (as opposed to Determinism). In the context of psychiatry, this philosophical groundwork provides a conceptual framework for comprehending the intricate workings of the human psyche. Objectives We aim to discuss how the philosophical investigation...
The article presents a retrospective analysis of the author’s 70-year contribution to philosophy and science, focusing primarily on the hard problem of consciousness – the relationship between mental phenomena and neurophysiological processes. The author traces his intellectual journey in addressing this fundamental challenge to natural scientific knowledge and presents his conceptual...
Schizophrenia remains challenging to fully comprehend due to insufficient attention to its characteristic overall pattern, or "Gestalt," which defines its psychopathological structure. Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric condition influenced by diverse genetic and neurobiological factors impacting early brain development. It manifests through psychotic symptoms including hallucinations,...
This article argues that contemporary debates of the 'hard problem' of consciousness (i.e.how does 'mindless' matter produce 'matterless' mind?) cannot be resolved through philosophical analysis alone and need to be anchored to a comprehensive empirical foundation that includes psychophysiological research of psychosomatic phenomena and exceptional human experience. First, alternative...
Schizophrenia continues its resistance to the pathogenetic understanding. We believe that one of the reasons is an oblivion of schizophrenia's characteristic Gestalt expressive of its psychopathological structure. In this article we argue for a crucial role of disorders of selfhood in the constitution of this Gestalt. First, we present a phenomenological account of the self. This is followed by...
AbstractIn this conceptual contribution, we argue that experimental investigations of phenomena in the cognitive sciences and consciousness research may benefit from a thorough integration of data acquired from the first-person perspective. We present a line of research from our lab applying this approach to the Libet task on voluntary action. In this well-known experimental paradigm,...
Phenomenology questions the centrality that Kant attributes to the “I think.” It claims that on the pre‐reflective level experience is selfless as unity is given. I call this the “unity argument.” The paper explores the significance of this claim by focusing on the work of Edmund Husserl. What interests me is that although the unity argument claims that we can account for the unity of...
Differences among constructivist, perennialist, and universalist perspectives on mystical experiences are bridged with neurophenomenology and neuroepistemology perspectives that illustrate constructivist and deconditioning processes and universal innate experiences. These approaches show that phenomenal similarities and differences in the features of meditative experiences are related to...
Opening up to the world and individual reflective experience are fundamental pillars in the phenomenological approaches of Landgrebe, Fink, and Patočka. In the special case of Landgrebe and his constructive phenomenology, he seeks to address the problems of metaphysics through the clarification of meanings through the phenomenological interpretation of questions of idealism. For Landgrebe,...
Karl Jaspers’ assertion of the un-understandability of schizophrenic psychosis, which rests on a division between what is psychologically understandable and what must be explained via natural causation, has faced numerous challenges from within phenomenological psychopathology. But despite significant developments in the phenomenology of schizophrenia, I suggest that this dichotomy, between...
It has been proposed that there is a wave excitation in animal brains, whose function is to represent three-dimensional space around the animal as a working spatial memory. After surveying the evidence supporting the hypothesis, I discuss ways in which it can be tested. There are many ways to investigate it, theoretically and experimentally. They include connectome studies, computational...
Purpose: The general objective of the study was to explore phenomenology and the concept of consciousness. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as...
Meditation, psychedelics, and other similar practices or induction methods that can modulate conscious experience, are becoming increasingly popular in clinical and non-clinical settings. The phenomenology associated with such practices or modalities is vast. Many similar effects and experiences are also reported to occur spontaneously. We argue that this experiential range is still not fully...
arXiv Preprint ArchiveJuly 9, 2024Joseph Bodenheimer, Paul Bogdan, Sérgio Pequito et al.
preprint
Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the transitions between different states of consciousness is a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. Thus, we investigate the underlying drivers of changes during the resting-state dynamics of the human brain, as captured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) across varying levels of consciousness (awake, light sedation, deep sedation,...