Current theories of consciousness often emphasize its ego-centric functions, highlighting the role of the insular cortex in interoceptive self-modeling and subcortical brain regions in qualitative experience and motivation, aptly described as the 'hidden spring' of consciousness. From ecological and pragmatic perspectives, conscious experience may facilitate the self-organization of complex...
The intersection of Virtual Reality (VR) and Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) represents a notable research domain in experimental and clinical contexts, highlighting the growing interest in how immersive technologies can induce, modulate, and assess non-ordinary cognitive and emotional states. This study examines literature from 2014 to 2024, providing a review of the methodological...
The sense of self is a multidimensional feature of human experience. Different dimensions of self-experience can change drastically during altered states of consciousness induced through meditation or psychedelic drugs, as well as in a variety of mental disorders. Some experienced meditation practitioners are able to modulate their sense of self deliberately, which allows for a direct...
Hypnotic induction and ideomotor suggestions provide a powerful framework for investigating the remarkable capacity of verbal influence to reshape conscious experience, cognition, and motor control. We employed a multimodal, neurophenomenological approach combining high-density electroencephalography, cardiorespiratory, and behavioral monitoring, as well as first-person reports across three...
Neurofeedback (NF) has been proposed as a tool to support and expand access to meditation practice. Despite growing interest, no comprehensive review has examined neurofeedback for meditation-based interventions (NF-MED) across the full spectrum of practices. Here, we conducted a scoping systematic review according to PRISMA guidelines, mapping the NF-MED field across both clinical and...
Biofeedback is commonly understood as a clinical procedure for treating psychological disorders. This paper argues that it constitutes something more fundamental: a novel empirical instrument for studying the relationship between conscious and unconscious processes in the brain. A decade-long research program in EEG state discrimination training has suggested an empirically grounded account of...
Why some physical systems are accompanied by subjective experience remains unresolved in neuroscience and philosophy of mind. Building on predictive processing and the Free Energy Principle, I propose that phenomenal consciousness (what-it-is-like-ness) arises when an information-processing system enters a regime of dynamic entropic closure: a metastable condition in which (i) internally...
This chapter explores the concept of awareness: what it is, why it is philosophically problematic, and how it is presupposed in almost everything that matters to people. This chapter has three parts. The first part explores the history of the transformative power of awareness in the West. The second part employs analytic philosophy to explore meanings and problems of defining awareness and...
Current neuroscience research calls into question the binary model of anesthesia as a state of consciousness shifted by unconsciousness, replacing it with an idea of consciousness as a continuum created by interactions between large-scale cortex and subcortical regions.Meanwhile, psychedelic drugs are making a comeback as potential treatments for treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic...
Ketamine is a rapid-acting antidepressant with robust evidence, but unclear predictors of therapeutic response. Based on previous knowledge, hemodynamic parameters and acute altered state of consciousness have been hypothesized as potential correlates of subsequent antidepressant outcome. A post hoc analysis was performed using the data from an open-label study, in which 39 patients with...