Over the past two decades, Ginsburg and Jablonka have developed a novel approach to studying the evolutionary origins of consciousness: the Unlimited Associative Learning (UAL) framework. The central idea is that there is a distinctive type of learning that can serve as a transition marker for the evolutionary transition from non-conscious to conscious life. The goal of this paper is to...
Human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are three-dimensional in vitro cell cultures that mimic the developmental process and organization of the developing human brain. In just a few years this technique has produced brain models that are already being used to study diseases of the nervous system and to test treatments and drugs. Currently, HCOs consist of tens of millions of cells and have a size of...
Investigation of consciousness (experience, mind, awareness, subjectivity) has become an accepted endeavor in contemporary neuroscience. However, current work is largely limited to study of neural correlates of consciousness. While this is interesting and important, it may not be sufficient to carry us to a place of truly new insight regarding consciousness. I argue that one element of...
Studies utilizing continuous flash suppression (CFS) provide valuable information regarding conscious and nonconscious perception. There are, however, crucial unanswered questions regarding the mechanisms of suppression and the level of visual processing in the absence of consciousness with CFS. Research suggests that the answers to these questions depend on the experimental configuration and...
Sexual intercourse alters normal waking consciousness. Altered states of consciousness (ASC) refer to marked deviations from usual waking consciousness, and include alterations in the sense of self, attention, thought processes, time awareness and sensory perception. Sex can induce ASC, as indicated by states of attentional absorption in bodily sensations concomitant with loss of time...
Lucid dreaming is being conscious and aware while dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a form of meta-consciousness and reflective practice that calls in to question habitual behavior, fixed perceptions, core beliefs, and presuppositions. From an epistemological perspective, lucid dreaming could be considered as a way of knowing. The practice of lucid dreaming ultimately leads to the practice of lucid...
ABSTRACT Over the last three decades, the renaissance of interdisciplinary research into psychedelic drugs has challenged the Cartesian notions of subjectivity and identity that have endured throughout modernity. But as work in this field reaches new degrees of complexity, the limitations of verbal and textual language are presenting barriers to conventional forms of scholarship. Across the...
Brain ScienceNovember 27, 2020D. Sinitsyn, A. Poydasheva, I. Bakulin et al.
The difficulties of behavioral evaluation of prolonged disorders of consciousness (DOC) motivate the development of brain-based diagnostic approaches. The perturbational complexity index (PCI), which measures the complexity of electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), showed a remarkable sensitivity in detecting minimal signs of consciousness in...
This paper presents a case study to detect the state of consciousness in meditation research. Specifically in this study, 23 long-term Kriya Yoga (KY) practitioners have participated. The microstate is one of the ways to detect Spatiotemporal activity of brain dynamics in specific cognitive traits using Global Field Potential (GFP). This investigation shows the recognition of short periods...
This study explores the factor structure of mystical experience among 428 subjects comprised of Yi who practice Bimoism and Yi without a background in Bimoism. Explorative factor analyses results identified common facets across groups, and these facets could be formed into Stace’s three-factor structure in both groups. Comparing factor structure and ordering, the experience of transcendence for...