Psychophysiology
May 22, 2008
Sahib S. Khalsa, David Rudrauf, António R. Damásio et al.
276 citations
Meditation traditions claim that paying attention to internal body sensations increases awareness of them, but scientific evidence is lacking. Experienced meditators (Tibetan Buddhist and Kundalini) were compared to nonmeditators matched for age and body mass index on a heartbeat detection task, a standard measure of interoceptive awareness. Contrary to predictions, meditators showed no superior performance across several sessions and respiratory conditions. However, meditators consistently rated their interoceptive performance as better and the task as easier. These results suggest that practicing attention to internal body sensations, a core feature of meditation, does not enhance the ability to sense the heartbeat at rest.
Biological research
January 1, 2003
David Rudrauf, Antoine Lutz, Diego Cosmelli et al.
194 citations
Francisco Varela's work on subjectivity and consciousness is reviewed, presenting a view of subjectivity as deeply intertwined with biological and physical roots. His theory of concrete, embodied dynamics, grounded in autonomous systems, posits that biological autonomy defines life and identity as emergent, circular self-producing processes. Embodiment explains how a cognitive self arises from an organism's internal regulation and sensorimotor coupling, with global subjective properties emerging from component interactions and constraining local processes through recursive morphodynamics. Neurophenomenology uses first-person methods to examine experience, creating mutual constraints between biophysical data and subjective accounts, aiming to ground disciplined insight in biophysical emergence. Varela's contribution is framed as a "biophysics of being."
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
May 2, 2014
Carissa L. Philippi, Daniel Tranel, Melissa Duff et al.
152 citations
Damage to parts of the brain's default mode network (DMN) impairs autobiographical memory. In 92 patients with focal brain lesions, damage to the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal lobule, or medial temporal lobe led to memory deficits. Semantic and episodic autobiographical memories rely on largely distinct neural regions: semantic deficits followed left medial prefrontal and medial temporal damage, while episodic deficits followed right-sided damage, with overlap only in the right inferior parietal lobule. These results provide neuropsychological evidence that the DMN is necessary for autobiographical memory and clarify its role in self-referential processing.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2018
Kenneth Williford, Daniel Bennequin, Karl Friston et al.
85 citations
The Projective Consciousness Model (PCM) combines a projective geometric model of the perspectival structure of conscious experience with a variational free-energy minimization model of active inference, explaining how consciousness serves a cybernetic function: modulating cognitive and affective dynamics to control embodied agents. Projective transformations link geometry and inference, integrating perception, emotion, memory, reasoning, and perspectival imagination to optimize behavior, resilience, and preference satisfaction. The PCM makes empirical predictions, fits a neurocomputational framework, and accounts for pre-reflective self-consciousness, the first-person perspective, the sense of ownership, and social self-consciousness. The authors argue it offers the most complete theory to date of phenomenal selfhood.
Brain Sci
October 9, 2023
David Rudrauf, Grégoire Sergeant-Perthuis, Yvain Tisserand et al.
The Projective Consciousness Model proposes that projective geometry forms the core structure of conscious experience, integrating perception, imagination, motivation, emotion, social cognition, and action. The model argues that consciousness is not merely a byproduct of neural activity but is fundamentally organized by projective geometric principles, which allow the mind to construct a unified, egocentric spatial framework. This framework underpins how we perceive the world, imagine scenarios, feel emotions, and act. The theory suggests that these geometric structures enable the seamless integration of diverse mental functions, offering a unified account of consciousness that bridges phenomenology and neuroscience.