Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Vaibhav Tripathi, Ishaan Batta, Andre Zamani et al.
23 citations
The default mode network (DMN) is linked to self-referential thinking, memory, and goal-directed cognition. Its functional connectivity with frontoparietal networks involved in attention and executive control may indicate cognitive health. This review examines DMN connectivity metrics as potential biomarkers across states like attention, mind wandering, and meditation, and in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, and ADHD. It also addresses the reliability of network estimation and offers recommendations for using functional connectivity measures as biomarkers of cognitive health.
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock, Tor D Wager, Todd S Braver
2 citations
Using multivariate predictive models to identify brain mechanisms underlying the benefits of mindfulness meditation is a promising methodology that departs from conventional brain mapping. Two strategies—state induction and neuromarker identification—are highlighted, with examples distinguishing focused attention from mind wandering and showing effects of mindfulness interventions on somatic pain and drug-related cravings. Future research must address tradeoffs between personalized and population-based predictive modeling.
The lancet. Psychiatry
May 1, 2026
Joseph J Taylor, Balázs Szigeti, Noah D Silverberg et al.
Placebo effects remain a major paradox in medical research, with more data available from placebo-controlled trials than on any treatment, yet little deep analysis of how they are measured, appraised, and interpreted. This review shifts focus from clinical practice to clinical trials, examining established and emerging approaches for managing placebo effects in randomized controlled trials. It highlights three key challenges in contemporary psychiatric research: blinding and expectancy in psychedelic trials, large placebo responses in interventional psychiatry trials (device or procedure-based treatments), and the implications of overlapping neurobiological mechanisms between placebo effects and psychiatric treatments.