Journal of Neuroscience
January 21, 2015
Elisa Filevich, Martin Dresler, Timothy R. Brick et al.
89 citations
People who frequently have lucid dreams—dreams in which they know they are dreaming—show structural and functional differences in a brain region linked to self-reflection and thought monitoring. The frontopolar cortex (BA9/10) contained more gray matter in high-lucidity dreamers compared with low-lucidity dreamers, and this same area showed stronger activity during a thought-monitoring task in the high-lucidity group. The findings suggest that lucid dreaming and metacognitive abilities share common neural systems, offering insight into how higher-order consciousness can arise during sleep.
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
January 31, 2024
Yiyang Cai, Huichao Yang, Xiaosha Wang et al.
9 citations
The sense of agency—the feeling that one's actions cause events—can arise through two mechanisms: prospective (based on motor predictions) and reconstructive (based on retrospective reasoning). Temporal binding, a measure often linked to implicit agency, occurs even when passively observing another's action, supporting the reconstructive mechanism. Using virtual reality and fMRI, participants who controlled an avatar hand and then passively observed the avatar's action showed increased temporal binding. This effect correlated with activity in the right angular gyrus and inferior parietal lobule, brain regions involved in inference and agency processing. The findings suggest that controlling an avatar can enhance inferential processing in the right inferior parietal cortex, producing an illusory sense of agency without voluntary movement.
BMC psychiatry
January 16, 2026
Leonie Ascone, Candelaria Mahlke, Nour Tawil et al.
2 citations
People who had been coercively isolated in psychiatric seclusion rooms (30 participants) rated digitally rendered room designs. Nature-themed wallpapers, especially a calm image of grass-covered dunes by the sea, along with blue and green wall colors, were rated as more restful and less stressful than a white empty control room, a beige-painted room, or a complex wilderness nature image. Qualitative interviews revealed preferences for calm, homelike, nature-themed, and controllable environments, as well as more transparent communication and respectful care. The findings challenge the assumption that sensory deprivation best supports de-escalation in seclusion, suggesting that blue and green color schemes and non-complex nature imagery are more favorable.