Front Hum Neurosci
June 16, 2022
Colin G. Hales, Marissa Ericson
47 citations
A collaboration between neuroscience and physics uses electromagnetism to bridge the explanatory gap in theories of consciousness. The work argues that electromagnetic fields provide a physical mechanism linking neural activity to conscious experience, offering a unified explanation that can be integrated into all major theories of consciousness. This approach delivers a concrete, testable framework for understanding how subjective experience arises from objective brain processes, potentially resolving long-standing philosophical and scientific debates about the nature of consciousness.
Front Hum Neurosci
March 1, 2024
Tam Hunt, Mostyn Jones, Johnjoe Mcfadden et al.
11 citations
This editorial examines the potential of electromagnetic field theories to explain consciousness, highlighting both promising avenues and significant challenges. It discusses how neural electromagnetic fields might integrate information across brain regions, offering a framework for conscious experience. However, it also addresses obstacles such as the lack of direct causal evidence and difficulties in testing these theories empirically. The piece calls for interdisciplinary collaboration to refine hypotheses and develop experimental approaches that could bridge theoretical gaps.
Front Hum Neurosci
April 11, 2018
Joseph J. Loizzo
9 citations
Human cognition is fundamentally shaped by the body and its interactions with the environment, challenging traditional views that treat the brain as the sole locus of thought. This opinion article argues that cognitive processes are extended, embodied, and enacted across brain, body, and world, drawing on research in cognitive science and neuroscience to support this perspective. The authors suggest that understanding cognition requires studying the dynamic coupling between neural activity, bodily states, and environmental contexts, rather than focusing solely on internal brain mechanisms.
Front Hum Neurosci
January 22, 2025
Sara Sorella, Cristiano Crescentini, Alessio Matiz et al.
8 citations
Greater moment-to-moment fluctuation in brain activity within the default mode network during rest predicts more frequent spontaneous mind wandering. People who report higher mindfulness skills tend to experience less spontaneous mind wandering. The findings suggest a link between the brain's resting-state dynamics and the tendency for the mind to wander, and indicate that mindfulness may relate to reduced variability in this brain network.
Front Hum Neurosci
January 6, 2025
Daniel Yochai Panitz, Avi Mendelsohn, Joana Cabral et al.
5 citations
Long-term mindfulness meditation practice shifts spontaneous brain activity toward states that synchronize sensory and perceptual cortical regions, while reducing time spent in frontal-lobe states linked to higher cognitive functions. Experienced meditators, compared to meditation-naïve participants, showed altered expression of resting-state networks during rest. These findings support a lasting effect of meditation on brain network dynamics and its therapeutic potential for disorders involving imbalanced network activity.
Front Hum Neurosci
June 19, 2024
Giuseppe Pasculli, Pierpaolo Busan, Eric S. Jackson et al.
5 citations
Developmental stuttering involves speech-motor disruptions linked to metabolic and network anomalies in the brain, particularly in the default mode and social-cognitive networks. These networks also influence social anxiety and avoidance, which often accompany persistent stuttering. Psychedelic compounds can modify brain metabolism and connectivity in these networks and have shown clinical benefits for conditions like depression and PTSD that share features such as rumination and social anxiety. Although no controlled trials have been conducted, anecdotal reports suggest psychedelics might alleviate stuttering and its associated symptoms. The authors argue that psychedelics warrant investigation in randomized clinical trials for developmental stuttering.
Front Hum Neurosci
December 11, 2024
Scott Shannon, Jamarie Geller
3 citations
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects over 13 million people in the US annually, with women experiencing it at two to three times the rate of men and higher rates among African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and the homeless. Current treatments are inadequate: only about 50% of patients complete trauma-focused psychological therapy, and response rates among those who do are roughly 50%; approved medications like sertraline and paroxetine have small effect sizes (0.28 and 0.23). MDMA-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) represents a paradigm shift, combining a psychotherapeutic container, the MDMA catalyst, and a carrier of music and eyeshades. Phase III studies show a large effect size of 0.91 with no serious adverse effects, offering durable improvement and potential transdiagnostic utility for trauma-related conditions.
Front Hum Neurosci
August 11, 2025
Human-Friedrich Unterrainer
1 citation
Oceanic states of consciousness, marked by ego dissolution, unity, and timelessness, are examined through existential neuroscience, blending psychoanalysis, existentialism, affective neuroscience, and psychedelic research. The paper contrasts Freud's view of the oceanic feeling as regressive with Jung's transformative perspective, using examples like van Gogh and Artaud to show how these states can spark visionary insight or psychological disintegration. Neuroscientific models, such as REBUS theory and Default Mode Network studies, indicate ego dissolution involves flexible brain reorganization, not dysfunction. The Peri-Aqueductal Gray is highlighted as a neural hub linking primal affect with mystical awareness. Existential thinkers frame these states as moments of rupture and potential authenticity. The paper proposes oceanic states as affectively charged boundary experiences requiring contextual integration, offering insight into selfhood and transformation.
Front Hum Neurosci
October 13, 2023
Aristea I. Ladas, Triantafyllos Gravalas, Tom Stoneham et al.
1 citation
No Summary
Front Hum Neurosci
April 10, 2026
Joachim Keppler
A theory of consciousness (TOC) should be judged by its predictive and explanatory power. Physicalism, which treats consciousness as reducible to physical processes, can achieve high predictive power but fails to explain why conscious states arise. Non-physicalism, which treats consciousness as fundamental and irreducible, offers clear advantages for developing a powerful TOC. The analysis makes a strong case for a paradigm shift from physicalism to non-physicalism, which would not discard neuroscientific theories but reinterpret neurophysiological indicators of consciousness within a broader context.