Conscious Cogn
November 1, 2019
B. Nelson, S. Lavoie, Ł. Gawęda et al.
99 citations
Minimal self-disturbance—a fragility in the implicit sense of self, presence, and agency—is a core feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. In a test of a neurophenomenological model, source monitoring deficits explained 39.8% of the variance in minimal self-disturbance scores across 50 ultra-high risk patients, 39 first-episode psychosis patients, and 34 healthy controls. Aberrant salience explained only 6% of the variance and was more related to positive psychotic symptoms than to self-disturbance. The model may need to incorporate additional constructs like temporal processing and multisensory integration. Longitudinal analyses will follow.
Conscious Cogn
December 8, 2020
Camila Sanz, Carla Pallavicini, Facundo Carrillo et al.
34 citations
Language produced under the influence of LSD shows increased entropy and reduced semantic coherence, consistent with a state of heightened neural entropy. Non-semantic analysis of speech organization revealed increased verbosity and a reduced lexicon, changes more similar to manic psychoses than to schizophrenia, as confirmed by direct comparison with reference samples. Features related to language organization allowed machine learning classifiers to identify speech under LSD with accuracy comparable to that obtained by examining semantic content. These results provide a quantitative characterization of disorganized natural speech as a landmark feature of the psychedelic state.
Conscious Cogn
May 28, 2022
Conor H. Murray, Bhargav Srinivasa-Desikan
20 citations
THC, the primary psychoactive component of cannabis, produces altered states of consciousness that share features with those induced by classical psychedelics. In 25 healthy, infrequent cannabis users, oral doses of 7.5 and 15 mg THC dose-dependently increased measures of altered states, including insightfulness, mindfulness, and mind-wandering, and increased language entropy, a pattern previously reported with LSD. The findings suggest overlapping neurophysiological mechanisms between THC and psychedelics, but future work must determine whether reported increases in mindfulness or insight reflect genuine enhancement of conscious awareness or a psychotomimetic state such as delusional thinking.
Conscious Cogn
July 7, 2025
Jussi Jylkkä, Hilla Väyrynen, Enyu Lin et al.
3 citations
Meditation and psychedelics both foster mystical, psychological, and philosophical-existential insights that predict wellbeing. A qualitative-quantitative study found that these insights, whether from meditation or controlled psychedelic use, are associated with positive shifts in personal wellbeing. The authors suggest that the types of insights from both practices overlap and can profoundly benefit individuals, leading to enhanced wellbeing and personal transformation.