Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
June 19, 2014
Arianna Palmieri, Vincenzo Calvo, Johann Roland Kleinbub et al.
51 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) produce memories that are phenomenologically and neurally similar to memories of real events, not imagined ones. In a study of 10 people who had NDEs and 10 controls, a hypnosis-based protocol improved recall detail for all memory types. NDE memories matched real-event memories in richness, self-reference, and emotion, and differed significantly from imagined-event memories. Electroencephalography showed that real-memory recall correlated with high alpha and gamma brain rhythms, while NDE memory recall correlated with theta and delta bands—theta being a marker of episodic memory and delta linked to recollection, trance states, and transpersonal experience. The findings indicate NDE memories are stored as episodic memories of events experienced in a distinct state of consciousness.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2014
Andra Smith, Claude Messier
48 citations
A participant who can voluntarily produce sensations of her body moving outside its physical boundaries, while knowing her body is still, showed distinct brain activity patterns during these extra-corporeal experiences (ECEs) compared to motor imagery. Brain scans revealed left-sided activations in the supplementary motor area, supramarginal gyrus, posterior superior temporal gyrus (overlapping the temporoparietal junction linked to out-of-body experiences), and cerebellum, consistent with the impression of movement. Additional activity in the left middle and superior orbital frontal gyri, regions tied to action monitoring, suggests this ECE is an unusual form of kinesthetic imagery.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
Berit Brogaard
46 citations
Synesthesia—a blending of the senses—can arise developmentally, after brain injury, or from psychedelic drugs. While research has linked synesthesia to atypical brain connectivity and genetic factors, the underlying trigger remains unclear. This theoretical review proposes that excessive serotonin may be a common thread. Psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD increase serotonin, inducing synesthesia. After brain injury, cell death floods nearby regions with serotonin and glutamate, potentially causing unusual sensory binding. In autism, altered serotonin function may block normal gating mechanisms, contributing to developmental synesthesia. The author concludes that elevated serotonin levels, heightening sensory brain region excitability and connectivity, could unify at least some cases across these types.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
42 citations
Seeing brilliant lights during near-death experiences may arise from a surge of bioluminescent biophotons in the brain when blood flow returns after oxygen deprivation. The authors propose that reperfusion triggers an overproduction of free radicals and excited molecules, leading to a transient increase in biophoton emission within retinotopic visual areas. If this emission exceeds a threshold, the brain interprets the intrinsic photons as external light, creating the perception of brilliant lights. The article reviews experimental studies that support this concept and links the idea to phosphenes, dream-like imagery during REM sleep, and self-consciousness possibly involving low-energy quantum entanglements. It is presented as a discussion piece, not a definitive explanation.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
42 citations
Dreams typically involve actions, known people, sounds, and colors, and often relate to upcoming plans or recent memories. Nightmares frequently feature anxiety, being stalked, or other unpleasant sensations. Lucid dreaming—knowing one is dreaming—was experienced at least once by 77% of a Brazilian sample of 3,427 people, but episodes were brief (under one minute for 48%) and control was rare (29%). Lucid dreaming was more common when people did not need to wake early or were under stress, conditions that increase REM sleep. These findings suggest lucid dreaming is a widespread but unstable human experience, consistent with data from other continents.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2008
41 citations
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) may arise from disrupted vestibular processing in the brain. Using Bayesian modeling, the authors show that OBEs and associated illusory changes in self-location and movement can be explained as a misled inference: ambiguous signals from the vestibular otoliths in a supine position are integrated with a prior expectation for an upright body position, measured during natural head movements. This suggests that the brain's normal mechanisms for locating the self in space can be tricked by conflicting sensory and prior information. The findings point to ways to induce and study self-location and bodily self-consciousness experimentally in healthy individuals.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
October 6, 2017
Joseph Glicksohn, Aviva Berkovich‐ohana, Federica Mauro et al.
38 citations
Exposure to a monotonous sensory environment can alter time perception and subjective experience. Participants spent 20 minutes in a whole-body altered sensory chamber with white and colored light, relaxing with eyes closed. Before entering, they completed a time-production task; one group repeated it inside the chamber, another after exiting. The main effect of the sensory environment was a change in the intercept of the psychophysical function when produced time was plotted against target duration on a log-log scale. For participants reporting a marked change in time experience, such as the sensation of time disappearing, their time-production data could not be linearized on a log-log plot, suggesting a possible break in the psychophysical function.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
February 27, 2017
38 citations
This opinion article argues that the concept of brain health should be expanded beyond the absence of disease to include optimal cognitive and emotional functioning across the lifespan. The authors propose a framework that integrates neuroscience, psychology, and public health to promote resilience and well-being. They suggest that lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, and social engagement, can enhance brain health and reduce the risk of neurodegenerative conditions. The piece calls for a shift in research and clinical practice toward proactive, preventive approaches that empower individuals to maintain brain health throughout life.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2014
35 citations
Out-of-body experiences are rare but real sensations reported by some people with epilepsy during seizures. In a group of 100 patients, 55% recalled some subjective experience with their seizures, and 7 reported out-of-body experiences. No demographic, medical, or seizure-related traits distinguished those who had out-of-body experiences from those who did not. These experiences did not affect epilepsy-related quality of life. Even among those who reported them, out-of-body sensations were extremely infrequent, often occurring only once or twice many years ago, making it impossible to link them to specific seizure characteristics or medications.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
February 16, 2022
Asa Young, Tam Hunt, Marissa Ericson
34 citations
Brain-generated electromagnetic field oscillations are increasingly seen as causal drivers of consciousness. Recent work highlights how the body's endogenous rhythms organize these fields through entrainment. This paper examines evidence of shared oscillations between the brain and other body parts in humans and animals, testing the Slowest Shared Resonance (SSR) principle of General Resonance Theory. The SSR principle states that macro-consciousness in coupled field systems depends on the slowest common denominator frequency. It predicts that a system's SSR decreases with distance between the brain and resonating structures. Observed resonance relationships—between brain and gastric neurons, sensory organs, and spinal cord—generally match these predictions, empirically supporting the SSR principle.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
July 18, 2023
Nicolas Garel, Julien Thibault Lévesque, Dasha A. Sandra et al.
29 citations
Past environmental exposures can significantly shape psychedelic drug experiences and their therapeutic outcomes, a concept the authors call 'imprinting.' In a clinical trial of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression, two patients' subjective experiences were altered by the type and amount of digital media they consumed in the days before treatment: higher media exposure reduced mystical and emotional qualities of the ketamine experience, overriding standard intention-setting practices and changing therapeutic results. Eight additional patients spontaneously reported past environmental exposures manifesting as visual hallucinations during ketamine sessions. Similar imprinting effects appear in historical reports of other psychedelic drugs and in dreaming. The authors propose expanding the contextual model of psychedelic action to include imprinting, which may help clinicians and researchers better understand these drug effects.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 3, 2024
Keisuke Suzuki, Anil K. Seth, David J. Schwartzman
20 citations
Visual hallucinations differ substantially depending on their cause, such as neurodegenerative disease, visual loss, or psychedelic drugs. Using a deep neural network approach called computational (neuro)phenomenology, researchers identified three key dimensions that distinguish these hallucinations: realism (how true-to-life they seem), spontaneity (how much they depend on sensory input), and complexity. By tuning the network along these dimensions, they generated synthetic hallucinations characteristic of each cause. Two studies with patients having Parkinson's disease, Lewy body dementia, or Charles Bonnet syndrome, and people with recent psychedelic experience, confirmed that these synthetic images matched the phenomenology reported by each group. The findings show that a neural network model can capture the distinctive visual features of hallucinations from different origins.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
August 30, 2016
David Papo
19 citations
The entropic brain hypothesis proposes that conscious states are linked to the brain's entropy, with psychedelic states exemplifying primary states where brain activity becomes more random and harder to predict than in normal wakeful consciousness. This suggests psychedelic-induced brain activity exhibits criticality, while normal wakefulness is subcritical. However, the text questions whether entropy can uniquely indicate the quality of consciousness and raises doubts about whether psychedelic-induced activity is truly critical.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
April 26, 2016
Laura Schmalzl, C. Kerr
18 citations
Movement-based contemplative practices such as yoga, tai chi, the Feldenkrais Method, and dance have been shown to relieve symptoms of cancer, Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, PTSD, ADHD, depression, and anxiety, and to improve stress, cognition, physical function, and emotional states in healthy individuals. Despite these benefits, their neural mechanisms remain less studied than those of seated meditation, largely due to the challenge of investigating their combined movement, breath, and attention components. This Research Topic presents empirical data, theoretical frameworks, and clinical implications to advance understanding of the neurophysiological and neurocognitive mechanisms underlying these practices.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
August 9, 2022
Thomas Rabeyron
15 citations
Psychoanalytic therapies require a specific setting, psychic state, and processes such as transference, free association, dreaming, play, reflexivity, and narrativity to induce psychic transformations. These transformations involve non-linear processes that take time and involve high entropy states, characterized by an interplay between extension and reduction of free energy. This interplay allows new orders of subjective experience to emerge after states of disorder, following an energetic threshold that modifies mental functioning. High entropy states also foster random functioning and psychic malleability, enabling exploration of subjective experience. The model supports dialogue between psychoanalysis and other fields, including the neurosciences of subjectivity.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
February 16, 2023
Michael Koslowski, Max-Pelgrom de Haas, Tamara Fischmann
14 citations
Dreaming arises from the same hierarchical predictive processing that governs waking cognition, but with key modifications: lack of sensory and motor input and a predominance of associative, non-rational primary process thinking. Emotional needs guide behavior via a value system generating pleasure and unpleasure, and the brain constantly updates its predictions to minimize prediction error. Repressed priors—mental events that cannot be reconsolidated despite ongoing error signals—correspond to conflictual complexes and may become accessible in symbolic form during dreams and psychedelic states. Evidence from neuroimaging supports this framework, and an ongoing trial with stroke patients who lost the ability to dream tests whether dreaming is necessary for intact sleep architecture and memory consolidation.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
April 28, 2023
Aminata Bicego, Héléna Cassol, Jessica Simon et al.
13 citations
Spiritual beliefs, Openness to experience, and Fantasy proneness are associated with recalling a near-death experience (NDE) or an NDE-like experience (similar phenomenology without a life-threatening context). In a retrospective study of 181 people divided into four groups—NDE experiencers, NDE-like experiencers, controls who faced a life-threatening situation without an NDE, and controls with neither—multivariate logistic regression showed that spiritual beliefs predicted NDE-like recall, while Openness and Fantasy proneness predicted NDE recall. A discriminant analysis using these variables correctly classified only 35% of cases, indicating other factors also play a role.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
July 17, 2014
Marieke K. van Vugt
10 citations
A neuroscientist who practices both classical ballet and contemplative movement compares the neural and mental causes and consequences of these two movement disciplines. The author argues that ballet, rather than modern dance, provides a good contrast for contemplative practice because modern dance has been influenced by contemplation. The comparison examines four dimensions: cultivation of attention, development of interoception, cultivation of meta-cognition, and emotion regulation. The author notes that limited studies exist due to movement artifacts in neuroimaging and EEG measures, and identifies important gaps in neuroscientific understanding, with implications for future studies of contemplative practitioners and dancers.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
July 7, 2023
Giulia Magni, Cosimo Tuena, Giuseppe Riva
9 citations
Psychedelic substances may enhance creativity by inducing cognitive flexibility, allowing a wider range of associations and possibilities to be explored. Virtual Reality can simulate psychedelic perceptual and cognitive effects without associated risks. The Bayesian brain approach, rooted in predictive coding, offers a framework for understanding how psychedelic hallucinations affect cognition. Cognitive flexibility is linked to creative thinking and depends on prefrontal cortex and networks supporting executive functions, memory, attention, and spontaneous thought. Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment involve declines in creative processing and divergent thinking. The paper suggests that VR-induced psychedelic hallucinations may help optimize the balance between top-down expectations and bottom-up sensory information, potentially maintaining cognitive functions and preventing pathological conditions in aging.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
March 12, 2026
Chirapat Ukachoke
1 citation
Consciousness may be a form of neural information—specifically, information encoded in the spatiotemporal patterns of electrochemical signaling within certain neural circuits. This hypothesis is derived by analyzing the essential properties of consciousness and evaluating candidate non-material entities in the brain, such as electrical fields, magnetic fields, electromagnetic waves, and neural information. Neural information most parsimoniously meets the required criteria without invoking new forces or physical laws. The hypothesis generates empirically verifiable predictions, making it falsifiable. It also proposes neural mechanisms for how some information manifests phenomenally as consciousness and why this occurs only from a first-person perspective. The framework is grounded entirely in established neuroscience.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
June 18, 2026
Chirapat Ukachoke
Qualia and consciousness are not inert but influence neural and behavioral events through a non-mechanistic, information-based causal role. Events before or concurrent with the emergence of a pain quale are unaffected by it, while activities that explicitly involve phenomenal content—such as experiencing or reporting the quale—are influenced by its occurrence and character. This influence does not rely on particle-force interactions but operates as higher-level factors in stable, constitutive counterfactual relations to downstream effects. Qualia provide phenomenal information necessary for initiating and structuring neural causal chains and determining output content, though they require intact neural circuits to implement mechanistic processing. Thus, qualia and consciousness are causally efficacious in a restricted, information-based sense.