PLoS Biology
May 4, 2007
Heleen A. Slagter, Antoine Lutz, Lawrence L. Greischar et al.
762 citations
Intensive meditation training reduces the attentional blink—a phenomenon where a second target in a rapid stream is often missed when it appears shortly after a first target. Three months of daily mental practice led to a smaller attentional blink and decreased brain-resource allocation to the first target, measured by a smaller P3b brain potential. Individuals with the largest reduction in resource allocation to the first target showed the greatest improvement in detecting the second target. These findings indicate that mental training enhances control over limited attentional resources and supports lifelong brain plasticity.
PLoS Biology
July 9, 2015
Xavier Viñals, Estefanía Moreno, Laurence Lanfumey et al.
211 citations
Activation of cannabinoid CB1 receptors (CB1R) by delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) causes negative effects including memory deficits, limiting therapeutic use. Behavioral studies in mice lacking 5-HT2A receptors (5-HT2AR) showed a dissociation: THC's antinociceptive effects remained, but its amnesic, anxiolytic-like, and social interaction effects depended on 5-HT2AR, while hypolocomotor, hypothermic, anxiogenic, and antinociceptive effects did not. Biochemical studies revealed CB1R and 5-HT2AR form heteromers in brain regions involved in memory, altering cell signaling and G-protein coupling. Synthetic peptides disrupting heteromerization selectively prevented THC-induced memory impairments, identifying CB1R-5-HT2AR heteromers as targets to separate cognitive deficits from beneficial pain relief.
PLoS Biology
January 27, 2015
David Nutt
66 citations
The United Nations drug control conventions from 1960 and 1971, along with later additions, have inadvertently created major restrictions on medical and life sciences research. These conventions need revision to allow neuroscience to advance without hindrance and to support innovation in treatments for brain disorders. In the interim, local changes like the United Kingdom reclassifying cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 should be implemented to enable appropriate medical research development.
PLoS Biology
July 6, 2026
Maëlan Q. Menétrey, Michael H. Herzog, David Pascucci
In the Sequential Metacontrast (SQM) paradigm, later visual stimuli alter the perception of earlier ones, indicating that conscious perception can follow extended unconscious processing. Using EEG recordings in humans, researchers identified two distinct neural activity stages: an early occipital pattern around 200 milliseconds after the initial vernier, linked to unconscious processing, and a later centro-parietal pattern between 400 and 600 milliseconds after SQM onset, associated with the integrated percept and behavioral report. The transition between these patterns marks the shift from unconscious encoding of individual visual stimuli to their integrated conscious percept.
PLoS Biology
June 15, 2016
Stanislas Dehaene, Jean-Pierre Changeux
Even without sensory input, cortical and thalamic neurons exhibit structured spontaneous activity whose origins and functions are unclear. Computer simulations of a simplified model with multiple interconnected thalamocortical columns and long-range excitatory axons reveal two main activity states: spontaneous gamma-band oscillations emerge at a precise threshold controlled by neuromodulator systems, and within a spontaneously active network, sudden "ignition" of one of many possible coherent high-level activity states occurs among cortical neurons with long-distance projections. During ignition, spontaneous activity can block external sensory processing, relating to inattentional blindness, where intensely engaged subjects fail to notice salient but irrelevant stimuli. The minimal network's generic properties may clarify basic cerebral phenomena underlying consciousness's autonomy.