Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
Alexandra Kitson, Alice Chirico, Andrea Gaggioli et al.
Self-transcendence involves reduced self-saliency (ego disillusionment) and increased connection, and interest in the topic has grown over the past decade. Several measures with some psychometric validity and reliability exist, but no prior review has systematically described, contrasted, and evaluated the various methodological approaches—including questionnaires, neurological and physiological measures, and qualitative methods. This review fills that gap by describing existing measurement methods, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and suggesting future research directions and recommendations for selecting appropriate methods based on research context.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2015
Francisco A Olivares, Esteban Vargas, Claudio Fuentes et al.
Neurophenomenology aims to bridge qualitative and quantitative methods in consciousness research through reciprocal constraints between first-person accounts and neurophysiological data, but has faced methodological difficulties in systematically obtaining and analyzing subjective reports. Recently developed second-person methods—interview techniques that elicit verbal and non-verbal information—offer a way to obtain detailed subjective reports. This paper examines the potential of second-person methodologies for neurophenomenology, describes available interview techniques, analyzes two experimental studies that incorporate them, and identifies the validation problem of comparing results across participants and interviewers. The authors argue that second-person methods are a powerful approach for closing the gap between experiential and neurobiological levels of description.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2014
Paul Lodder, Mark Rotteveel, Michiel van Elk
Within social cognition, some researchers argue that understanding others relies on dynamic, second-person interactions rather than detached observation. This enactivist view splits over whether such intersubjective processes are innate. Nativist enactivists cite neonatal imitation as evidence that infants possess an embodied form of understanding others from birth, while empiricist enactivists claim these processes are learned through social interaction. A critical examination of studies on neonate imitation finds that only tongue protrusion imitation is consistently replicated across studies; evidence for other gestures is mixed. If neonates imitate only one gesture, a simpler explanation for tongue protrusion is possible. Thus, the nativist claim that second-person interactive processes are present at birth appears unsupported. The evidence aligns with the empiricist position, suggesting that such interactive understanding develops over time.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2014
Éric Laurent
Vision is not an isolated, modular process but is instead shaped by non-visual contextual factors—biological, physical, and social systems with which it is coupled. Converging evidence from human perception research indicates that visual activity is enacted through multiscale couplings rather than hard-wired modules. The article introduces the Multiscale Enaction Model (MEM), which links psychological findings with biocomputational data to bridge scales of analysis. MEM accounts for autopoiesis-driven information seeking and the emergence of perception, emphasizing the embodied, flexible teleology of subsystems.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2026
Sharon Vaisvaser
Aesthetic experiences are rooted in the body and can evoke deep emotions, supporting development, mental health, and well-being. This conceptual review integrates neuroaesthetics and psychodynamic approaches to show how aesthetic experiences arise from a dynamic interplay between anticipation and surprise, generating prediction errors that drive exploration, curiosity, and meaning-making. These processes engage neural systems for sensorimotor processing, emotion-valuation, and meaning-knowledge integration. In psychotherapy, aesthetic moments emerge through embodied interactions and creative arts, enabling pre-symbolic impressions to be transformed into symbolic, thinkable experience. Therapist and patient co-create a shared field that expands peripersonal space, deepens connection, and helps integrate unrepresented aspects of self, supporting emotional regulation, mentalization, neural plasticity, and corrective learning.