Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
Joseph Glicksohn, Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan
19 citations
A female participant who scored the maximum on the Absorption Scale reported a spiritual experience—feeling she was meeting God—while immersed in a whole-body perceptual deprivation tank. Her experience included imagery of a spaceship, corridors, a man in white, speaking to God, the sun, supernova, concentric images, and an out-of-body experience. Her EEG showed frontal and parietal left-greater-than-right alpha asymmetry at baseline, and during the tank condition, a global increase in alpha power with a sharp increase in right-frontal alpha power. Comparing her data with another high-absorption participant and two low-absorption participants suggests that verbalizable spiritual experiences may be linked to increased right-frontal alpha power, whereas ineffable mystical experiences might involve increased left-frontal alpha power.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2015
Zuzanna Rucinska, Ellen Reijmers
19 citations
The paper presents the enactive account of pretend play (EAPP), a non-standard philosophical view that describes pretend play as arising from interaction and affordances rather than from internal mental representations. This re-characterization helps explain how shared meanings and interaction function in systemic therapies, where play is used to enhance dialog rather than to uncover hidden meanings. The authors conclude by connecting insights from therapeutic practice with philosophical analysis.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2024
Dong Gao, Yuqin Su, Xing Zhang et al.
18 citations
Virtual reality (VR)-based mindfulness, including VR meditation and VR mind-body exercises, is a promising approach to improve older adults' health. VR meditation relies on headsets and effectively improves mental health, pain, and quality of life. VR mind-body exercises require motion capture sensors, main consoles, and display screens; they enhance mental health and physical function and may be combined with other exercises. These interventions improve accessibility and the meditation experience but face challenges such as cost, technical anxiety, and apparatus issues. Future research should examine optimal exercise doses for VR mind-body exercises to maximize health benefits.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2021
Serena Scarpelli, Valentina Alfonsi, Anita D'Anselmo et al.
18 citations
During the Italian COVID-19 lockdown, people with narcolepsy type-1 (NT1) reported more lucid dreams than matched controls, and those lucid dreams were linked to greater creativity and problem-solving during waking hours. The study compared 43 NT1 patients with 86 controls. NT1 patients had higher sleepiness, while controls had more sleep disturbances—a difference that disappeared after accounting for medication. Among NT1 patients, nightmare frequency correlated with female gender, longer sleep, and more wakefulness within sleep; dream recall, nightmares, and lucid dreams all correlated with sleepiness. The findings confirm a connection between lucidity and creativity in NT1 but cannot establish causality due to the small sample and cross-sectional design.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
Ines Testoni, Lucia Ronconi, Gianmarco Biancalani et al.
18 citations
A death education program using psychodramatic techniques and Tibetan bell meditation helped Italian high school students process traumatic grief after two classmates died in a car accident and a suicide. The intervention aimed to prevent the Werther effect—imitative suicide. Among 82 students who completed pre- and post-test surveys (45 in the experimental group, 37 in the control group), the experimental group showed reduced fear of death and avoidance, and normalized death as a natural part of life, improving well-being. The findings suggest well-being arises not from the absence of suffering but from the capacity to think creatively about trauma.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
David H V Vogel, Mathis Jording, Christian Kupke et al.
18 citations
Cognition is not only shaped by space and body but also by time. The authors argue that situated cognition, typically defined by embodiment, enaction, extension, and embedding, must include a temporal dimension. On a subpersonal level, information processing requires a minimal temporal extension to form basic perceptions and actions (microlayer of time). On a personal level, lived experiences and narratives create broader temporal horizons (macrolayer of time). The macrolayer emerges from the microlayer, with neurobiological processes constraining the former and complex social affordances shaping the latter. Cognition is a continuous dynamic process transitioning between situated states, with the flow of time as its driving force. Examples from everyday life and psychopathology illustrate how understanding enduring situations benefits cognitive science.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
Takuya Niikawa
18 citations
A map of consciousness studies is presented, listing five fundamental categories of questions: Definitional, Phenomenological, Epistemological, Ontological, and Axiological. Each category is subdivided into more specific questions, and existing approaches to each question are classified into groups with principal researchers. The map is then applied to examine the integrated information theory and the global workspace theory of consciousness, demonstrating its usefulness.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2024
Anya Daly, Rosa Ritunnano, Shaun Gallagher et al.
17 citations
Mental disorders involve complex alterations of the self that arise from interactions among cognitive, bodily, affective, social, narrative, cultural, and normative elements. The pattern theory of self (PTS) provides a non-reductive account consistent with embodied-enactive cognition and phenomenological psychopathology, emphasizing the multi-dimensionality of subjects and situated embodiment. This article develops the Examination of Self Patterns (ESP), a flexible methodological framework that front-loads the self-pattern into a minimally structured phenomenological interview. The ESP avoids internalist or externalist assumptions about mind and is guided by person-specific interpretations rather than diagnostic categories, offering advantages for tackling the complexity of mental health research and clinical protocols.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2022
Daniel Meling
17 citations
Non-dual-oriented contemplative practices aim to shift experience into a mode where self-other and subject-object distinctions dissolve, de-reifying the sense of a separate observing witness. Despite the importance of such non-dual insight in traditions like Zen, Mahāmudrā, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta, contemplative science has rarely studied these practices. This article uses an enactive cognitive science framework to model the requirements for a temporary experiential shift free from subject-object structure. It outlines common elements of non-dual practices, presents an enactive model of pure non-dual experience, and compares this model with Mahāmudrā meditation from Tibetan Buddhism to evaluate external coherence. The article concludes with a research agenda for studying non-dual practices.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2021
Madhumita Chattopadhyay
17 citations
Buddhist meditation aims to transform the individual's personality from a self-centered "I" to a collective "we," achieving peace of mind and global peace. The practice of vipassanā (insight) leads to supreme enlightenment by breaking internal fetters through seven types of purity: morals, mind, views, and insight. Meditation involves not solitary mindfulness but also cultivating higher qualities like compassion and friendliness. The ideal practitioner, the Bodhisattva, must perfect wisdom (prajñā-pāramitā) and skill in means (upāyas), which do not create new bondage. Attaining this broad outlook is the highest contemplation and ultimate goal of Buddhist meditation.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
Nicolas Ribeiro, Yannick Gounden, Véronique Quaglino
17 citations
Lucid dreaming, where one is conscious of dreaming and may control or observe the dream, was studied for its frequency and relation to sleep quality. In a French student group (n=274) and a general population sample (n=681), dream experience frequencies and sleep quality (measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) were compared. Predictive models of sleep quality, controlling for age and gender, were not significant for students and only marginally predictive for the general population. However, the models' significance was driven solely by gender, not by dream experience frequencies, indicating that lucid dreaming frequency does not help predict sleep quality. The findings are discussed in light of prior research, and methodological improvements for future studies are suggested.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2019
Chunyun Yu, Heyong Shen
17 citations
Lucid dreaming (LD) is a state where the dreamer knows they are dreaming while still asleep, involving metacognitive abilities like self-reflection. This study first investigated the prevalence of LD in China, finding that 81.3% of subjects had experienced LD at least once, similar to Western countries. Comparing bizarreness density (BD) between LD and non-LD dreams, BD was significantly lower in LD. Self-reflection and insight traits were inversely associated with dream bizarreness, suggesting that self-consciousness traits extend from waking to both LD and non-LD states.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2014
Steven M Miller
17 citations
Consciousness science aims to find the neural basis of conscious experience, but a key problem is distinguishing neural correlates (brain activity that merely accompanies consciousness) from neural constitution (brain activity that actually generates consciousness). This paper reviews that distinction problem, arguing that current methods like recording, inhibition, and stimulation cannot reliably separate the two. The Jenga analogy illustrates why identifying minimal neural correlates is an insufficient goal. Even combined inhibition and stimulation strategies may reveal some constitutive activities but not the whole neural constitution. The author proposes new foundational claims for the field to address this challenge.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2024
Ping Qu, Xiaoqing Zhu, Hui Zhou et al.
16 citations
Adding explicit mindfulness instruction to standard Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) training improves beginners' mental and physical health more than TCC alone. In a randomized trial with 119 healthy college students new to TCC, those who received a 10-week Mindfulness-enhanced Tai Chi Chuan (MTCC) program showed significantly greater gains in mindfulness, lower anxiety and stress, and better health- and skill-related physical fitness compared with a standard TCC group. No difference in depression was found between the two groups. The findings suggest that MTCC offers additional mental health benefits while also improving physical fitness, making it a useful intervention for beginners.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2023
Pascal Michael, David Luke, Oliver Robinson
16 citations
A naturalistic field study analyzed the content of breakthrough experiences after inhaling 40-75 mg of DMT in non-clinical home settings. Based on 36 interviews with experienced users (83% Caucasian, eight women, mean age 37), five overarching categories emerged: onset effects (sensory, emotion, body, space-time shifts), bodily effects (pleasurable, neutral, uncomfortable), sensorial effects (open-eye, visual, cross-modal), psychological effects (memory, language, awareness, sense of self, time distortions), and emotional effects (positive, neutral, challenging). The findings systematically detail the rich, self-referential content of the DMT state and its resonances with alien abduction, shamanic, and near-death experiences.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2022
Sucharit Katyal
16 citations
Consciousness is often described as having a subject-object structure, but studying its subjective aspects empirically is challenging. Meditation traditions, particularly Buddhist ones, have been used to manipulate this structure. This paper presents the Tantric Yoga tradition, especially the Ananda Marga school founded by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, as an alternative framework. It translates Tantric Yoga philosophy into a systematic phenomenological account of consciousness divided into four structures spanning from subject to object. Stepwise meditation procedures are detailed that allow a practitioner to experientially reduce these structures from object to subject, aiming for self-realization. The paper discusses how these states overlap with those from other traditions and could advance empirical consciousness research.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2022
Jun-Hui Ning, Qing-Wei Hao, Da-Cai Huang
16 citations
A mindfulness training program called MAIC improved mindfulness, flow state, and mental health in college swimmers. Forty-seven swimmers were randomly assigned to either the MAIC program or no training. After the intervention, the MAIC group showed significantly higher mindfulness and flow state, lower anxiety and depression, and greater satisfaction with training and competition. These benefits persisted at a follow-up test, except that anxiety increased slightly but significantly from post-test to follow-up. The program appears to produce lasting improvements in psychological well-being and sports experience.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
Denholm J Adventure-Heart
16 citations
The International Lucid Dream Induction Study compared five combinations of lucid dream induction techniques in 355 participants interested in lucid dreaming. After a one-week baseline recording of sleep and dream recall, participants practiced the techniques for another week. The MILD and SSILD techniques were similarly effective for inducing lucid dreams, while a hybrid of the two showed no advantage. Better general dream recall and falling asleep within 10 minutes of completing the techniques predicted successful induction. Lucid dream induction did not harm sleep quality, and the techniques worked regardless of prior lucid dreaming frequency or experience.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2018
Tobias Schlicht
16 citations
Intentionality—the aboutness of mental states—has resisted naturalistic explanation partly because most theorists treat it as equivalent to mental representation. This paper argues instead that intentionality is a feature of whole embodied agents (organisms) that can be directed at objects and states of affairs, while representation belongs to mental states and their mechanisms. The distinction is applied to Metzinger's project of naturalizing phenomenal representation. The paper challenges enactivism's equation of cognition with biology, proposing that a theory of intentionality and representation should delineate cognitive science's subject matter and allow for artificial intelligence.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2024
Hanani Abdul Manan, Imtiyaz Ali Mir, Syeda Humayra et al.
15 citations
A systematic review and meta-analysis of eight randomized controlled trials involving 623 coronary artery disease patients found that mindfulness-based interventions significantly improve mental health. The interventions reduced anxiety, depression, and stress, with effect sizes ranging from moderate to large. Subgroup analyses showed no significant regional differences for anxiety or depression, but a significant effect for stress. The trials had satisfactory methodological quality overall, though all lacked allocation concealment and blinding, and some had gender imbalances and inadequate follow-up. More rigorous studies with equal gender representation and long-term follow-up are needed.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2023
Yuehang Yang, Dawei Cao, Teng Lyu et al.
15 citations
A meta-analysis of 22 randomized controlled trials involving 2,216 patients found that mindfulness yoga exercise significantly reduces depressive symptoms, with a large combined effect size. The analysis included 1,101 patients in yoga intervention groups and 1,115 in control groups. Results showed substantial heterogeneity across studies, but the overall effect indicates yoga is effective for preventing and treating depression and improving mental health. Mindfulness yoga may serve as a non-medical, low-cost adjunct to pharmacological treatment for depression.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
Andrea Pintimalli, Tania Di Giuseppe, Grazia Serantoni et al.
15 citations
The Sphere Model of Consciousness (SMC) describes subjective experiences using geometric coordinates, with a central 'Place of Pre-Existence' (PPE) representing an experience of overcoming habitual self and memory conditioning, causally linked to self-determination. Silence may act as an intentional inner environment that focuses self-perception on the present moment, improving body awareness. In a preliminary study, 481 volunteer PPE technique practitioners completed questionnaires before and after a 3-day meditative training. Results showed a shift from mental to spatial dimensions dominating experience after training. Silence was reported more often after training and was mainly associated with mental and emotional experiences.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
Brigitte Holzinger, Lucille Mayer
15 citations
Lucid dreaming is a state where dreamers know they are dreaming and can deliberately control the dream's content. This study examined seven awareness criteria of lucid dreaming, originally proposed by Paul Tholey, and mapped each to its underlying brain circuits. The results showed that multiple brain regions are involved, and during lucid dreaming a coordinated brain network emerges that is more than the sum of its parts. The findings suggest that lucid dreaming involves a distributed neural network rather than a single area, though further research is needed to fully understand the neurological basis.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
S Shaun Ho, Yoshio Nakamura, James E Swain
15 citations
Compassion meditation, rooted in Buddhist philosophy, may help protect mental health amid intensifying conflicts. The practice involves attuning equally to friend, enemy, and neutral person, aiming to suspend identity-based conceptual thoughts and ego-preserving biases that obscure reality. A Bayesian active inference framework models the person as a Bayesian Engine that constructs phenomena from aggregates (forms, sensations, discriminations, actions, consciousness). Rigid identity-grasping beliefs cause the engine to malfunction by blocking updates from prediction errors. The proposed brain model has three components: Relation-Modeling (Default-Mode Network), Reality-Checking (Frontoparietal and Ventral Attention Networks), and Conflict-Alarming (Salience Network). Compassion meditation may strengthen brain regions that suspend prior beliefs and enhance attunement to others.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2024
Valeria Sebri, Silvia Francesca Maria Pizzoli, Chiara Marzorati et al.
14 citations
A study protocol will test whether an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program helps breast cancer survivors become more aware of inner body sensations (interoception) and improves their mood, body perception, anxiety, and depression. Changes will be measured at three time points to track effects over time. The authors suggest MBSR may promote emotional well-being by enhancing body awareness and regulating interoceptive feelings, offering directions for future psychological interventions.