Brain Functional Correlates of Resting Hypnosis and Hypnotizability: A Review.

This comprehensive review delves into the cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis and variations in hypnotizability by examining research employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and electroencephalography (EEG) methods. Key focus areas include functional brain imaging correlations in hypnosis, EEG band oscillations as indicators of hypnotic states, alterations in EEG functional connectivity during hypnosis and wakefulness, drawing critical conclusions, and suggesting future research directions. The reviewed functional connectivity findings support the notion that disruptions in the available integration between different components of the executive control network during hypnosis may correspond to altered subjective appraisals of the agency during the hypnotic response, as per dissociated and cold control theories of hypnosis. A promising exploration avenue involves investigating how frontal lobes' neurochemical and aperiodic components of the EEG activity at waking-rest are linked to individual differences in hypnotizability. Future studies investigating the effects of hypnosis on brain function should prioritize examining distinctive activation patterns across various neural networks.

Voice categorization in the four-month-old human brain.

Voices are the most relevant social sounds for humans and therefore have crucial adaptive value in development. Neuroimaging studies in adults have demonstrated the existence of regions in the superior temporal sulcus that respond preferentially to voices. Yet, whether voices represent a functionally specific category in the young infant's mind is largely unknown. We developed a highly sensitive paradigm relying on fast periodic auditory stimulation (FPAS) combined with scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to demonstrate that the infant brain implements a reliable preferential response to voices early in life. Twenty-three 4-month-old infants listened to sequences containing non-vocal sounds from different categories presented at 3.33 Hz, with highly heterogeneous vocal sounds appearing every third stimulus (1.11 Hz). We were able to isolate a voice-selective response over temporal regions, and individual voice-selective responses were found in most infants within only a few minutes of stimulation. This selective response was significantly reduced for the same frequency-scrambled sounds, indicating that voice selectivity is not simply driven by the envelope and the spectral content of the sounds. Such a robust selective response to voices as early as 4 months of age suggests that the infant brain is endowed with the ability to rapidly develop a functional selectivity to this socially relevant category of sounds.

Different Mechanisms for Supporting Mental Imagery and Perceptual Representations: Modulation Versus Excitation.

Recent research suggests imagery is functionally equivalent to a weak form of visual perception. Here we report evidence across five independent experiments on adults that perception and imagery are supported by fundamentally different mechanisms: Whereas perceptual representations are largely formed via increases in excitatory activity, imagery representations are largely supported by modulating nonimagined content. We developed two behavioral techniques that allowed us to first put the visual system into a state of adaptation and then probe the additivity of perception and imagery. If imagery drives similar excitatory visual activity to perception, pairing imagery with perceptual adapters should increase the state of adaptation. Whereas pairing weak perception with adapters increased measures of adaptation, pairing imagery reversed their effects. Further experiments demonstrated that these nonadditive effects were due to imagery weakening representations of nonimagined content. Together these data provide empirical evidence that the brain uses categorically different mechanisms to represent imagery and perception.

Why neuroscience changes some things but not everything for the law.

Neuroenthusiasts and neuroskeptics both exaggerate the strength of their positions. Neuroscience is already having a significant impact in the courts in many jurisdictions and as knowledge from the cognitive sciences expands, that knowledge, wherever relevant, should continue to inform legal systems. However, neuroscience will only ever be one influence among many. In certain areas, for example, our understanding of fear responses or the reliability of memory evidence, the cognitive sciences may help challenge errors of folk psychology and assist the law to adopt better approaches. In other areas such as juvenile responsibility, developmental neuroscience may prove decisive in reinforcing messages from educational psychology and the behavioral sciences both in persuading legislators and judges but also importantly in altering public attitudes. Drawing on examples from a range of countries including Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, the Netherlands, Scotland, Slovenia, and the United States, we argue that legal systems must be open to and learn from science and must not be afraid to engage with science even where there is no clear scientific consensus.

EEG Reveals Alterations in Motor Imagery in People With Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

OBJECTIVES: Motor imagery has been used to investigate the cognitive mechanism of motor control. Although behavioral and electrophysiological changes in motor imagery in people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) have been reported, deficits in different types of imagery remain unclear. To explore this question, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to study neural correlates of visual imagery (VI) and kinesthetic imagery (KI) and their relationship to cognitive function in people with aMCI. METHODS: A hand laterality judgment task was used to induce implicit motor imagery in 29 people with aMCI and 40 healthy controls during EEG recording. Mass univariate and multivariate EEG analysis was applied to explore group differences in a data-driven manner. RESULTS: Modulation of stimuli orientation to event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes differed significantly between groups at 2 clusters located in the posterior-parietal and frontal areas. Multivariate decoding revealed sufficient representation of VI-related orientation features in both groups. Relative to healthy controls, the aMCI group lacked accurate representation of KI-related biomechanical features, suggesting deficits in automatic activation of KI strategy. Electrophysiological correlates were associated with episodic memory, visuospatial function, and executive function. Higher decoding accuracy of biomechanical features predicted better executive function via longer response time in the imagery task in the aMCI group. DISCUSSION: These findings reveal electrophysiological correlates related to motor imagery deficits in aMCI, including local ERP amplitudes and large-scale activity patterns. Alterations in EEG activity are related to cognitive function in multiple domains, including episodic memory, suggesting the potential of these EEG indices as biomarkers of cognitive impairment.

The (In)flexible self: Psychopathology, mindfulness, and neuroscience.

Clinical and neuroscientific evidence indicates that transdiagnostic processes contribute to the generation and maintenance of psychopathological symptoms and disorders. Rigidity (inflexibility) appears a core feature of most transdiagnostic pathological processes. Decreasing rigidity may prove important to restore and maintain mental health. One of the primary domains in which rigidity and flexibility plays a role concerns the self. We adopt the pattern theory of self (PTS) for a working definition of self. This incorporates the pluralist view on self as constituted by multiple aspects or processes, understood to constitute a self-pattern, i.e. processes organized in non-linear dynamical relations across a number of time scales. The use of mindfulness meditation in the format of Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBIs) has been developed over four decades in Clinical Psychology. MBIs are promising as evidence-based treatments, shown to be equivalent to gold-standard treatments and superior to specific active controls in several randomized controlled trials. Notably, MBIs have been shown to target transdiagnostic symptoms. Given the hypothesized central role of rigid, habitual self-patterns in psychopathology, PTS offers a useful frame to understand how mindfulness may be beneficial in decreasing inflexibility. We discuss the evidence that mindfulness can alter the psychological and behavioral expression of individual aspects of the self-pattern, as well as favour change in the self-pattern as a whole gestalt. We discuss neuroscientific research on how the phenomenology of the self (pattern) is reflected in associated cortical networks and meditation-related alterations in cortical networks. Creating a synergy between these two aspects can increase understanding of psychopathological processes and improve diagnostic and therapeutic options.

Algebraic approach for subspace decomposition and clustering of neural activity.

We developed an approach to decompose neuronal signals into disjoint components, corresponding to task- or event-based epochs. This protocol describes how to project behavioral templates onto a low-dimensional subspace of neuronal responses to derive neuronal templates, then how to decompose and cluster neuronal responses using these derived templates. We outline these steps on complementary datasets of calcium imaging and spiking activity. Our approach relies on fundamental, linear algebraic principles and is adaptive to the temporal structure of the neural data. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Adam et al. (2022).1.

Protocol for spike-triggered closed-loop auditory stimulation during sleep in patients with epilepsy.

Several epilepsies are characterized by interictal spikes in the electroencephalogram occurring preferentially during sleep. We present a closed-loop auditory stimulation protocol with potential for treating sleep epilepsies. We describe the pre-sleep preparations, sleep recordings, the auditory stimulation, in which tones are triggered upon spike detection, and post-sleep procedures. This protocol has been shown to decrease likelihood and amplitude of subsequent spikes in patients with BECTS (Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes) and can be applied to study non-pharmacological treatments of sleep epilepsies. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Klinzing et al. (2021).

Neural Signatures of Pain Modulation in Short-Term and Long-Term Mindfulness Training: A Randomized Active-Control Trial.

OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness-based interventions are widely used to target pain, yet their neural mechanisms of action are insufficiently understood. The authors studied neural and subjective pain response in a randomized active-control trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) alongside long-term meditation practitioners. METHODS: Healthy participants (N=115) underwent functional neuroimaging during a thermal acute pain task before and after random assignment to MBSR (N=28), an active control condition (health enhancement program [HEP]) (N=32), or a waiting list control condition (N=31). Long-term meditators (N=30) completed the same neuroimaging paradigm. Pain response was measured via self-reported intensity and unpleasantness, and neurally via two multivoxel machine-learning-derived signatures: the neurologic pain signature (NPS), emphasizing nociceptive pain processing, and the stimulus intensity independent pain signature-1 (SIIPS1), emphasizing stimulus-independent neuromodulatory processes. RESULTS: The MBSR group showed a significant decrease in NPS response relative to the HEP group (Cohen's d=-0.43) and from pre- to postintervention assessment (d=-0.47). The MBSR group showed small, marginal decreases in NPS relative to the waiting list group (d=-0.36), and in SIIPS1 relative to both groups (HEP group, d=-0.37; waiting list group, d=-0.37). In subjective unpleasantness, the MBSR and HEP groups also showed modest significant reductions compared with the waiting list group (d=-0.45 and d=-0.55). Long-term meditators reported significantly lower pain than nonmeditators but did not differ in neural response. Within the long-term meditator group, cumulative practice during intensive retreat was significantly associated with reduced SIIPS1 (r=-0.65), whereas daily practice was not. CONCLUSIONS: Mindfulness training showed associations with pain reduction that implicate differing neural pathways depending on extent and context of practice. Use of neural pain signatures in randomized trials offers promise for guiding the application of mindfulness interventions to pain treatment.

Classification of Mindfulness Meditation and Its Impact on Neural Measures in the Clinical Population.

Different forms of mindfulness meditation are increasingly integrated in the clinical practice in the last three decades. Previous studies have identified changes in the neurophysiology and neurochemistry of the brain resulting from different mindfulness meditation practices in the general population. However, research on neural correlates of different types of meditation, particularly on the clinical outcomes, is still very sparse. Therefore, the aim of this article is to review the neural impact of mindfulness meditation interventions on different mental disorders via the classification of main components of mindfulness meditation. The clearer classification of mindfulness meditation may inform future clinical practice and research directions.

Brighten the Future: Photobiomodulation and Optogenetics.

Safe, noninvasive, and effective treatments for brain conditions are everyone's dream. Low-level light therapy (LLLT) based on the photobiomodulation (PBM) phenomenon has recently been adopted in practice, with solid scientific evidence. Optogenetics provides high spatiotemporal resolution to precisely switch on and off a particular circuitry in the brain. However, there are currently no human trials of optogenetics on the human brain. These two approaches-PBM and optogenetics-are promising photonic treatments that target the brain using completely different technologies. PBM is based on the mitochondrial reaction to the photons for up- or downregulation on the cytochrome c oxidase synthase in cellular respiration. It is safe, noninvasive, and good for long-term treatments, with wide applications using light wavelengths ranging from 650 nm to ≈1,100 nm, the red to near-infrared range. Optogenetics is based on the expression of engineered opsins on targeted tissues through viral vectors. The opsins are engineered to be sensors, actuators, or switches and could be precisely controlled by light wavelength ranging from 450 nm to ≈650 nm, the visible light range. The penetration of visible light is limited, and thus the photons cannot be applied directly outside the head without surgical means to create a physical window. PBM using near-infrared light could reach deeper tissues for light directly applied outside the head. Detailed scientific foundations and the state of the art for both technologies are reviewed. Ongoing developments are discussed to provide insight for future research and applications.

The burden of words in shoulder pain: A case report of a water polo player.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Shoulder pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal problems of the world's population. In particular, in water polo athletes, the frequency of injuries or pain to this joint is very high. The incidence of psychosocial factors in musculoskeletal pain is well recognized, even if they seem to be more present in chronic pain, rather than in acute pain. CASE DESCRIPTION: The patient was a semi-professional water polo player with acute shoulder pain which occurred during a game. At first, the pain was very mild, but it progressively got worse after the visit to the casualty department where, even in the absence of any confirmed structural lesions, the patient is ordered to refrain from any active movements. The patient became worried, so his anxiety levels increased which worsened his symptoms. The physiotherapist opted for a "hands-off/hands-on approach". OUTCOMES: Significative improvements were observed in all the considered outcome measures, the patient obtained complete recovery in a very short period of time and then he was able to return to his sport. DISCUSSIONS: Psychosocial factors such as anxiety, fear and catastrophizing can modulate pain responses in a subject without structural problems. Thus, counseling and education in pain science can be an effective therapeutic method, especially with conditions of acute, as well as chronic, pain. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

The Algorithms of Mindfulness.

This paper analyzes notions and models of optimized cognition emerging at the intersections of psychology, neuroscience, and computing. What I somewhat polemically call the algorithms of mindfulness describes an ideal that determines algorithmic techniques of the self, geared at emotional resilience and creative cognition. A reframing of rest, exemplified in corporate mindfulness programs and the design of experimental artificial neural networks sits at the heart of this process. Mindfulness trainings provide cues as to this reframing, for they detail each in their own way how intermittent periods of rest are to be recruited to augment our cognitive capacities and combat the effects of stress and information overload. They typically rely on and co-opt neuroscience knowledge about what the brains of North Americans and Europeans do when we rest. Current designs for artificial neural networks draw on the same neuroscience research and incorporate coarse principles of cognition in brains to make machine learning systems more resilient and creative. These algorithmic techniques are primarily conceived to prevent psychopathologies where stress is considered the driving force of success. Against this backdrop, I ask how machine learning systems could be employed to unsettle the concept of pathological cognition itself.

Dispositional mindfulness, emotional regulation and perceived stress among nursing students / Mindfulness disposicional, regulación emocional y estrés percibido en estudiantes de enfermería / Atenção plena disposicional, regulação emocional e estresse percebido em estudantes de enfermagem

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the correlation between dispositional mindfulness, emotional regulation and perceived stress and to verify factors associated with dispositional mindfulness among nursing students. Method: A correlational, cross-sectional study with public undergraduate students. The following instruments were used: Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Emotional Regulation Questionnaire and Perceived Stress Scale. Analyzes were performed using t tests, Pearson's correlation and multiple linear regression. Results: The study included 330 students. There was no correlation between dispositional mindfulness and general emotional regulation score and/or perceived stress and a weak correlation with the emotional regulation dimension emotional suppression. Being in psychological treatment and psychoactive substance use were associated with decreased dispositional mindfulness. Age, sufficient sleep hours and emotional suppression were associated with an increase in this variable. Conclusion: There was a relationship between dispositional mindfulness only with emotional suppression, in addition to the connection of this variable with the perception of sufficient sleep hours, age, use of alcohol or psychoactive substances, undergoing psychological/psychiatric follow-up and emotional suppression.

RESUMEN Objetivo: Investigar la correlación entre mindfulness disposicional, regulación emocional y estrés percibido y verificar factores asociados al mindfulness disposicional en estudiantes de enfermería. Método: Estudio transversal, correlacional con estudiantes de universidades públicas. Los instrumentos fueron utilizados: Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Emotional Regulation Questionnaire y Perceived Stress Scale. Los análisis se realizaron mediante pruebas t, correlación de Pearson y regresión lineal múltiple. Resultados: Participaron 330 estudiantes. No hubo correlación entre mindfulness disposicional y puntuación general de regulación emocional y/o estrés percibido y una débil correlación con la dimensión de regulación emocional supresión de emociones. Estar en tratamiento psicológico y el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas se asociaron con una disminución del mindfulness disposicional. La edad, la suficiencia de horas de sueño y la supresión emocional se asociaron con un aumento de esta variable. Conclusión: Hubo relación entre el mindfulness disposicional solo con la supresión de emociones, además de la conexión de esta variable con la percepción de suficientes horas de sueño, edad, consumo de alcohol o sustancias psicoactivas, estar en seguimiento psicológico/psiquiátrico y supresión emocional.

RESUMO Objetivo: Investigar a correlação entre atenção plena disposicional, regulação emocional e estresse percebido e verificar fatores associados à atenção plena disposicional em estudantes de enfermagem. Método: Estudo correlacional, transversal, com estudantes de universidade pública. Foram utilizados os instrumentos: Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Emotional Regulation Questionnaire e Perceived Stress Scale. Análises foram realizadas por meio de testes t, correlação de Pearson e regressão linear múltipla. Resultados: Participaram 330 estudantes. Identificou-se ausência de correlação entre a atenção plena disposicional e escore geral de regulação emocional e/ou estresse percebido e correlação fraca com a dimensão de regulação emocional supressão das emoções. Estar em tratamento psicológico e uso de substância psicoativas se associou à diminuição da atenção plena disposicional. Já idade, suficiência de horas de sono e supressão emocional se associaram ao aumento desta variável. Conclusão Houve relação entre a atenção plena disposicional apenas com a supressão das emoções, além de ligação desta variável com percepção de horas suficientes de sono, idade, uso de álcool ou substâncias psicoativas, estar em acompanhamento psicológico/psiquiátrico e supressão emocional.

Investigating the effect of age and gender of users on improving spirituality by using EEG.

The current study aims to examine the effect of age and gender of users on spirituality by using an experiment. Literature believes that age and gender have a huge effect on increased or decreased spirituality. The current study aims to examine these theories by a scientific and rational method and using cognitive neuroscience (recording electroencephalograph). In order to do this, an electroencephalograph was recorded for 45 users. Findings show that there is a significant relationship between age and gender of users and spirituality (F = 4.1, p < 0.05) (F = 3.8, p < 0.05). Results showed that users at older ages reached spirituality sooner. Thus, it can be said in regard to the relationship between age and formation/improvement of spirituality that users at older ages reach spirituality sooner than users at younger ages. Results of data analysis showed that alpha and theta brain signals increased in male students at the 30-35 age range; while this increase was slower at the 20-29 age range.

Giving Up on Consciousness as the Ghost in the Machine.

Consciousness as used here, refers to the private, subjective experience of being aware of our perceptions, thoughts, feelings, actions, memories (psychological contents) including the intimate experience of a unified self with the capacity to generate and control actions and psychological contents. This compelling, intuitive consciousness-centric account has, and continues to shape folk and scientific accounts of psychology and human behavior. Over the last 30 years, research from the cognitive neurosciences has challenged this intuitive social construct account when providing a neurocognitive architecture for a human psychology. Growing evidence suggests that the executive functions typically attributed to the experience of consciousness are carried out competently, backstage and outside subjective awareness by a myriad of fast, efficient non-conscious brain systems. While it remains unclear how and where the experience of consciousness is generated in the brain, we suggested that the traditional intuitive explanation that consciousness is causally efficacious is wrong-headed when providing a cognitive neuroscientific account of human psychology. Notwithstanding the compelling 1st-person experience (inside view) that convinces us that subjective awareness is the mental curator of our actions and thoughts, we argue that the best framework for building a scientific account is to be consistent with the biophysical causal dependency of prior neural processes. From a 3rd person perspective, (outside view), we propose that subjective awareness lacking causal influence, is (no more) than our experience of being aware, our awareness of our psychological content, knowing that we are aware, and the belief that that such experiences are evidence of an agentive capacity shared by others. While the human mind can be described as comprising both conscious and nonconscious aspects, both ultimately depend on neural process in the brain. In arguing for the counter-intuitive epiphenomenal perspective, we suggest that a scientific approach considers all mental aspects of mind including consciousness in terms of their underlying, preceding (causal) biological changes, in the realization that most brain processes are not accompanied by any discernible change in subjective awareness.

Impaired Perception and Neural Processing of Rules in Developmental Dyslexia.

Rules and regularities of language are typically processed in an implicit and effortless way in the human brain. Individuals with developmental dyslexia have problems in implicit learning of regularities in sequential stimuli, but the neural basis of this deficit has not been studied. This study investigated extraction and utilization of a complex auditory rule at neural and perceptual levels in 18 adults with dyslexia and 20 typical readers. Mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a responses to rule violations in speech stimuli, reflecting change detection and attention switch, respectively, were recorded with electroencephalogram. Both groups reported no or little explicit awareness of the rule, suggesting implicit processing. People with dyslexia showed deficient extraction of the rule evidenced by diminished MMNs estimated to originate particularly from the left perisylvian region. The group difference persisted in the attentive condition after the participants were told about the rule, and behavioral detection of the rule violations was poor in people with dyslexia, possibly suggesting difficulties also in utilizing explicit information of the rule. Based on these results, the speech processing difficulties in dyslexia extend beyond phoneme discrimination and basic auditory feature extraction. Challenges in implicit extraction and effortless adoption of complex auditory rules may be central to language learning difficulties in dyslexia.