The neuroscience of lucid dreaming: Past, present, future.

Lucid dreaming allows conscious awareness and control of vivid dream states; however, its rarity and instability make neuroscientific experimentation challenging. Recent advances in wearable neurotechnology, large-scale collaborations, citizen neuroscience, and artificial intelligence increasingly facilitate the decoding of this intriguing phenomenon.

COVID-19-induced acute loss of consciousness in Marchiafava-Bignami disease: a case report.

Among the various manifestations of COVID-19, the neurological implications of SARS-CoV-2 infection are of significant concern. Marchiafava-Bignami disease (MBD), a neurodegenerative disorder, exhibits a clinical spectrum ranging from mild progressive dementia in its chronic form to states of acute coma and varied mortality rates. Acute MBD primarily occurs in chronic alcoholics and malnourished individuals and is characterized by sudden loss of consciousness, seizures, confusion, and psychosis. We herein report a case of MBD presenting as acute loss of consciousness after the development of COVID-19. The patient presented with a history of fever and upper respiratory infection and was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection. He developed a neurological syndrome characterized by altered consciousness and convulsions, and brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed abnormal signals in the corpus callosum and frontoparietal lobes. Considering his alcohol intake history and the absence of other differential diagnoses, we diagnosed him with acute MBD triggered by COVID-19. After high-dose vitamin B1 and corticosteroid therapy, his clinical symptoms improved. In this case, we observed a temporal sequence between the development of COVID-19 and acute exacerbation of MBD. This case adds to the mounting evidence suggesting the potential effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the neurological system.

Late Middle Ages-Europe.

At the end of the late Middle Ages, there had been changes in indications for surgery, with prophylactic trepanation falling out of favor. The management of wounds and the methods for opening the cranium had become fairly standardized. Narrow non-plunging trepans were the preferred drills, and cranial openings were widened by the use of multiple drill holes connected with chisels of which the lenticular was preferred. Concerns about damaging the dura led Theodoric to delay trepanation until the clinical changes reflected separation of the dura from the cranium, at least in his view. Draining pus remained the main indication for trepanation. In no case was the level of consciousness considered in determining the need to open the cranium.

Induction of altered states of consciousness during Floatation-REST is associated with the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time.

Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) minimizes stimulation of the nervous system by immersing subjects in an environment without sound or light while they effortlessly float in thermoneutral water supersaturated with Epsom salt. Here we investigated the relationship between altered states of consciousness (ASC) and its association with the affective changes induced by Floatation-REST. Using a within-subject crossover design, 50 healthy subjects were randomized to 60 min of Floatation-REST or 60 min of Bed-REST (an active control condition that entailed lying supine on a warm waterbed in a dark and quiet room). Following Floatation-REST, subjects felt significantly more relaxed, less anxious, and less tired than after Bed-REST. Floatation-REST also induced significantly more pronounced ASC characterized by the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time. The loss of body boundaries mediated the loss of anxiety, revealing a novel mechanism by which Floatation-REST exerts its anxiolytic effect.

Bio-Psycho-Spiritual Perspectives on Psychedelics: Clinical and Ethical Implications.

Psychedelics have again become a subject of widespread interest, owing to the reinvigoration of research into their traditional uses, possible medical applications, and social implications. As evidence for psychedelics' clinical potential mounts, the field has increasingly focused on searching for mechanisms to explain the effects of psychedelics and therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT). This paper reviews three general frameworks that encompass several prominent models for understanding psychedelics' effects-specifically, neurobiological, psychological, and spiritual frameworks. Following our review, the implications of each framework for ethics and professional competencies in the implementation of psychedelics as medicines are explored. We suggest that interdisciplinary education may be necessary to improve communication between researchers, develop models that effectively incorporate multiple levels of analysis, and facilitate collaboration between professionals with diverse backgrounds in the implementation of psychedelic medicines. We also address pitfalls associated with overemphasis on neuro-mechanisms, risks associated with instigating vulnerable states of consciousness, and hurdles associated with the integration of spiritual frameworks in medicine. Ultimately, as psychedelics push the boundaries of explanatory frameworks focused on one level of analysis, developing new and more useful models to reflect knowledge being produced in this field should be a central aim of psychedelic science going forward.

Valuing the Acute Subjective Experience.

Psychedelics, including psilocybin, and other consciousness-altering compounds such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), currently are being scientifically investigated for their potential therapeutic uses, with a primary focus on measurable outcomes: for example, alleviation of symptoms or increases in self-reported well-being. Accordingly, much recent discussion about the possible value of these substances has turned on estimates of the magnitude and duration of persisting positive effects in comparison to harms. However, many have described the value of a psychedelic experience with little or no reference to such therapeutic benefits, instead seeming to find the experience valuable in its own right. How can we make sense of such testimony? Could a psychedelic experience be valuable even if there were no persisting beneficial effects? If so, how? Using the concept of psychological richness, combined with insights from the philosophy of aesthetics and the enhancement literature, this essay explores potential sources of value in the acute subjective experience, apart from the value derived from persisting beneficial effects.

[The DoC-feeling scale, a paramedical assessment tool improving the diagnostic accuracy of the state of consciousness of non-communicative patients]. / L'échelle DoC-feeling, un outil d'évaluation paramédical améliorant la précision diagnostique de l'état de conscience des patients non communicants.

The Neurological Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital cares for patients with severe brain injuries, which can lead to acute or chronic disorders of consciousness. To assess the patient's state of consciousness, the team relies on precise clinical examination. This article presents the assessment tools used to establish the patient's prognosis.

The relationship between self-consciousness and depression in college students: the chain mediating effect of meaning life and self-efficacy, with the moderating effect of social support.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the impact of self-consciousness on depression of college students, and mainly focus on confirming the mediator role of life meaningful and self-efficacy, as well as the moderator role of social support. METHODS: In the present study, convenient sampling method was adopted, 583 college students were recruited from Harbin city and Wenzhou city in China. All students were assessed using self-assessment scales, including self-consciousness scale, life meaningful scale, self-efficacy scale, social support scale, and self-rating depression scale. Descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis, structural equation model analysis were conducted by SPSS 25.0 and M-plus. RESULTS: Results showed that self-consciousness was negatively related to depression, life meaningful and self-efficacy partially mediated the relation between self-consciousness and depression. Moderated mediation analysis further indicated that the relation between self-efficacy and depression were moderated bu social support. Compare with college students who had high social support, depression in those with low social support was more susceptible to the effect of self-efficacy. CONCLUSION: These findings imply that college students with low levels of self-consciousness are more easy to be depressive, enhancing their sense of life meaning and self-efficacy can effectively alleviate depression, and college student with high social support can benefit more from self-efficacy. Therefore we should pay more attention to the mental health problems of low levels self-consciousness college students in university.

Precise detection of awareness in disorders of consciousness using deep learning framework.

Diagnosis of disorders of consciousness (DOC) remains a formidable challenge. Deep learning methods have been widely applied in general neurological and psychiatry disorders, while limited in DOC domain. Considering the successful use of resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) for evaluating patients with DOC, this study seeks to explore the conjunction of deep learning techniques and rs-fMRI in precisely detecting awareness in DOC. We initiated our research with a benchmark dataset comprising 140 participants, including 76 unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS), 25 minimally conscious state (MCS), and 39 Controls, from three independent sites. We developed a cascade 3D EfficientNet-B3-based deep learning framework tailored for discriminating MCS from UWS patients, referred to as "DeepDOC", and compared its performance against five state-of-the-art machine learning models. We also included an independent dataset consists of 11 DOC patients to test whether our model could identify patients with cognitive motor dissociation (CMD), in which DOC patients were behaviorally diagnosed unconscious but could be detected conscious by brain computer interface (BCI) method. Our results demonstrate that DeepDOC outperforms the five machine learning models, achieving an area under curve (AUC) value of 0.927 and accuracy of 0.861 for distinguishing MCS from UWS patients. More importantly, DeepDOC excels in CMD identification, achieving an AUC of 1 and accuracy of 0.909. Using gradient-weighted class activation mapping algorithm, we found that the posterior cortex, encompassing the visual cortex, posterior middle temporal gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, and cerebellum, as making a more substantial contribution to classification compared to other brain regions. This research offers a convenient and accurate method for detecting covert awareness in patients with MCS and CMD using rs-fMRI data.

Entrepreneurial education and its role in fostering sustainable communities.

Establishing sustainable communities requires bridging the gap between academic knowledge and societal requirements; this is where entrepreneurial education comes in. The first phase involved a comprehensive review of the literature and extensive consultation with experts to identify and shortlist the components of entrepreneurship education that support sustainable communities. The second phase involved Total Interpretative Structural Modelling to explore or ascertain how the elements interacted between sustainable communities and entrepreneurial education. The factors are ranked and categorized using the Matrice d'impacts croises multiplication appliquee an un classement (MICMAC) approach. The MICMAC analysis classifies partnerships and incubators as critical drivers, identifying Student Entrepreneurship Clubs and Sustainability Research Centers as dependent elements. The study emphasizes alumni networks and curriculum designs as key motivators. The results highlight the critical role that well-designed entrepreneurial education plays in developing socially conscious entrepreneurs, strengthening communities, and generating long-term job prospects. The study provides a valuable road map for stakeholders dedicated to long-term community development agendas by informing the creation of strategic initiatives, curriculum updates, and policies incorporating entrepreneurial education.

Extrapolating animal consciousness.

I argue that the question of animal consciousness is an extrapolation problem and, as such, is best tackled by deploying currently accepted methodology for validating experimental models of a phenomenon of interest. This methodology relies on an assessment of similarities and dissimilarities between experimental models, the partial replication of findings across complementary models, and evidence from the successes and failures of explanations, technologies and medical applications developed by extrapolating and aggregating findings from multiple models. Crucially important, this methodology does not require a commitment to any particular theory or construct of consciousness, thus avoiding theory-biased reinterpretations of empirical findings rampant in the literature.

The sensual cell: Feeling and affect in unicellular species.

Our previous efforts to probe the complex, rich experiential lives of unicellular species have focused on the origins of consciousness (Reber, 2019) and the biomolecular processes that underlie sentience (Reber et al., 2023). Implied, but unexplored, was the assumption that these cognitive functions and associated unicellular organismal behaviors were linked with and often driven by affect, feelings, sensual experiences. In this essay we dig more deeply into these valenced (We're using the term valence here to cover the aspects of sensory experiences that have evaluative elements, are experienced as positive or negative ─ those where this affective, internal representation is an essential element in how the input is interpreted and responded to.) self-referencing features. In the first part, we examine the empirical evidence for various sensual experiences that have been identified. In the second part, we look at other features of prokaryote life that appear to also have affective, valenced elements but where the data to support the proposition aren't as strong. We engage in some informed speculation about these phenomena.

Stimulus-elicited involuntary autobiographical memories.

The reflexive imagery task (RIT) has been used to investigate stimulus-elicited involuntary mental processes. The task has been successful in eliciting involuntary perceptual experiences, urges, and even higher-order cognitions, but it has never been used to elicit autobiographical memories, even though in everyday life these memories are often activated involuntarily by external stimuli. These memories are different in interesting ways from the kinds of mental representations that have been activated involuntarily in the RIT. The memories have properties which might make them insusceptible to such a form of external influence. Perhaps substantive effects will not arise because the mental representations associated with autobiographical memories are complex, poly-sensory, and rich in terms of content. To investigate this matter, we developed a variant of the RIT in which participants were presented with external stimuli (line drawings of everyday objects) and instructed not to recall any autobiographical memories. We investigated whether the nature of the involuntary memories was influenced by the nature of the stimulus. In two experiments, the involuntary memories were associated to the stimulus on a majority of the trials (∼80%). We discuss theoretical implications of this finding and of identifying the conditions in which such involuntary effects will not arise. The boundary conditions of the RIT effect illuminate the limits of unconscious processing and also the role of conscious processing in nervous function.

Exploring luminescent carbon dots derived from syrup bottle waste and curcumin for potential antimicrobial and bioimaging applications.

In this study, we utilized a navel hybrid material, prepared by fusing fluorescent Carbon Dots SyCDs, derived from syrup bottles, with curcumin. This innovative approach not only offers significant advancements in antimicrobial activity and bioimaging but also represents a stride in sustainable and eco-friendly nanotechnology. The core of our study is the development of an efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally conscious method for synthesizing SyCDs. This is achieved by repurposing waste syrup bottles, thus addressing the pressing issue of plastic waste. The incorporation of curcumin, renowned for its biological properties, enhances the luminescent characteristics of SyCDs and augments their functionality. This combination overcomes the inherent limitations of curcumin when used in isolation. The hybrid material exhibits enhanced antimicrobial properties and proves to be a potent alternative to conventional fluorescent dyes for bioimaging, marking a substantial leap in the field of sustainable nanomaterials. Our work not only demonstrates the versatile applications of luminescent SyCDs in health and environmental science but also underscores the potential of sustainable approaches in addressing global environmental challenges. This study, represents a significant contribution to the domain of sustainable nanotechnology, highlighting the transformative power of integrating waste management with advanced material science.

Reflection of the Japanese Consciousness and Worldview in the Context of Globalization in the Novels of Haruki Murakami.

Contemporary literature encompasses not only works but also culture, defining the processes of the past preserved in the memory of posterity. Haruki Murakami influenced the shaping of this modern culture to a great extent. The research purpose is to investigate the phenomenon of Haruki Murakami analysing the components of the collective and individual consciousness of the Japanese nation in his fiction. At the methodological level, the following methods of analyzing literary phenomena were used in the training to solve the set tasks: hermeneutic interpretation and sociological method. The research reveals the main features of the urban world of the Japanese society portraying it in progress (from the post-war period to the present moment). The evolution process is portrayed as detachment, independence and solitude. The literary factors reflect both internal spiritual relations and global intercultural links. At the same time, the writer portrays Japan as a country experiencing technological and informational progress, thereby declaring that it is ready to accept and participate in the world changes and become a part of the globalisation process. The writer has made a great contribution to the treasury of Japanese literature and his works are considered an important part of the intercultural interactions between countries they are trying to achieve in a global world. The results close the theoretical and empirical gaps in the literature and literary criticism and contribute to the analysis of the cultural and literary traditions of Japan.

Changes in spatial self-consciousness elicit grid cell-like representation in the entorhinal cortex.

Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex (EC) encode an individual's location in space, integrating both environmental and multisensory bodily cues. Notably, body-derived signals are also primary signals for the sense of self. While studies have demonstrated that continuous application of visuo-tactile bodily stimuli can induce perceptual shifts in self-location, it remains unexplored whether these illusory changes suffice to trigger grid cell-like representation (GCLR) within the EC, and how this compares to GCLR during conventional virtual navigation. To address this, we systematically induced illusory drifts in self-location toward controlled directions using visuo-tactile bodily stimulation, while maintaining the subjects' visual viewpoint fixed (absent conventional virtual navigation). Subsequently, we evaluated the corresponding GCLR in the EC through functional MRI analysis. Our results reveal that illusory changes in perceived self-location (independent of changes in environmental navigation cues) can indeed evoke entorhinal GCLR, correlating in strength with the magnitude of perceived self-location, and characterized by similar grid orientation as during conventional virtual navigation in the same virtual room. These data demonstrate that the same grid-like representation is recruited when navigating based on environmental, mainly visual cues, or when experiencing illusory forward drifts in self-location, driven by perceptual multisensory bodily cues.

Assessing mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3b within-individual sensitivity - A comparison between the local-global paradigm and two specialized oddball sequences.

Mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3b are well known for their clinical utility. There exists no gold standard, however, for acquiring them as EEG markers of consciousness in clinical settings. This may explain why the within-individual sensitivity of MMN/P3b paradigms is often quite poor and why seemingly identical EEG markers can behave differently across Disorders of consciousness (DoC) studies. Here, we compare two traditional paradigms for MMN or P3b assessment with the recently more popular local-global paradigm that promises to assess MMN and P3b orthogonally within one oddball sequence. All three paradigms were administered to healthy participants (N = 15) with concurrent EEG. A clear MMN and local effect were found for 15/15 participants. The P3b and global effect were found for 14/15 and 13/15 participants, respectively. There were no systematic differences between the global effect and P3b. Indeed, P3b amplitude was highly correlated across paradigms. The local effect differed clearly from the MMN, however. It occurred earlier than MMN and was followed by a much more prominent P3a. The peak latencies and amplitudes were also not correlated across paradigms. Caution should therefore be exercised when comparing the local effect and MMN across studies. We conclude that the within-individual MMN sensitivity is adequate for both the local-global and a dedicated MMN paradigm. The within-individual sensitivity of P3b was lower than expected for both the local-global and a dedicated P3b paradigm, which may explain the often-low sensitivity of P3b paradigms in patients with DoC.

Dissociations between spontaneous electroencephalographic features and the perturbational complexity index in the minimally conscious state.

The analysis of spontaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) is a cornerstone in the assessment of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC). Although preserved EEG patterns are highly suggestive of consciousness even in unresponsive patients, moderately or severely abnormal patterns are difficult to interpret. Indeed, growing evidence shows that consciousness can be present despite either large delta or reduced alpha activity in spontaneous EEG. Quantifying the complexity of EEG responses to direct cortical perturbations (perturbational complexity index [PCI]) may complement the observational approach and provide a reliable assessment of consciousness even when spontaneous EEG features are inconclusive. To seek empirical evidence of this hypothesis, we compared PCI with EEG spectral measures in the same population of minimally conscious state (MCS) patients (n = 40) hospitalized in rehabilitation facilities. We found a remarkable variability in spontaneous EEG features across MCS patients as compared with healthy controls: in particular, a pattern of predominant delta and highly reduced alpha power-more often observed in vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (VS/UWS) patients-was found in a non-negligible number of MCS patients. Conversely, PCI values invariably fell above an externally validated empirical cutoff for consciousness in all MCS patients, consistent with the presence of clearly discernible, albeit fleeting, behavioural signs of awareness. These results confirm that, in some MCS patients, spontaneous EEG rhythms may be inconclusive about the actual capacity for consciousness and suggest that a perturbational approach can effectively compensate for this pitfall with practical implications for the individual patient's stratification and tailored rehabilitation.

How well do neural signatures of resting-state EEG detect consciousness? A large-scale clinical study.

The assessment of consciousness states, especially distinguishing minimally conscious states (MCS) from unresponsive wakefulness states (UWS), constitutes a pivotal role in clinical therapies. Despite that numerous neural signatures of consciousness have been proposed, the effectiveness and reliability of such signatures for clinical consciousness assessment still remains an intense debate. Through a comprehensive review of the literature, inconsistent findings are observed about the effectiveness of diverse neural signatures. Notably, the majority of existing studies have evaluated neural signatures on a limited number of subjects (usually below 30), which may result in uncertain conclusions due to small data bias. This study presents a systematic evaluation of neural signatures with large-scale clinical resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) signals containing 99 UWS, 129 MCS, 36 emergence from the minimally conscious state, and 32 healthy subjects (296 total) collected over 3 years. A total of 380 EEG-based metrics for consciousness detection, including spectrum features, nonlinear measures, functional connectivity, and graph-based measures, are summarized and evaluated. To further mitigate the effect of data bias, the evaluation is performed with bootstrap sampling so that reliable measures can be obtained. The results of this study suggest that relative power in alpha and delta serve as dependable indicators of consciousness. With the MCS group, there is a notable increase in the phase lag index-related connectivity measures and enhanced functional connectivity between brain regions in comparison to the UWS group. A combination of features enables the development of an automatic detector of conscious states.

Local orchestration of distributed functional patterns supporting loss and restoration of consciousness in the primate brain.

A central challenge of neuroscience is to elucidate how brain function supports consciousness. Here, we combine the specificity of focal deep brain stimulation with fMRI coverage of the entire cortex, in awake and anaesthetised non-human primates. During propofol, sevoflurane, or ketamine anaesthesia, and subsequent restoration of responsiveness by electrical stimulation of the central thalamus, we investigate how loss of consciousness impacts distributed patterns of structure-function organisation across scales. We report that distributed brain activity under anaesthesia is increasingly constrained by brain structure across scales, coinciding with anaesthetic-induced collapse of multiple dimensions of hierarchical cortical organisation. These distributed signatures are observed across different anaesthetics, and they are reversed by electrical stimulation of the central thalamus, coinciding with recovery of behavioural markers of arousal. No such effects were observed upon stimulating the ventral lateral thalamus, demonstrating specificity. Overall, we identify consistent distributed signatures of consciousness that are orchestrated by specific thalamic nuclei.