The persistence of the subjective in neuropsychopharmacology: observations of contemporary hallucinogen research

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Langlitz
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Brain Research ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Drug Induced ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Epistemic Object ◽  
The Brain

The elimination of subjectivity through brain research and the replacement of so-called ‘folk psychology’ by a neuroscientifically enlightened worldview and self-conception has been both hoped for and feared. But this cultural revolution is still pending. Based on nine months of fieldwork on the revival of hallucinogen research since the ‘Decade of the Brain,’ this paper examines how subjective experience appears as epistemic object and practical problem in a psychopharmacological laboratory. In the quest for neural correlates of (drug-induced altered states of) consciousness, introspective accounts of test subjects play a crucial role in neuroimaging studies. Firsthand knowledge of the drugs’ flamboyant effects provides researchers with a personal knowledge not communicated in scientific publications, but key to the conduct of their experiments. In many cases, the ‘psychedelic experience’ draws scientists into the field and continues to inspire their self-image and way of life. By exploring these domains the paper points to a persistence of the subjective in contemporary neuropsychopharmacology.

Synaesthetic Overdrive

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Weinel
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Visual Music ◽  
Background Theory ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Expanded Cinema ◽  
Improved Accuracy

This chapter discusses altered states of consciousness in audio-visual media, such as films, psychedelic light shows, and VJ performances. First, some background theory is introduced, explaining the main categories of film sound, and what research tells us regarding the way in which sound influences the perception of visual images and vice versa. Following this background section, a tour is provided through various films that represent altered states of consciousness, including surrealist movies, ‘trance films’, and Hollywood feature films. These demonstrate a progression, where more recent movies are able to make use of digital audio and visual effects to represent the subjective experience of altered states with improved accuracy. Meanwhile, beyond the traditional confines of the cinema, ‘expanded cinema’ works such as visual music, psychedelic light shows, and VJ performances have provided increasingly sophisticated synaesthetic experiences, which are designed to transform the consciousness of their audience.

scholarly journals Differential effects of propofol and ketamine on critical brain dynamics

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e1008418
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Varley ◽  
Olaf Sporns ◽  
Aina Puce ◽  
John Beggs
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Level ◽  
Brain Dynamics ◽  
Neuronal Cultures ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Anaesthetized Rats ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Brain

Whether the brain operates at a critical “tipping” point is a long standing scientific question, with evidence from both cellular and systems-scale studies suggesting that the brain does sit in, or near, a critical regime. Neuroimaging studies of humans in altered states of consciousness have prompted the suggestion that maintenance of critical dynamics is necessary for the emergence of consciousness and complex cognition, and that reduced or disorganized consciousness may be associated with deviations from criticality. Unfortunately, many of the cellular-level studies reporting signs of criticality were performed in non-conscious systems (in vitro neuronal cultures) or unconscious animals (e.g. anaesthetized rats). Here we attempted to address this knowledge gap by exploring critical brain dynamics in invasive ECoG recordings from multiple sessions with a single macaque as the animal transitioned from consciousness to unconsciousness under different anaesthetics (ketamine and propofol). We use a previously-validated test of criticality: avalanche dynamics to assess the differences in brain dynamics between normal consciousness and both drug-states. Propofol and ketamine were selected due to their differential effects on consciousness (ketamine, but not propofol, is known to induce an unusual state known as “dissociative anaesthesia”). Our analyses indicate that propofol dramatically restricted the size and duration of avalanches, while ketamine allowed for more awake-like dynamics to persist. In addition, propofol, but not ketamine, triggered a large reduction in the complexity of brain dynamics. All states, however, showed some signs of persistent criticality when testing for exponent relations and universal shape-collapse. Further, maintenance of critical brain dynamics may be important for regulation and control of conscious awareness.

Cognition and States of Consciousness: The Necessity for Empirical Study of Ordinary and Nonordinary Consciousness for Contemporary Cognitive Psychology

1985 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry T. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Altered State ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
And Function ◽  
Symbolic Processes ◽  
Natural Series ◽  
Self Reference

Recent criticisms of the place and function of “consciousness” in “cognitive science” are considered and rejected. Contrary to current orthodoxy subjective experience during abstract cognitive activity, especially when placed in its natural series with phenomenal accounts of so-called “altered states of consciousness,” can provide unique and crucial evidence concerning just that core of “semantics” which eludes the automatized “syntax” of computer simulation. The “noetic” aspect of extreme altered states can be placed in relation to introspective descriptions of “insight.” Various altered state features—synaesthesias, geometric/mandala imagery, reorganizations of “perceptual” dimensions and enhanced “self-reference”—can be taken as direct “exteriorizations” of abstract symbolic processes as discussed by Neisser, Geschwind, Mead, and Arnheim. A genuine cognitive psychology cannot continue to ignore the qualitative-experiential bases of symbolization. More specifically, the sense that insight just comes to us as if from “outside,” its preliminary microgenetic processes masked, does not show the failure of introspective phenomenology but rather offers a unique and positive clue to the imaginal dialogic structure of higher mental processes. Thinking, as one phase of imaginal “conversation,” must be “sent” from the phenomenal “other” to an attenuated, receptive phenomenal “self.” A reconsideration of the Würzburg controversy, adding closely related altered state phenomena to the transitional series between “impalpable awareness” and specific imagery, suggests that the normally masked processes underlying the “felt meaning” or “insight” state are most directly exteriorized as what Klüver termed “complex” or geometric-dynamic synaesthesias. Finally, a reinterpretation of classical introspectionism's “sensation” shows the “mechanism” by which the metaphorical/synaesthetic processes of cognition are generated. Titchener's “sensation” plays the crucial role in metaphor it so conspicuously lacked in functional perception.

Altered states of consciousness in epilepsy: a DTI study of the brain

2016 ◽  
Vol 127 (8) ◽  
pp. 667-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangfang Xie ◽  
Wu Xing ◽  
Xiaoyi Wang ◽  
Weihua Liao ◽  
Wei Shi
Keyword(s):  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
Altered States ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Criticality Creates a Functional Platform for Network Transitions between Internal and External Processing Modes in the Human Brain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minkyung Kim ◽  
Hyoungkyu Kim ◽  
Zirui Huang ◽  
George A. Mashour ◽  
Denis Jordan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Network ◽  
External Information ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Order And Disorder ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Processing Modes ◽  
Internal Information ◽  
External Stimuli ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Temporal Windows

AbstractContinuous switching between internal and external modes in the brain is a key process of constructing inner models of the outside world. However, how the brain continuously switches between two modes remains elusive. Here, we propose that a large synchronization fluctuation of the brain network emerging only near criticality (i.e., a balanced state between order and disorder) spontaneously creates temporal windows with distinct preferences for integrating internal information of the network and external stimuli. Using a computational model and empirical data analysis during alterations of consciousness in human, we present that synchronized and incoherent networks respectively bias toward internal and external information with specific network configurations. The network preferences are the most prominent in conscious states; however, they disrupt in altered states of consciousness. We suggest that criticality produces a functional platform of the brain’s capability for continuous switching between two modes, which is crucial for the emergence of consciousness.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of the shamanic state of consciousness

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma R Huels ◽  
Hyoungkyu Kim ◽  
UnCheol Lee ◽  
Tarik Bel-Bahar ◽  
Angelo Colmenero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Drug Induced ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Signal Diversity

Despite the use of shamanism as a healing practice for several millennia, few empirical studies of the shamanic state of consciousness exist. We investigated the neural correlates of shamanic trance using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) in 24 shamanic practitioners and 24 healthy controls during rest, shamanic drumming, and classical music listening, followed by a validated assessment of altered states of consciousness. EEG data were used to assess changes in absolute power, connectivity, signal diversity, and criticality, which were correlated with assessment measures. We also compared assessment scores to those of individuals in a previous study under the influence of psychedelics. Shamanic practitioners were significantly different from controls in several domains of altered states of consciousness, with scores comparable to or exceeding that of healthy volunteers under the influence of psychedelics. Practitioners also displayed increased gamma power during drumming that positively correlated with elementary visual alterations. Furthermore, shamanic practitioners had decreased low alpha and increased low beta connectivity during drumming and classical music, and decreased neural signal diversity in the gamma band during drumming that inversely correlated with insightfulness. Finally, criticality in practitioners was increased during drumming in the low and high beta and gamma bands, with increases in the low beta band correlating with complex imagery and elementary visual alterations. These findings suggest that psychedelic drug-induced and non-pharmacologic alterations in consciousness have overlapping phenomenal traits but are distinct states of consciousness, as reflected by the unique brain-related changes during shamanic trance compared to previous literature investigating the psychedelic state.

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