Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
November 1, 2018
Camila Sanz, Carla Pallavicini, Carla Pallavicini et al.
78 citations
Classic psychedelics produce a wide range of subjective effects influenced by the user's mindset and environment, and their common mechanism involves activation of the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor. The diversity of effects across different compounds may also stem from their binding affinities for multiple neurotransmitter receptors and transporters. By analyzing two binding affinity datasets alongside natural language processing of thousands of trip reports from Erowid's Experience Vaults, preliminary evidence showed that similarity in binding profiles across phenethylamines and tryptamines correlates with similarity in the language used to describe experiences.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
May 15, 2026
Felix Tretter, Henriette Löffler-stastka, Hans Braun et al.
An interdisciplinary group of experts argues that progress in understanding and treating neuro-psychiatric disorders requires an integrative, multi-perspective approach that acknowledges differences between system levels, their complex interactions, and domain-specific languages. They review the past decade and find that many research programs remain reductionist and fail to critically examine neurobiological explanations and interdisciplinary interfaces. They call for establishing an interdisciplinary neurophilosophy that develops a critical philosophical stance within neuroscience, applying complex systems science to integrate knowledge. An ecological perspective is needed, viewing the brain as a regulative organ in a situated organism extended to tools, technologies, and social structures. The debate about free will illustrates that respecting complexity and irreducibility of mental phenomena avoids inappropriate reductionist and deterministic assumptions.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
June 19, 2023
Zoé Dary, C. Lopez
Bodily self-consciousness (BSC)—the sense of having a body and being located in it—depends on bodily experiences like self-location, body ownership, agency, and first-person perspective, as well as on multisensory integration. This review summarizes new insights into BSC's neural bases, including the role of interoceptive signals and overlap with general conscious experience and the cognitive self. It identifies challenges and future directions, notably the need for cross-talk between neuroscience subdisciplines, research in animal models to decipher neural networks and neurotransmitter systems, more causal evidence for specific brain areas, and studies of interindividual differences in BSC.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
November 4, 2022
Sergey B. Yurchenko
Consciousness science has many competing theories but lacks a unifying framework. The Cognitive Evolution Theory (CET) proposes that brains evolved first as volitional subsystems from primitive reflexes, not as prediction machines. CET models the stream of consciousness as a discrete chain of momentary states arising from critical brain dynamics at phase transitions, mapped onto neural correlates. This framework integrates insights from existing theories by treating consciousness as a dynamical, evolutionary phenomenon. It uses entropy-based complexity measures as objective observables for the transient level of consciousness, linking continuous brain dynamics to discrete conscious states triggered by brainstem arousal and modulated by thalamocortical systems.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
May 22, 2014
John eSmythies, Lawrence eEdelstein, Vilayanur eRamachandran
The claustrum likely functions as a detector and integrator of synchrony in the axonal trains of its afferent inputs. An unexpected stimulus sets up a processed signal to the sensory cortex that initiates a focus of synchronized gamma oscillations. This focus may interact with a general alerting signal from the reticular formation via cholinergic mechanisms and with other salient activations in sensory pathways relayed to the cortex. This activity is relayed to the claustrum, which processes inputs through multiple competitive intra-claustral synchronized oscillations at different frequencies. It then modulates synchronized outputs distributed to most cortical and many subcortical structures, including motor cortex. Reverberating claustro-cortical loops potentiate weak intracortical synchronizations via connected strong intraclaustral synchronizations, possibly playing a role in the neural correlates of consciousness and control of voluntary behavior.