Brain sciences
March 26, 2026
Piotr Skalski, Katarzyna Pękacka-falkowska, Agnieszka Pluto-Prądzyńska et al.
Psilocybin shows rapid and sustained antidepressant and anxiolytic effects, with benefits also observed in addiction treatment. However, conventional randomized controlled trials (RCTs) may not adequately capture the therapeutic complexity of psilocybin, which depends on pharmacological action as well as contextual, psychological, and interpersonal factors. This critical narrative review of the ten most cited clinical studies from 2015 to 2025 identified significant methodological limitations, including selection bias, challenges in placebo design and blinding, small sample sizes, and underrepresentation of diverse populations. Real-world evidence studies revealed heterogeneous response patterns and insights unattainable through RCTs alone. Comprehensive evaluation requires larger and more diverse trials, long-term follow-up, standardized psychotherapeutic protocols, and integration of real-world evidence.
Brain sciences
August 22, 2025
Laura Tack, Lore Mertens, Marte Vandeweyer et al.
About one-third of cancer survivors need professional help for fear of cancer recurrence (FCR). The REMOTE trial tests two internet-based mind-body techniques to address this need. Cancer survivors screened with the Cancer Worry Scale are randomly assigned to internet-based emotional freedom techniques (iEFT), an internet-based mindfulness meditation intervention (iMMI), or a wait-list control group, each with 113 participants. Both interventions are delivered remotely via Microsoft Teams and an online platform. The primary outcome is FCR level; secondary outcomes are emotional distress and quality of life. If effective, these interventions could be readily implemented in clinical practice.
Brain sciences
September 13, 2024
André Sevenius Nilsen, Johan Frederik Storm, Bjørn Erik Juel
Measures of consciousness based on signal diversity of spontaneous or perturbed EEG are not affected by cognitive load, whereas the P300b event-related potential is. In 12 participants, EEG was recorded during passive attention to sensory stimuli and during a demanding working memory task. The P300b, which reflects conscious awareness of auditory deviance, was significantly reduced by the concurrent memory task. In contrast, several signal diversity measures, including the perturbational complexity index, were unchanged. These findings suggest that signal diversity measures may remain reliable for assessing consciousness in clinical settings where attention, sensory processing, or command following are impaired.
Brain sciences
April 30, 2026
Tomi-Ann Roberts, James W Pennebaker, Benita Jackson
Interoception—the sense of the body's internal state—is not a simple matter of detecting biological signals accurately. Instead, it is an active psychological process shaped by physiological signals, context, and social and cultural experiences, such as the chronic evaluation of women's bodies. Self-objectification, the experience of living in a body that is constantly judged, redirects attention toward the body and can alter how internal sensations are perceived and interpreted. This framework explains paradoxes in the literature, including women's lower accuracy at detecting heartbeats yet higher reporting of symptoms, and mismatches between subjective and physiological reports of menopausal hot flashes. The account has implications for women's health, including reproductive health, ACL injury risk, and chronic pain.
Brain sciences
August 30, 2024
Hyunwoo Jang, Rui Dai, George A Mashour et al.
A machine learning model that combines functional connectivity, graph-theoretic metrics, and cortical gradient features can classify brain states—including unconsciousness (NREM2 sleep, propofol sedation and anesthesia), psychedelic states (ketamine, LSD, nitrous oxide), and neuropsychiatric disorders (ADHD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia)—with an average balanced accuracy of 79% (range 62–98%). The ensemble model outperformed individual feature-based models (70–76%). Transferability across datasets varied, and feature importance analysis indicated that different brain states rely on distinct neural mechanisms, suggesting that tailored approaches are needed for accurate classification. The findings highlight the value of integrating multiple feature types for robust brain-state classification, though further work is needed for broader generalizability.
Brain sciences
August 25, 2024
Ana Carolina Dutra-Tavares, Luciana Araújo Couto, Thainá P Souza et al.
In a mouse model of schizophrenia induced by phencyclidine, the order in which nicotine (a surrogate for smoking) is introduced matters for the behavioral outcomes. Nicotine given before phencyclidine potentiated locomotor sensitization, a behavior linked to psychosis. Nicotine given after phencyclidine worsened a schizophrenia-like deficit in pre-pulse inhibition, but only in male mice. Neither sequence affected rearing, a control behavior. The findings suggest that whether smoking precedes schizophrenia or vice versa produces distinct effects on the brain and behavior, which may help identify mechanisms underlying the high comorbidity between smoking and schizophrenia.
Brain sciences
June 24, 2023
Mariana Campello De Oliveira, Mariana Capelo Vides, Dângela Layne Silva Lassi et al.
Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs), sold as 'K2', 'K9', or 'Spice', pose greater health risks than cannabis, with higher toxicity and addiction potential unrelated to Δ9-THC. A systematic review of 64 articles (10 original papers and 54 case studies) found that SCs, particularly AB-CHMINACA and MDMB-CHMICA, were linked to deaths, with tachycardia and seizures as the most common toxicity symptoms. Third-generation SCs showed higher prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms. SCs may exhibit greater toxicity and longer-lasting effects than THC, especially harmful for people with epilepsy and schizophrenia due to increased risk of psychiatric and neurologic disorders, convulsive crises, consciousness decline, and hemodynamic changes.
Brain sciences
March 12, 2022
Anya Ragnhildstveit, Matthew Slayton, Laura Kate Jackson et al.
Eating disorders are serious psychiatric conditions with limited treatment options. Ketamine, a drug approved for treatment-resistant depression, is now being investigated for eating disorders. This review examines the evidence for ketamine in treating anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Results are encouraging but limited to case reports on anorexia nervosa. More research is needed to determine ketamine's effectiveness across different eating disorder types, establish safety, and optimize dosing.
Brain sciences
April 24, 2021
Davide Sattin, Francesca Giulia Magnani, Laura Bartesaghi et al.
A scoping review of 68 articles published between 2007 and 2017 analyzed 29 theories of consciousness. The theories showed heterogeneous perspectives, with the most variability concerning subjectivity, neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), and the relationship between consciousness and cognitive function. Among sub-cortical structures, the thalamus, basal ganglia, and hippocampus were most frequently indicated; among cortical areas, the cingulate, prefrontal, and temporal regions, as well as the thalamo-cortical system, were most reported. The review also identified multiple definitions of consciousness and 21 new sub-classifications.