Mind & Consciousness
News on consciousness, the nature of reality, human potential, near-death experiences, quantum theories and philosophical or spiritual interpretations, distinguishing evidence from speculation.
Even Human-Like AI Still Fails the Consciousness Test in Our Minds
A new Cognition study finds that people sharply separate AI awareness from consciousness, even when artificial and human agents behave in exactly the same way.
Scientists Find Chronic Pain Can Become Entangled With the Brain’s Sense of Self
UC San Diego researchers found that movement-triggered chronic back-pain flares activate the brain’s self network, linking pain to identity and suggesting new mind-body treatment targets.
Psilocybin Study Reveals Hidden Order Behind the Feeling of Oneness
A large neuroimaging study finds that psilocybin can reorganize brain activity into context-sensitive patterns linked to unity, self-dissolution and next-day mindset change.
Scientists Identify a Distinct Neural Signature of “Pure Awareness” During Meditation
A new Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience study identifies distributed EEG patterns associated with reports of pure awareness during Transcendental Meditation.
Feeling Competent Can Quietly Rewire What Your Attention Values
A new Nature Human Behaviour study shows that feelings of competence can act like rewards, biasing how the brain allocates visual processing resources.
Breathing, Action and the Sense of Agency: What a New Libet-Style Study Found
A new peer-reviewed study tests whether breathing rhythms shape intentional binding and the sense of agency in a Libet-style task.
Anesthesia Reveals a Shared Neural Signature Across Six Species
A Nature Neuroscience study finds a conserved, reversible neural signature of anesthesia across six species, raising deeper questions about the biological organization underlying conscious responsiveness.
Paradoxical Lucidity: Why Some Dementia Patients Briefly Return
Researchers are studying paradoxical lucidity, brief episodes in which people with severe dementia unexpectedly regain coherent awareness, memory or communication.
The Human Brain May Have Two Separate Evolutionary Origins
A Stanford-led study suggests the forebrain and hindbrain arise from two distinct progenitor lineages, preserving an evolutionary split more than 550 million years old.
Brief Mindfulness Meditation May Make Attention More Efficient
A peer-reviewed EEG study finds measurable attention-related changes after 18 days of brief daily mindfulness meditation.
Advanced Meditation May Push the Brain Toward a Critical State Before Consciousness Switches Off
A neuroscience study of advanced meditation finds measurable shifts in brain criticality around brief cessation events in which ordinary conscious experience temporarily disappears.
