Related papers: Pain and Spontaneous Thought
The most enigmatic aspect of consciousness is the fact that it is felt, as a subjective sensation. The theory proposed here aims to explain this particular aspect. The theory encompasses both the computation that is presumably involved and…
Understanding how neural dynamics shape cognitive experiences remains a central challenge in neuroscience and psychiatry. Here, we present a novel framework leveraging state-to-output controllability from dynamical systems theory to model…
Both neurobiological and environmental factors are known to play a role in the origin of schizophrenia, but no model has been proposed that accounts for both. This work presents a functional model of schizophrenia that merges psychodynamic…
User experience in data visualization is typically assessed through post-viewing self-reports, but these overlook the dynamic cognitive processes during interaction. This study explores the use of mind wandering -- a phenomenon where…
Internal thought refers to the process of directing attention away from a primary visual task to internal cognitive processing. Internal thought is a pervasive mental activity and closely related to primary task performance. As such,…
Neural responses are highly variable, and some portion of this variability arises from fluctuations in modulatory factors that alter their gain, such as adaptation, attention, arousal, expected or actual reward, emotion, and local metabolic…
Contemporary accounts of ongoing thought recognise it as a heterogeneous and multidimensional construct, varying in both form and content. An emerging body of evidence demonstrates that distinct types of experience are associated with…
The feeling of good or bad luck occurs whenever there is an emotion contrast between an event and an easily accessible counterfactual alternative. This study suggests that cognitive simplicity plays a key role in the human ability to…
Sensory and emotional experiences such as pain and empathy are essential for mental and physical health. Cognitive neuroscience has been working on revealing mechanisms underlying pain and empathy. Furthermore, as trending research areas,…
The human brain is autonomously active, being characterized by a self-sustained neural activity which would be present even in the absence of external sensory stimuli. Here we study the interrelation between the self-sustained activity in…
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has begun to narrow down the neural correlates of self-generated forms of thought, with current evidence pointing toward central roles for the default, frontoparietal, and visual networks. Recent…
Generative models of brain activity have been instrumental in testing hypothesized mechanisms underlying brain dynamics against experimental datasets. Beyond capturing the key mechanisms underlying spontaneous brain dynamics, these models…
Impulsive individuals exhibit abnormal reward processing (heightened preference for immediate rewards, i.e., impulsive choice, IC) and a penchant for maladaptive action (the inability to inhibit inappropriate actions, i.e., impulsive…
This paper presents a hypothesis that consciousness is a natural result of neurons that become connected recursively, and work synchronously between short and long term memories. Such neurons demonstrate qubit-like properties, each…
Many complex systems exhibit extreme events far more often than expected for a normal distribution. This work examines how self-similar bursts of activity across several orders of magnitude can emerge from first principles in systems that…
Understanding emotional processing in the human brain requires examining the complex interactions between different brain regions. While previous studies have identified specific regions involved in emotion processing, a holistic network…
The brain is very often viewed as a network, be it at small scale made of cells, mostly neurons, or at larger scale made of neuronal assemblies. Here we introduce a conjecture, in the spirit of a philosophical though experiment, which…
When we experience an event, it feels like our previous experiences, our interpretations of that event (e.g., aesthetics, emotions), and our current state will determine how we will remember it. However, recent work has revealed a strong…
Plasticity is one of the most important properties of the nervous system, which enables animals to adjust their behavior to the ever-changing external environment. Changes in synaptic efficacy between neurons constitute one of the major…
Previous research has shown a clear relationship between sleep and memory, examining the impact of sleep deprivation on key cognitive processes over very short durations or in special populations. Here, we show, in a longitudinal 16 week…