Related papers: Pain and Spontaneous Thought
The current study investigates possible neural mechanisms underling autonomous shifts between focus state and mind-wandering by conducting model simulation experiments. On this purpose, we modeled perception processes of continuous sensory…
According to the dominant view, time in perceptual decision making is used for integrating new sensory evidence. Based on a probabilistic framework, we investigated the alternative hypothesis that time is used for gradually refining an…
We present experimental and theoretical arguments, at the single neuron level, suggesting that neuronal response fluctuations reflect a process that positions the neuron near a transition point that separates excitable and unexcitable…
In contrast to objectively measurable aspects (such as accuracy, reading speed, or memorability), the subjective experience of visualizations has only recently gained importance, and we have less experience how to measure it. We explore how…
This essay is presented with two principal objectives in mind: first, to document the prevalence of fractals at all levels of the nervous system, giving credence to the notion of their functional relevance; and second, to draw attention to…
Predicting how the brain can be driven to specific states by means of internal or external control requires a fundamental understanding of the relationship between neural connectivity and activity. Network control theory is a powerful tool…
One of the central aims of neuroscience is to reliably predict the behavioral response of an organism using its neural activity. If possible, this implies we can causally manipulate the neural response and design brain-computer-interface…
Structured internal representations (cognitive maps) shape cognition, from imagining the future and counterfactual past, to transferring knowledge to new settings. Our understanding of how such representations are formed and maintained in…
How the information microscopically processed by individual neurons is integrated and used in organizing the behavior of an animal is a central question in neuroscience. The coherence of neuronal dynamics over different scales has been…
Motor activity of humans displays complex temporal fluctuations which can be characterized by scale-invariant statistics, thus documenting that structure and fluctuations of such kinetics remain similar over a broad range of time scales.…
Working memory often appears to exceed its basic span by organizing items into compact representations called chunks. Chunking can be learned over time for familiar inputs; however, it can also arise spontaneously for novel stimuli. Such…
Lack of vivid sensory imagery has recently become an active subject of research, under the name of aphantasia. Extremely vivid imagery, or hyperphantasia, is at the other end of the spectrum of individual differences. While most research…
Models of neural responses to stimuli with complex spatiotemporal correlation structure often assume that neurons are only selective for a small number of linear projections of a potentially high-dimensional input. Here we explore recent…
Background. Chronic pain afflicts 20 % of the global population. A strictly biomedical mind-set leaves many sufferers chasing somatic cures and has fuelled the opioid crisis. The biopsychosocial model recognises pain subjective,…
Cortical sensory neurons are known to be highly variable, in the sense that responses evoked by identical stimuli often change dramatically from trial to trial. The origin of this variability is uncertain, but it is usually interpreted as…
Human perception and behavior are affected by the situational context, in particular during social interactions. A recent study demonstrated that humans perceive visual stimuli differently depending on whether they do the task by themselves…
A nonlinear dynamical modeling of interaction between automatic and conscious processes in the brain is described. Effects of sensations, emotions and reflections on the electromagnetic activity of the brain are represented in terms of…
Although the conscious state is considered an emergent property of the underlying brain activity and thus somehow resides on brain hardware, there is a non-univocal mapping between both. Given a neural hardware, multiple conscious patterns…
Human physical function is governed by self-efficacy, the belief in one's motor capacity. In chronic pain patients, this capacity may remain reduced long after the damage causing the pain has been cured. Chronic pain alters body schema,…
In recent years, the field of neuroscience has gone through rapid experimental advances and a significant increase in the use of quantitative and computational methods. This growth has created a need for clearer analyses of the theory and…