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consciousness

·September 15, 2025·5 min read

Illusion-Making Neurons Show How the Brain Constructs Reality

Scientists have discovered specialized IC-encoder neurons that make the brain “see” illusions, such as squares or triangles that aren’t truly there. These neurons receive top-down instructions from higher brain areas and then fill in missing contours in the visual cortex, actively constructing what we perceive.

This shows a person walking in a room surrounded by books and photos.

Featured Neuroscience

·August 28, 2025·6 min read

Inside the Minds That Never Forget: Exploring Hyperthymesia

Autobiographical memory allows us to relive experiences, form identity, and project into the future. A rare few, known as hyperthymesics, can recall events from their lives with remarkable precision, linking them to specific dates and vivid sensory details.

This shows a person listening to music in a meditative pose, surrounded by psychedelic swirls.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 27, 2025·5 min read

Breathwork and Music Trigger Psychedelic-Like Bliss in the Brain

New research shows that practicing breathwork while listening to music can induce profound altered states of consciousness similar to those caused by psychedelics. Using self-reports and brain imaging, scientists found that HVB both activated the body’s stress response and increased blood flow to emotion-processing regions like the amygdala and hippocampus.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 18, 2025·5 min read

Sleep to Consciousness: How the Brain Transitions from Dreams to Reality

Each morning, your brain undergoes a precise sequence to shift from sleep to wakefulness, reorienting you to the world. A study using high-density EEG recordings found that awakening begins in frontal regions and spreads backward, with distinct patterns depending on whether you wake from REM or non-REM sleep.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 15, 2025·4 min read

All Senses Activate Deep Brain Hubs for Focus and Consciousness

A new study reveals that all human senses—sight, hearing, taste, and touch—activate the same deep brain regions linked to consciousness when attention is sharply focused. Using fMRI data from over 1,500 healthy participants, researchers found that sensory input, regardless of the type, engages the midbrain reticular formation and central thalamus. These areas are crucial for regulating alertness, attention, and awareness.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·May 12, 2025·6 min read

Brain Wave Phase Locking May Be Key to Unconsciousness

Despite acting through different molecular mechanisms, ketamine and dexmedetomidine both disrupt brain wave phase alignment in ways that reliably induce unconsciousness. A new study reveals that these anesthetics trigger a common signature: increased phase locking at low frequencies, particularly between brain hemispheres, while disrupting local cortical communication.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·May 5, 2025·5 min read

Out-of-Body Experiences Offer New Clues About Consciousness

Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are often dismissed as hallucinations or brain malfunctions, but a new study gives voice to those who have lived them. Through in-depth interviews, participants described their OBEs as vivid, often peaceful, and undeniably real—sometimes more real than waking life.

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·May 2, 2025·5 min read

Study Challenges Leading Theories On Consciousness Origins

A landmark study tested two leading theories of consciousness — Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) — but found neither definitively explained conscious experience. While IIT emphasizes deep integration of brain regions and GNWT highlights widespread broadcasting of information, data from 256 human subjects did not fully support either.

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Featured Neuroscience

·April 24, 2025·6 min read

Why Do Our Minds Sometimes Go Blank?

Mind blanking—the experience of thinking about nothing—has often been misunderstood or lumped together with mind wandering. However, new research suggests it’s a distinct mental state linked to physiological arousal levels, with its own brain and body signatures.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 22, 2025·7 min read

Reading Brainwaves to Fine-Tune Consciousness in Surgeries

A new clinical trial shows that using EEG to guide anesthesia in children significantly reduces the amount of anesthetic needed while improving post-surgery recovery. By monitoring brain wave patterns, anesthesiologists maintained safe unconsciousness with lower doses of sevoflurane, leading to faster awakening and fewer cases of post-anesthesia delirium.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 21, 2025·3 min read

Lucid Dreaming Reveals a New Layer of Conscious Brain Activity

Lucid dreaming, where people become aware they are dreaming, has long fascinated both scientists and dreamers. A new study with the largest dataset of its kind has identified distinct brain activity patterns that separate lucid dreaming from both REM sleep and wakefulness.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 12, 2025·5 min read

What Are Thoughts? Exploring the Mystery of the Mind

The nature of thought remains one of philosophy's greatest mysteries, with deep implications for neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Two main theories compete: materialism, which sees thoughts as brain states, and dualism, which holds that thoughts are non-physical entities. While neuroscience has mapped correlations between brain activity and mental states, it cannot yet explain how physical matter gives rise to conscious experience.