Whenever you touch yourself, that touch feels distinctly different from when someone else touches you. In particular, self-generated touch is perceived as less intense. This is a phenomenon called somatosensory attenuation. Touch to the self, regardless of self- or other generated, is perceived through a first-person perspective, whereas touch to other is perceived through a third-person perspective. The present study aimed to explore how self-touch is perceived when the self is observed through other perspectives. Here it was found that self-touch in a mirror and third-person perspective lowers the sense of ownership of the observed hand, as well as the agency of the touch. In particular, the sense of ownership and agency were lower in the third-person perspective relative to mirror perspective. Further, no qualitative differences in touch perception were observed across the three perspectives. There was no relationship between the sense of ownership and agency, and these qualitative differences. Lastly, there were no correlations between either of these experimental aspects (ownership, agency, qualitative) and autism traits and self-reported interoceptive abilities. The present study extends the knowledge and understanding of self-touch, and how visual perspective influences. The present study also highlights areas of applications, such as immersive virtual reality and clinical research.

Traditional ways to examine and investigate the neural correlates of consciousness usually require the participants to actively report their perceptions and conscious contents. Having the participants actively report can confound the neural correlates with co-occurring processes. Instead, no-report paradigms try to remove the active process of reporting by either objectively trying to measure conscious content by tracking eye movements and pupil dilation, or retroactively inquire about the conscious states. The results of an fMRI experiment utilising tracking of optokinetic nystagmus and pupil dilation as an objective measure of conscious content highlight a difference in frontal areas while activation in posterior areas are similar to active report experiments. EEG experiments utilising the sustained inattentional blindness paradigm did not see the late positivity commonly seen when the participants were aware of the stimuli but it was not task relevant. Utilising no-report paradigms can provide unique insights into the discussion of theories of consciousness and further develop our understanding of consciousness.

Mindfulness meditation is known to improve attention, and neuroscience appears to be a field that can elucidate how mindfulness meditation achieves such an outcome. However, studies on mindfulness meditation have been criticized for a low methodological quality. Thus the current paper aimed to provide a literature review on the neural basis of the effects of mindfulness meditation on attention. Additionally, there was a critical examination of this research to evaluate factors that might compromise the validity of the research. The scope of the thesis was limited to studies on healthy adults using fMRI and on studies that incorporate the generally accepted elements of mindfulness meditation. A total of 17 cross-sectional and two longitudinal studies were reviewed with 510 participants in all. The main result of this literature review were that changes were observed in the mPFC. Furthermore, activation was seen in the insula, prefrontal areas and the ACC. Some of the interpretations of the selected studies were in conflict with each other. This can perhaps be explained by differences in neural activation depending on how experienced the subjects are in mindfulness meditation practices. Some prevalent methodological issues with the studies were small sample sizes, cross-sectional design, and poor or unclear instructions (e.g., not describing the instructions or the mantra employed). There were also more general problems regarding functional neuroimaging. These included movement artefacts and cardiovascular effects. However, based on the 19 studies reviewed in this paper there is tentative evidence for the beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation on attention.

The struggle to regulate one's emotions can sometimes be difficult. Two emotion regulation strategies are to reappraise an emotional stimulus or to distract oneself from the stimulus. While there have been many investigations of both strategies, previous research suffers from methodological problems. Reappraisal conditions might be confounded by non-reappraisal-related cognitive processes, resulting in effects of distraction rather than reappraisal. In the current exploratory within-subjects study, participants completed an online survey where the conditions were held as equal as possible to avoid any differences in non-task-related cognitive processes. I measured variables that have been associated with an electrophysiological response correlated to the intensity level of emotions: the late positive potential. First, participants watched emotionally negative film clips in a reappraisal, distraction, and control condition, followed by ratings of experienced feeling. Second, participants rated the threat level of angry and neutral faces. It was hypothesized that applying ER during emotion induction compared to no ER should result in more positive ratings of experienced feeling after induction and lower threat-ratings of angry faces due to a more positive emotional state. The results showed no significant differences between conditions, most likely due to either methodological limitations or an actual lack of emotion regulation effects. I discuss future directions and improvements of the method.

Background: Recently there has been a revitalization in research on classic psychedelic substances. This class of drugs has been found to produce intense and profoundly meaningful experiences, and offers a unique opportunity to study the neural correlates of the sense of self. The objective of this research was to systematically review the effects of classic psychedelics on spontaneous brain activity, as measured on three electrophysiological modalities: spectral analysis, signal diversity, and functional connectivity. Method: We searched Pubmed to identify papers in English, published between January 1990 to May 2021, where electrophysiological methods were used to evaluate the effects of classic psychedelics in healthy individuals during non-task resting states. Results: Sixteen papers were included. Classic psychedelic substances generally decrease spectral power in most frequency bands, mainly in the alpha range, increase signal diversity, and decrease the flow of information throughout the brain. Conclusion: Decreases in alpha power, increased signal diversity, and decreases in default mode network activity might be important neural correlates of the psychedelic state. However, inconsistencies in the results and heterogeneity in study design are some of the limitations that have to be considered when interpreting these results.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) interferes with everyday life. It can, for instance, hinder careers, relationships, and leisure time. It is a common anxiety disorder that was neglected for decades. SAD individuals crave and fear social interactions simultaneously, leading to isolation in our highly social world. Therefore, research surrounding these kinds of disorders is essential. This systematic review has focused on the neural aspects and differences between SAD and healthy controls surrounding amygdala activation and connectivity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies conducted using social and emotional tasks were included. Findings include increased amygdala activation to fearful faces and words and a positive correlation between amygdala activation and symptom severity. Further, deficits in emotion regulation and a finding of gradual habituation have been found in SAD compared to healthy controls. Some limitations to this research are the small sample sizes used in the included articles and the use of both SAD and individuals with generalized SAD. The study is essential to assess future questions and directions regarding diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of SAD.

Autism spectrum disorder is often associated with impaired Theory of Mind (ToM), which involves reasoning about others’ mental states. A proposed reason for this impairment is altered brain activity in the temporoparietal junctions (TPJ) in autistic individuals compared to typically developed individuals. This systematic review aimed to investigate ToM in autistic individuals further and its relation to emotion understanding, empathy, and relationships, which were found to possibly be related to ToM and the TPJ. Five studies relevant to the aim were included and most of the results showed associations between ToM and different aspects of emotion understanding, empathy, and relationships. Nonetheless, further research on the topic must be done before these results can be generalized.

Athletes participating in ice hockey are at a high risk of experiencing a concussion which can lead to impairments in cognitive functions. Deciding when a player can be returned to playing ice hockey is part of the concussion management called return to play (RTP). This can bebased on subjective or objective measures. Returning a concussed hockey player too soon can result in devastating consequences. This review aimed to investigate what objective measure could be used to assess a concussed player. It specifically focused on Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT) and a cognitive motor integration (CMI) performance task. It was hypothesized that by combining the two could contribute to an optimal objective assessment and be used as accurate indicators in the RTP decision. This review involved searches from PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science which resulted in a total of four articles. The amount of articles was a big limitation. Main findings are that concussed participants showed decreased cognitive performance relative to baseline despite subjectively reporting being symptom free. Findings in this review suggest that adding a CMI performance task to the ImPACT test battery could be a way to objectively catch several composites incognitive recovery including tasks that require higher levels of cognitive functioning. Administering an assessment based on two objective measures could add accuracy and contribute to a safe RTP not risking a second impact syndrome or prolonged cognitive impairments.

Emotion Regulation refers to the process of controlling our emotions. However, the brain regions which are involved in emotional processes, such as the prefrontal cortices, are the last regions to be developed throughout the human brain. Those who are most affected by this slow development are adolescents especially since they undergo hormonal and neural changes. Previous research has shown mindfulness meditation improves emotional stability and inhibitory control. Since our brain is not fully developed until the age of 25, it is particularly interesting to get knowledge of the effect of mindfulness on emotion regulation in adolescents, which is the aim of this thesis. A total of three studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this systematic review. The results showed a larger reaction in the amplitude of P2, N2, and late positive potentials on both negative and positive stimuli but not neutral stimuli. Differences were observed in the high vs low mindfulness adolescents in frontal EEG asymmetry during emotion regulation tasks. These findings suggest that even brief mindfulness can have a positive effect on emotion regulation processes by enhancing prefrontal cortices. These findings contribute to the understanding of whether mindfulness affects emotional regulation in a developing brain. However, future research is needed to clarify the effects of mindfulness on emotion regulation in adolescents.

Major depression disorder is increasing globally, causing great personal suffering and economic burdens to society. Current antidepressant medications are not sufficiently able to treat all cases of depression and are often associated with troubling side effects. There is a great need for the development of novel treatments, and classic psychedelic drugs are currently being investigated with new interest. The legal status has hindered research, but promising results from pioneering studies on the antidepressant effect of psilocybin have recently given psilocybin breakthrough therapy status, allowing further research to occur more freely. This systematic review aims to investigate the literature available on psilocybin’s effect on major depressive disorder. Five studies were selected according to set inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results are suggesting that psilocybin combined with psychological support is a fast-acting antidepressant agent, able to produce a sustained decrease in symptoms of depression with minimal side effects. However, current studies come with several limitations and further research is needed before the antidepressant effect of psilocybin can be stated as a fact.