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Background and Objectives: Meditation and mindfulness, rooted in ancient traditions, enhance mental well-being by cultivating awareness and emotional control. It has been shown to induce neuroplasticity, increase cortical thickness, reduce amygdala reactivity, and improve brain connectivity and neurotransmitter levels, leading to improved emotional regulation, cognitive function, and stress resilience. This systematic review will synthesize research on neurobiological changes associated with mindfulness and meditation practices. Materials and Methods: Studies were identified from an online search of PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases without any search time range. This review has been registered on Open OSF (n) GV2JY. Results: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) enhances brain regions related to emotional processing and sensory perception, improves psychological outcomes like anxiety and depression, and exhibits unique mechanisms of pain reduction compared to placebo. Conclusions: This review highlights that mindfulness, particularly through MBSR, improves emotional regulation and brain structure, reduces anxiety, and enhances stress resilience. Future research should focus on diverse populations and naturalistic settings to better understand and optimize these benefits.

Time perception received growing interest in psychiatry for its psychopathological implications. Cannabis use can cause a subjective experience of temporal perception alteration and increases the risk of emergence of mental illnesses such as psychotic and mood disorders. In this framework, we systematically reviewed the findings regarding the clinical, cognitive, and neurobiological correlates of time alterations due to cannabis consumption. According to preclinical results, cannabis exerts a dose-dependent time overestimation, associated with motor inhibition and circadian alterations. Clinical results reported that cannabis impair time estimation and time reproduction abilities, causing subjective temporal fragmentation and depersonalization symptoms. The alteration of timing mediated by cannabis use might depend on a dopaminergic indirect action and on structural, functional, and metabolic alterations of the cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit. Despite the potential interest, however, only few studies explored the link between cannabis-induced alterations of time processing and psychiatric symptoms.

The catch 22 situation in psychiatry is that for precise diagnostic categories/criteria, we need precise investigative tests, and for precise investigative tests, we need precise diagnostic criteria/categories; and precision in both diagnostics and investigative tests is nonexistent at present. The effort to establish clarity often results in a fresh maze of evidence. In finding the way forward, it is tempting to abandon the scientific method, but that is not possible, since we deal with real human psychopathology, not just concepts to speculate over. Search for clear-cut definitions/diagnostic criteria in psychiatry must be relentless. There is a greater need to be ruthless and blunt in this, rather than being accommodative of diverse opinions. Investigative tests - psychological, serum, CSF, or neuroimaging - are only corroborative at present; they need to become definitive. Medicalisation appears most prominent in psychiatry; so, diagnostic proliferation and fuzziness appear inevitable. And yet, the established diagnostic entities need to forward greater and conclusive precision. Also, the need for clarity and precision must outweigh pandering to and mollifying diverse interests, moreso in the upcoming revision of diagnostic manuals. This is specially because the DSM-5, being an Association manual, may need to accommodate powerful member lobbies; and ICD-11 may similarly need to cater to diverse country lobbies. Finding precise biological correlates of psychiatric phenomena, whether through neuroimaging, molecular neurobiology and/or neurogenomics, is the right way forward. It is in the 1.5-kg structure in the cranium that all secrets of psychiatric conditions lie. Social forces, behavioural modification, psychosocial restructuring, study of intrapsychic processes, and philosophical insights are not to be discounted, but they are supplementary to the primary goal - studying and deciphering those brain processes that result in psychiatric malfunction. Experimental breakthroughs, both in psychiatric aetiology and therapeutics, will come mainly from biology and its adjunct, psychopharmacology; while supplementary and complementary breakthroughs will come from the psychosocial, cognitive and behavioural approaches; the support base will come from phenomenology, epidemiology, nosology and diagnostics; while insights and leads can hopefully come from many fields, especially the psychosocial, the behavioural, the cognitive and the philosophical. Major energies must now be marshalled towards finding biomarkers and deciphering the precise phenotype-genotype-endophenotype axis of psychiatric disorders. Energies also need to be focussed on unravelling those critical processes in the brain that tip the scale towards psychiatric disorders. At how those critical processes are set into motion by forces de novo, in utero, in the genes and their expression, by the environment′s psychopathological social forces - stress, peer pressure, poverty, deprivation, alienation, malnutrition, discrimination of various types (caste, gender, race, etc.), mass conflicts (war, terror attacks, etc.), disasters (natural and man-made), religious/ideological fascism - or social institutions like marriage, family, work place, political governance, etc. Ultimately, we must decipher how the brain goes into malfunction when such varied forces impinge on it, which precise cortical areas and neuronal cellular and molecular processes are involved in such malfunction and its manifestation, as also which of these are involved when malfunction ceases and health is restored, and the psychosocial processes and institutions which aid such health restoration, as also those which promote well-being and help in primary prevention. Emphasis on the brain and its intimate neurological and molecular mechanisms will not impinge on, or nullify, importance of the ′mind,′ wherein subtle and gross brain functions in the form of behaviour, thought and emotions in all their ramifications will continue to be the focus of psychological, cognitive, sociological, psychopharmacological, behavioural and philosophical research. Progress in brain research must move in tandem with progress in ′mind′ research.

Helplessness and hopelessness are central aspects of cognitive-behavioural explanations for the development and persistence of depression. In this article a general overview concerning the evolution of those approaches to depression is provided. Included is a critical examination of the theories. The review of the literature suggests that those cognitive models describing helplessness/hopelessness as trait factors mediating depression do not really have a strong empirical base. The majority of those studies had been conducted in healthy or only mildly depressed subjects. Thus, there seems to be little justification for broad generalisations beyond the populations studied. It seems that some of the reported studies have not tested the underlying theories adequately (e. g. correlation had sometimes been interpreted as causation; adequate prospective longitudinal study designs had seldom been applied). Moreover, the theoretical models are not generally prepared to explain all depressive features (e. g. the possibility of a spontaneous shift in a manic episode). Despite those limitations, there is a relevant impact of the learned helplessness paradigm on preclinical research in neurobiological correlates of depressive states. Last but not least, the models are of high interest with respect to the theoretical background of important modules of cognitive-behavioural therapy and its acute and prophylactic effects.

Developmental dyslexia (specific reading and specific spelling disorder) is thought to stem from specific features in cognitive processing strongly related to biological maturation of the central nervous system which interact with non-biological learning conditions. The specific learning disorder should not be accounted for by mental age, gross neurological deficits, emotional disturbances or inadequate schooling. As a clinical guideline, the child's level in reading and spelling must be significantly below that expected for the population of children of the same mental age. The persistence rate is high and dyslexia is often associated with psychiatric problems. The etiology is not known. From the biological point of view, dyslexia is supposed to have a neurological basis. Neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and neuropsychological correlates have been studied by means of autopsy, brain imaging, neurophysiological and neuropsychological methods. There is good evidence that dyslexia is determined by heritable cognitive components of reading and spelling processing. Experimental research focuses on characteristics of brain structure and cognitive skills related to the central nervous systems of auditory-phonological and visual information processing.

This paper assesses two different theories for explaining consciousness, a phenomenon that is widely considered amenable to scientific investigation despite its puzzling subjective aspects. I focus on Integrated Information Theory (IIT), which says that consciousness is integrated information (as ϕMax) and says even simple systems with interacting parts possess some consciousness. First, I evaluate IIT on its own merits. Second, I compare it to a more traditionally derived theory called Neurobiological Naturalism (NN), which says consciousness is an evolved, emergent feature of complex brains. Comparing these theories is informative because it reveals strengths and weaknesses of each, thereby suggesting better ways to study consciousness in the future. IIT’s strengths are the reasonable axioms at its core; its strong logic and mathematical formalism; its creative “experience-first” approach to studying consciousness; the way it avoids the mind-body (“hard”) problem; its consistency with evolutionary theory; and its many scientifically testable predictions. The potential weakness of IIT is that it contains stretches of logic-based reasoning that were not checked against hard evidence when the theory was being constructed, whereas scientific arguments require such supporting evidence to keep the reasoning on course. This is less of a concern for the other theory, NN, because it incorporated evidence much earlier in its construction process. NN is a less mature theory than IIT, less formalized and quantitative, and less well tested. However, it has identified its own neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and offers a roadmap through which these NNCs may answer the questions of consciousness using the hypothesize-test-hypothesize-test steps of the scientific method.

Background Institutionalization from birth offers a unique opportunity to investigate the effects on brain and endocrine system of psychosocial deprivation in early infancy. Nonetheless, a systematic review about institutionalization and biological anomalies does not exist. Objective The purpose of this paper was to systematize all the studies about biological correlates of early institutionalization. Methods GoogleScholar, PsycINFO, and PubMed electronic databases were used in order to select English language articles published on this topic. Reference lists of included studies were reviewed to capture additional studies. Only quantitative, peer reviewed studies, conducted on children and youths who had experienced institutional care from birth and assessing neurobiological features were included. Thirty-four studies met inclusion criteria. Results The studies reported that the experience of institutionalization may lead to reduced brain volume, larger amygdala volume, decreased cortical activity, altered frontal and limbic activity, white matter abnormalities, and irregular hormone levels. These outcomes are similar to those displayed by children who have experienced harmful events. Although the body of literature is conspicuous enough to highlight anomalies in these children’s neurobiology, only few studies specifically address each brain component or function. Conclusions Adverse early experience can lead to aberrant brain development and functioning. Nevertheless, the comprehension of these neurobiological pathways requires further clarification.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present and provide a critical review of most recent studies inquiring into brain abnormalities in psychopathy. Design/methodology/approach – The authors provide an overview of the findings of neurobiological studies conducted in the last five years. Publications chosen for review were found using Web of Science, PsycINFO and Scopus search engines. Findings – Data in the literature reveal that psychopathy is associated with brain abnormalities in frontal and temporo-limbic regions, i.e. regions responsible for moral decision making, emotional processing and learning. Additionally, interactions between the brain areas have been identified as crucial for the development of psychopathic personality traits. Research findings suggest that the flow of impulses between the frontal cortex and temporo-limbic structures in psychopaths is significantly hindered. Originality/value – The current paper provides an in-depth review of most recent neurobiological studies inquiring into brain abnormalities associated with psychopathic personality traits. Moreover, a particular attention has been paid to identifying abnormalities in brain structures not previously studied in relation to psychopathy (e.g. mirror neuron system, white matter connections).

There is suggestive evidence that suicidal behavior may have biological correlates regardless of which psychiatric illness it is associated with. Most available evidence concerns the neurotransmitter serotonin.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Neurobiological context Information‐processing, cognitive, and neuropsychological correlates of PTSD Information‐processing in children with PTSD Intellectual functioning and achievement in children with PTSD Neuropsychological functioning in children with PTSD Understanding the relationship between PTSD and neuropsychological functioning Clinical implications Summary and future directions References