Key Scientific Papers

These are fundamental scientific papers – all in the public domain – related to brain science, relationships, well-being, contemplative practice, and related topics. (And I welcome your own suggestions.) So many breakthroughs are happening these days that it is very exciting. Certainly we need to take it all with a healthy dose of salt, but as  John Maynard Keynes once said: When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

Fundamental Neurology
Changes in Cortical Dopamine D1 Receptor Binding Associated with Cognitive Training
A Default Mode of Brain Function
The Dynamic Brain: From Spiking Neurons to Neural Masses and Corcial Fields
Mapping the Structural Core of Human Cerebral Cortex
Six Views of Embodied Cognition
Wandering Minds: the Default Network and Stimulus-independent Thought
What is the function of the claustrum?

Systems Theory
Cognitive Time Scales in a Necker-Zeno Model for Bistable Perception
Contextual Emergence from Physics to Cognitive Neuroscience

Consciousness
Are There Neural Correlates of Consciousness?
Consciousness and Anesthesia
A framework for consciousness
In the Theatre of Consciousness: Global Workspace Theory, A Rigorous Scientific Theory of Consciousness
Integrated Information in Discrete Dynamical Systems: Motivation and Theoretical Framework
Meditation and the Neuroscience of Consciousness
Neurophenomenology and Contemplative Experience
Paying Attention to Consciousness
Primates, Monks and the Mind
Psychobiology of Altered of Consciousness

Mindfulness & Meditation
Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation
Attention Regulation and Monitoring in Meditation
The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-being
A Cartography of the Ecstatic and Meditative
Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, innate immune and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress
Long-term Meditators Self-induce High-amplitude Gamma Synchrony During Mental Practice
Mechanisms of Mindfulness
Meditation and the Neuroscience of Consciousness
Mental Training Affects Distribution of Limited Brain Resources
Mindfulness: A Proposed Operational Definition
Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review
Mindfulness Training Modifies Subsystems of Attention
Neurophenomenology and Contemplative Experience
Psychobiology of Altered of Consciousness
Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative Expertise
Short-term Meditation Training Improves Attention and Self-regulation
Studies of Advanced Stages of Meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist and Vedic Traditions: A Comparison of General Changes
Studying the Well-trained Mind
Thinking About Not Thinking: Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation
Zazen and Cardiac Variability

Positive Psychology
Adaptive Mental Mechanisms – Their Role in a Positive Psychology
The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?
Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill – Revising the Adaptation Theory of Well-being
Cultivating Positive Emotions to Optimize Health and Well-being
Does Positive Affect Influence Health?
Maximizing Versus Satisficing: Happiness is a Matter of Choice
On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-being
Positive Psychology Progress Empirical Validation of Interventions
Psychological Resources, Positive Illusions, and Health
Well-being Building Bridges Between Buddhism and Western Psychology

Pain
Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion
Placebo and Opioid Analgesia – Imaging a Shared Neuronal Network

Negativity Bias
Bad is Stronger than Good
Negative Information Weighs More Heavily on the Brain: The Negativity Bias in Evaluative Categorizations

Emotions
Anatomy in Emotion: A Meta-Analysis of Findings from Neuroimaging
Disruption of Right Prefrontal Cortex by Low-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Induces Risk-Taking Behavior
Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion
Embodying Emotion
Emotional and Physical Health
Emotion-induced Changes in Human Medial Prefrontal Cortex: During Anticipatory Anxiety
The Eureka Hunt: Why Do Good Ideas Come to Us When They Do?
Integration of Emotion and Cognition in the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex
Resilient Individuals Use Positive Emotions to Bounce Back from Negative Emotional Experiences
When Your Gain Is My Pain and Your Pain Is My Gain: Neural Correlates of Envy and Schadenfreude
Valence, Gender, and Lateralization of Functional Brain

Cognition
Integration of Emotion and Cognition in the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex
Prefrontal Cortex and Flexible Cognitive Control: Rules Without Symbols
Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes

Decision-Making
Decision Making, the P3, and the Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine System
The Neural Basis of Economic Decision-making in the Ultimatum Game

Memory
Internally Generated Reactivation of Single Neurons in Human Hippocampus During Free Recall

Gender
The Gender Similarities Hypothesis

Communication
Is Communication a Skill? Communication Behaviors and Being in Relationships

Relationships
Altruistic Helping in Human Infants and Young Chimpanzees
Biology, Politics, and the Emerging Science of Human Nature
Cortical Mechanisms of Human Imitation
Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion
Empathy: Its Ultimate and Proximate Bases
Empathy and Consciousness
Genes and Social Behavior
Group Competition, Reproductive Leveling, and the Evolution of Human Altruism
Neural Responses to Taxation and Voluntary Giving Reveal Motives for Charitable Donations
Nonverbal Behavior and the Vertical Dimension of Social Relations: A Meta-Analysis
Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and the Neurogenetics of Sociality
The Polyvagal Theory: Phylogenetic Substrates of a Social Nervous System
Relationships as Regulators: A Psychobiologic Perspective on Bereavement
The Selfish Nature of Generosity: Harassment and Food Sharing in Primates
Social Transmission of Face Preferences Among Humans
Winners Don’t Punish

Self
Is Self Special? A Critical Review of Evidence from Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
Philosophical Conceptions of the Self: Implications for Cognitive Science
What Is Self-Specific? Theoretical Investigation and Critical Review of Neuroimaging Results

Morality
An fMRI Investigation of Emotional Engagement in Moral Judgment
Neural Responses to Taxation and Voluntary Giving Reveal Motives for Charitable Donations

Neurotheology
The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality

Evolution
Primates, Monks and the Mind
Tool-use Training in a Species of Rodent: The Emergence of an Optimal Motor Strategy and Functional Understanding

Non-Human Species
Cetaceans Have Complex Brains for Complex Cognition