Sister Bernardette Moriau’s “Spontaneous” Healing: Some Perspectives of the Psychology of Consciousness

This article aims to approach the“spontaneous healing”of Sister Bernardette Moriau from the view point of transpersonal psychology or psychology of consciousness and also to compare it with the“spiritual awakening”of the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.Thus,within this scope of investigation,this article will refer to the so-called“modified states of consciousness”characteristic of these transcendental experiences,which are promoted by prayer and meditation,leading to“heat release”and“muscle relaxation”.These two cases of studies are part of the so-called“manifestations of the sacred”in the reality of contemporary society,which are studied by the Transcendence Neurology.This might contribute to a deeper knowledge of the role and place of ourselves in the Universe.

Connecting the P300 to the diagnosis and prognosis of unconscious patients

The residual consciousness of unconscious patients can be detected by studying the P300, a wave among event-related potentials. Previous studies have applied tones, the subject＇s name and other names as stimuli. However, the results were not satisfactory. In this study, we changed the constituent order of subjects＇ two-character names to create derived names. The subject＇s derived names, together with tones and their own names, were used as auditory stimuli in event-related potential experiments. Healthy controls and unconscious patients were included in this study and made to listen to these auditory stimuli. In the two paradigms, a sine tone followed by the subject＇s own name and the subject＇s derived name followed by the subject＇s own name were used as standard and deviant stimuli, respectively. The results showed that all healthy controls had the P300 using both paradigms, and that the P300 in the second paradigm had a longer latency and two peaks. All minimally conscious state patients had the P300 in the first paradigm and the majority of them had the P300 in the second paradigm. Most vegetative state patients had no P300. Patients who showed the P300 in the two paradigms had more residual consciousness, and patients with the two-peak P300 had a higher probability of awakening within a short time. Our experimental findings suggest that the P300 event-related potential could reflect the conscious state of unconscious patients.

Biophotonic Activity and Transmission Mediated by Mutual Actions of Neurotransmitters are Involved in the Origin and Altered States of Consciousness

Dear Editor Despite remarkable advances in our understanding of brain functions,the neural substrates and correlates of consciousness remain unclear[1].It has been argued that classical physics is intrinsically incapable of explaining the holistic aspects of consciousness.

“Altered States of Consciousness”and The Mind-Body Problem

This paper offers a critical examination of“neurophysicalism”,namely the thesis that phenomenal consciousness is nothing over and above neural states(processes)in the brain,in light of empirical researches on some“altered states of consciousness”(lucid dreaming and mystical experiences).By probing the implication of“neurophysicalism”in the empirical world,it is argued that“neurophysicalism”is committed to the principle of“psycho-neural isomorphism”to the effect that the structural features of any state(process)of phenomenal consciousness are isomorphic to the physical structural features of the corresponding“neural correlate”of that state(process)of consciousness.However,in the case of lucid dreaming and mystical experiences,the principle of“psycho-neural isomorphism”does not hold true,which implies that there is a structural mismatch between the phenomenal structure and the physical structure of the corresponding“neural correlates”.The phenomenal structure of lucid dreaming is characterized by features that are unconstant,bizarre,and uncertain,whereas the“neural correlates”of lucid dreaming possess physical structure that is deterministic(with low entropy).In the case of mystical experiences,although the phenomenal structure is characterized by strong realness and constancy,the physical structure of the corresponding“neural correlates”is chaotic and disordered(with high entropy).The phenomenon of structural mismatch challenges“neurophysicalism”in the empirical world.Some possible objections from“neurophysicalists”are examined,including“neural misrepresentation”,“errors of introspective reports”,and“neural correlates not being detected”,none of which withstands scrutiny.The author concludes by proposing an alternative metaphysics for consciousness that takes the brain to be a“valve”“filtering”and constraining unbound consciousness.

Clinical application of Chinese Nanjing persistent vegetative state scale

Background:It is a challenge to characterize the consciousness level of patients with severe disturbance of consciousness and predict their prognosis effectively for Chinese doctors.We aimed to investigate the psychometric property and the diagnostic practicality of severe disturbance of consciousness by Chinese Nanjing persistent vegetative state scale(CNPVSS)which was first set up in 1996 and modified in 2001 and 2011.Methods:The concurrent validity,inter-rater consistency and diagnostic accuracy of CNPVSS and Chinese version of coma recovery scale-revised(CRS-R)were investigated by assessment of 380 patients with severe disorders of consciousness.Results:Total scores of the CNPVSS were correlated significantly with that of the CRS-R,indicating acceptable concurrent validity.Sub-scale analysis showed moderate to high inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability.CNPVSS was superior to CRS-R on the diagnosis sensitivity.The CNPVSS was able to distinguish 65 patients in emergence from minimal consciousness state who were misclassified as in minimal consciousness state(MCS)by the CRS-R,and it could also distinguish two patients in MCS who were misclassified as in vegetative state by the CRS-R.Conclusion:The CNPVSS is an appropriate measurement and is sensitive to distinguish the MCS patients from the VS patients.

Diagnostic evaluation of patients with disorders of consciousness with diffusion tensor imaging

Background:With the development of emergency and intensive medical technologies,the survival rate of traumatic brain injury has greatly increased.More and more patients have been converted from severe coma to alleviated state of consciousness,which can be subsequently classified within the framework of disorders of consciousness (DOC).We investigated the clinical application and characteristics of imaging indicators of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for the DOC patients.Methods:DTI was performed on a total of 75 cases with a clinical diagnosis of DOC from January 2014 to December 2015 in Beijing Tiantan Hospital and PLA Army General Hospital (including 66 cases of unresponsive wakefulness state (UWS) patients and 9 cases of minimally conscious state (MCS) patients).The data for the imaging indicators,such as fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD),were separately collected from three relevant regions of interest (ROIs):brainstem,thalamus,and subcortex.The indicators of two groups with different conscious states were statistically analyzed,and correlation analyses were conducted for the mean values of FA and MD in the ROIs evaluated through clinical Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) scores.Results:The FA value of the UWS group was evidentially lower than that of the MCS group (P ＜ 0.05),while the MD value of the UWS group was higher than that of the MCS group (P ＜ 0.05);the difference was statistically significant.The FA and MD values in the ROIs (locations:brainstem,thalamus,and subcortex) correlated with CRS-R scores,particularly in the thalamus.Conclusion:DTI has a certain clinical reference value for DOC imaging grading.The more severe the DOC,the higher the MD value and the lower the FA value.