Methylenedioxymethamphetamine is a connectogen with empathogenic, entactogenic, and still further connective properties: It is time to reconcile "the great entactogen-empathogen debate".

Science on methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and MDMA-like substances is faced with the unique situation that this class of psychoactive agents is referred to with two basic names for its effects on the mind: empathogens and entactogens. Empathogen usually refers to the prosocial, empathetic, and openness properties of MDMA, while entactogen usually refers to the introspective and self-awareness properties of this substance. We review the origin and usage of the two terms, and also review recent findings that support that MDMA is an empathogen and an entactogen.

Case report: Maintaining altered states of consciousness over repeated ketamine infusions may be key to facilitate long-lasting antidepressant effects: some initial lessons from a personalized-dosing single-case study.

Background: The interest in psychoactive agents for treating mental disorders has gathered a growing body of scientific interest. However, research on the relationship between altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and ketamine's antidepressant properties is still limited. Likewise, approaches to sustain early treatment success for the long-term are needed.

The revival of the psychedelic experience scale: Revealing its extended-mystical, visual, and distressing experiential spectrum with LSD and psilocybin studies.

Background: Research with the Psychedelic Experience Questionnaire/Scale (PES) focuses on questions relating to mystical experience (Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ)). The psychometric potential of the non-MEQ items of the PES remains largely unexplored.

Aims: We investigated whether the PES also yields subscales besides the MEQ30 subscales.

Buddhist-like opposite diminishing and non-judging during ketamine infusion are associated with antidepressant response: an open-label personalized-dosing study.

Cognition that is not dominated by thinking in terms of opposites (opposite diminishing) or by making judgments (non-judging) can be found both in Buddhist/mindfulness contexts and in mental states that are fostered by dissociative psychedelics (-methyl-D-aspartate antagonists) such as ketamine. Especially for the Buddhist/mindfulness case, both opposite diminishing and non-judging have been proposed to relate to mental well-being. Whether ketamine-occasioned opposite diminishing and/or non-judging relate to increased mental well-being in the form of antidepressant response is unknown, and was investigated in the present study.

Happiness feels light and sadness feels heavy: introducing valence-related bodily sensation maps of emotions.

Bodily sensation mapping (BSM) is a recently developed self-report tool for the assessment of emotions in which people draw their sensations of activation in a body silhouette. Following the circumplex model of affect, activity and valence are the underling dimensions of every emotional experience. The aim of this study was to introduce the neglected valence dimension in BSM.

A standard conceptual framework for the study of subjective time.

Research on the mental representation of time ('subjective time') has provided broad insights into the nature of time perception and temporal processing. As the field comprises different scientific disciplines, such as psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience, studies differ with regard to the basic terms and concepts used. For this reason, research on subjective time lacks a coherent conceptual system.

Is mental time embodied interpersonally?

Recent evidence has shown that the mental representation of time is "embodied"-time is expressed via the hands, the eyes, and the whole body. These findings suggest the existence of a manually reflected mental time line running (in Western culture) horizontally from left (past) to right (future) and an ocularly reflected mental time line running from left/down (past) to right/up (future). We addressed the question whether mental time is also reflected interpersonally and investigated whether an avatar's face orientation (left vs.

Eye Movements Reveal Mental Looking Through Time.

People often make use of a spatial "mental time line" to represent events in time. We investigated whether the eyes follow such a mental time line during online language comprehension of sentences that refer to the past, present, and future. Participants' eye movements were measured on a blank screen while they listened to these sentences.

Eye movements during mental time travel follow a diagonal line.

Recent research showed that past events are associated with the back and left side, whereas future events are associated with the front and right side of space. These spatial-temporal associations have an impact on our sensorimotor system: thinking about one's past and future leads to subtle body sways in the sagittal dimension of space (Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2010). In this study we investigated whether mental time travel leads to sensorimotor correlates in the horizontal dimension of space.

Toward an embodiment-disembodiment taxonomy.

Psychological, neuroscientific, and linguistic evidence suggests that a mental scene is in principle cognized with a mental gaze that can take on one of three forms: embodied physical gaze, embodied mental gaze, or disembodied mental gaze. Combinations of these forms also occur. A first sketch of the embodiment-disembodiment taxonomy that emerges from this threefold distinction is presented.

The time machine in our mind.

This article provides the first comprehensive conceptual account for the imagistic mental machinery that allows us to travel through time--for the time machine in our mind. It is argued that language reveals this imagistic machine and how we use it. Findings from a range of cognitive fields are theoretically unified and a recent proposal about spatialized mental time travel is elaborated on.