The lab of
Consciousness and Self
About the Lab

The Salomon lab focuses on the cognitive and neural processes underlying perceptual consciousness and bodily-self consciousness.

We use a combination of virtual reality, physiological signals, psychophysics and neuroimaging (EEG, MEG, fMRI) paradigms to study these processes in humans. We study both with neuro-typical and clinical populations showing deficits in self representation (e.g. Schizophrenic patients).

Research Projects
What we do
  • UnReal: Investigating the Sense of Reality
  • Trauma Under Psychedelics
  • The Bodily-Self and Actions
  • The Abnormal Sense of Self
  • The Self in Psychedelic States
UnReal: Investigating the Sense of Reality
UnReal: Investigating the Sense of Reality

We trust our perceptions to be accurate depictions of the world, which we conceive as “Reality”, but common neuropsychiatric symptoms such as hallucinations and illusions challenge this conviction. Those conditions echo the fundamental philosophical question of “How do we know what is real”?

We tackle this question via a specialized virtual reality environment allowing us to create parametrically controlled virtual Hallucinations. Through this platform, we are building a phenomenological and computational model of the Sense of Reality (SoR), which will be used as a framework to investigate the neural mechanisms of SoR in neuro-typical and altered states of consciousness.

Trauma Under Psychedelics
Trauma Under Psychedelics

How do mind-altering substances affect the experience, processing, and recovery from traumatic events? This question has become crucial for the thousands of survivors of the Supernova Festival massacre, who were attacked while under the influence of psychoactive substances during the large-scale terror attack launched by Hamas on October 7th.

Salomon Lab, together with Admon Lab and the “SafeHeart” NGO, initiated a large-scale study with these survivors, employing behavioral, cognitive, physiological, and neural measurements to better understand the clinical trajectories and mechanisms of trauma experienced while under psychedelics. This knowledge is immediately utilized to improve the clinical treatment of the survivors.

The Bodily-Self and Actions
The Bodily-Self and Actions

The Sense of Agency (SoA), our sensation of control over our actions, is a fundamental mechanism for delineation of the Self from the environment and others.

SoA arises from implicit processing of sensorimotor signals as well as explicit higher level judgments.

Psychosis patients suffer from both difficulties in demarcation of the Self as well as problems in the sense of control over their actions.

At the lab we work on several projects regarding SoA, including novel machine learning methods to allow an automatic classification of healthy/psychosis clinical state, an EEG investigation of its neural correlates, the metacognition of SoA and more.

The Abnormal Sense of Self
The Abnormal Sense of Self

Our sense of self is a fundamental construct of the human psyche, yet in extreme situations such as pscychosis it is altered.

Psychosis entails a breakdown of the self and a blurring of the boundary between the self and the other.

They experience symptoms such as passivity symptoms – the feeling that someone is controlling their actions.

At the lab we study how predictive processing of sensorimotor signals modify the sense of self in different stages of schizophrenia (at-risk, first episode and chronic).

The Self in Psychedelic States
The Self in Psychedelic States

Psychedelic substances induce substantial changes in perception and the sense of self.

Thus, psychedelic experiences are a unique avenue to study the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying such faculties.

The lab is actively engaged in the study of both cognitive, neural and clinical aspects of psychedelic experiences.

In collaboration with Beer Yakov mental health center and MAPS Israel we are exploring how psychoactive compounds such as psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine impact the sense of agency and the sense of reality. We are looking at how they can be harnessed to treat clinical issues such as depression, depersonalization and PTSD.

News and Events
Latest News

Prof. Roy Salomon Presents Research on PTSD at the Embassy of the Netherlands

Prof. Roy Salomon, co-founder and board member of SafeHeart, recently met with ambassadors from over ...

Talks on Psychedelics and Trauma in Scandinavia

Prof. Salomon was invited to speak on our work on Psychedelics and Trauma in Stockholm ...

2024 Psychedelic MedicineIsrael conference

Our lab was honored to participate in the 2024 Psychedelic MedicineIsrael conference in Israel, an ...

Seminar on Psychedelic Research and Treatment 2024

Ophir Netzer, a PhD in our lab, presented results from her groundbreaking research with the ...

Open PhD. Position at the Lab

We have a fully funded PhD. position to study Trauma / Psychedelics/ Sense of Reality. ...