Rael Cahn, MD, PhD

Dr. Rael Cahn completed his PhD in Neurosciences in 2007 and received his medical degree in 2008 from UC San Diego in La Jolla, CA. He completed his residency with the UC Irvine Medical Center Psychiatry Residency Program in 2014 and joined the USC faculty. Dr. Cahn has been researching and publishing on the clinical and brain effects of mindfulness and meditative practices throughout his medical and scientific career as well as teaching mindfulness meditation in group settings for medical professionals as well as patients. He is currently affiliated with the USC Brain and Creativity Institute where he is conducting psychological and brain research in the domains of behavioral and psychological interventions including mindfulness and meditative practices in healthy populations dealing with everyday stressors as well as those with psychiatric illness including substance use disorders, depression, and anxiety.

• Alliant University: Early Career Award for Contributions in Integrative Psychology, 2010
• Council on Spiritual Practices: William James Award, 2004

• Neural evidence of disrupted self-referential processing in suicidal depression. J Affect Disord. 2026 Aug 15; 407:121817.. View in PubMed
• Neural Responses to Affective Sentences Reveal Signatures of Depression. Transl Psychiatry. 2026 May 15.. View in PubMed
• Time-resolved EEG decoding reveals altered neural dynamics of affective semantic evaluation in depression and suicidality. Commun Biol. 2026 Apr 30.. View in PubMed
• Deep learning characterizes depression and suicidal ideation in young adults from eye movements. NPJ Digit Med. 2026 Mar 28.. View in PubMed
• Effect of packaging with versus without candy-oriented marketing themes on the appeal and sensory attributes of flavoured e-cigarettes. Tob Control. 2026 Jan 08; 35(1):63-70.. View in PubMed
• A Randomized Clinical Trial Reveals Effects of Mindfulness and Slow Breathing on Plasma Amyloid Beta Levels. Psychophysiology. 2025 Dec; 62(12):e70182.. View in PubMed
• Decoding Neural Signatures of Semantic Evaluation in Depression and Suicidality. ArXiv. 2025 Jul 30.. View in PubMed
• ENIGMA-Meditation: Worldwide Consortium for Neuroscientific Investigations of Meditation Practices. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2025 Apr; 10(4):425-436.. View in PubMed
• Daily mindfulness practice with and without slow breathing has opposing effects on plasma amyloid beta levels. medRxiv. 2025 Mar 11.. View in PubMed
• Protocol for a Pilot Study on the Neurocardiac Mechanism of an Interoceptive Compassion-Based Heart-Smile Training for Depression. Glob Adv Integr Med Health. 2024 Jan-Dec; 13:27536130241299389.. View in PubMed
• Pilot study suggests DNA methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) is associated with MDMA-assisted therapy treatment response for severe PTSD. Front Psychiatry. 2023; 14:959590.. View in PubMed
• Meditation and the Brain in Health and Disease. The Oxford Handbook of Meditation. 2019.
• Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for expanding the field of contemplative science. PLoS One. 2018; 13(11):e0205740.. View in PubMed
• Yoga, Meditation and Mind-Body Health: Increased BDNF, Cortisol Awakening Response, and Altered Inflammatory Marker Expression after a 3-Month Yoga and Meditation Retreat. Front Hum Neurosci. 2017; 11:315.. View in PubMed
• Increased Gamma Brainwave Amplitude Compared to Control in Three Different Meditation Traditions. PLoS One. 2017; 12(1):e0170647.. View in PubMed
• Neural correlates of accelerated auditory processing in children engaged in music training. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2016 10; 21:1-14.. View in PubMed
• Awakening is not a metaphor: the effects of Buddhist meditation practices on basic wakefulness. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2014 Jan; 1307:64-81.. View in PubMed
• Plasticity of visual attention in Isha yoga meditation practitioners before and after a 3-month retreat. Front Psychol. 2013; 4:914.. View in PubMed
• Event-related delta, theta, alpha and gamma correlates to auditory oddball processing during Vipassana meditation. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2013 Jan; 8(1):100-11.. View in PubMed
• The 5-HT2A/1A agonist psilocybin disrupts modal object completion associated with visual hallucinations. Biol Psychiatry. 2011 Mar 01; 69(5):399-406.. View in PubMed
• Occipital gamma activation during Vipassana meditation. Cogn Process. 2010 Feb; 11(1):39-56.. View in PubMed
• Meditation (Vipassana) and the P3a event-related brain potential. Int J Psychophysiol. 2009 Apr; 72(1):51-60.. View in PubMed
• Effects of psilocybin on time perception and temporal control of behaviour in humans. J Psychopharmacol. 2007 Jan; 21(1):50-64.. View in PubMed
• Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies. Psychol Bull. 2006 Mar; 132(2):180-211.. View in PubMed
• Cannabis and endocannabinoid modulators: Therapeutic promises and challenges. Clin Neurosci Res. 2005; 5(2-4):185-199.. View in PubMed
• Bid regulation of neuronal apoptosis. Brain Res Dev Brain Res. 2001 Jun 29; 128(2):187-90.. View in PubMed

• Black, David
• Toga, Arthur
• Thompson, Paul
• Peterson, Bradley
• Siegel, Steven
• Leventhal, Adam
• Barrington-Trimis, Jessica
• Unger, Jennifer