Aviva Berkovich-Ohana

University of Haifa | haifa · The Center of Brain and Behavior Research

Background: In the last decade, empirical studies on the beneficial effects of meditation on prosocial capacities have accumulated, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Buddhist sources state that liberating oneself from a fixed view of the self by gaining access to its transitory and malleable nature leads to increased compassion and othe...

There is a growing hype regarding the efficacy of psychedelics to fundamentally change how we interact with the theme of death. The underlying evidence consists of anecdotal and self-report data collected in naturalistic and clinical settings suggesting that psychedelics inculcate more acceptance and less fear and anxiety of one’s mortality. Howeve...

Interest has been growing in the use of mindfulness meditation (MM) as a therapeutic practice, as accumulating evidence highlights its potential to effectively address a range of mental conditions. While many fMRI studies focused on neural activation and functional connectivity during meditation, the impact of long-term MM practice on spontaneous b...

For many centuries, scholars and philosophers from wisdom traditions in different cultures have reported and discussed non-self states of consciousness. These states can be both short-term (state, transitory) and long-term (trait, lasting) conditions. However, in psychology, the importance of a healthy self is usually emphasized, and some theorists...

Background: How the human psyche interacts with the theme of death is fundamental to individual and societal life, profoundly influencing cognition, affect, and behavior. Death-related psychological phenomena, such as death anxiety and acceptance, have been shown in clinical studies to be influenced by psychedelic (LSD and psilocybin) interventions...

There is a renewed interest in taking phenomenology seriously in consciousness research, contemporary psychiatry, and neurocomputation. The neurophenomenology research program, pioneered by Varela (1996), rigorously examines subjective experience using first-person methodologies inspired by phenomenology and contemplative practices. This review exp...

Human experience is imbued by the sense of being an embodied agent. The investigation of such basic self-consciousness has been hampered by the difficulty of comprehensively modulating it in the laboratory while reliably capturing ensuing subjective changes. The present preregistered study fills this gap by combining advanced meditative states with...

Introduction Despite an emerging understanding regarding the pivotal mechanistic role of subjective experiences that unfold during acute psychedelic states, very little has been done in the direction of better characterizing such experiences and determining their long-term impact. The present paper utilizes two cross-sectional studies for spotlight...

Classical psychometric approaches in social science measure individuals’ tendency to experience empathy and compassion. Using abstract questionnaire items, they place high demand on subjects’ capacity to introspect, memorize, and generalize the corresponding emotions. We employed a Socio-affective Video Task (SoVT)—an alternative approach that meas...

In this paper, we address core insights from Buddhist psychology about mind-body phenomena and the self, and we relate such insights to the notion of the self-pattern developed in the pattern theory of self. We emphasize the dynamic, temporal and enactive characteristics of the self-pattern, consistent with the core Buddhist notion of non-self. Alt...

Clinical and neuroscientific evidence indicates that transdiagnostic processes contribute to the generation and maintenance of psychopathological symptoms and disorders. Rigidity (inflexibility) appears a core feature of most transdiagnostic pathological processes. Decreasing rigidity may prove important to restore and maintain mental health. One o...

Research indicates associations of mindfulness with better relationships and well‐being because it promotes decentering and relationship‐related capacities. This study examined the effects of mindfulness on mothers' relationships with their children and well‐being in a challenging time – the first COVID‐19 lockdown. We hypothesized that mothers' re...

Human experience is imbued by the implicit sense of being an embodied agent, differentiated from but acting on an external world. Because this basic, embodied sense of self is both pervasive and implicit (i.e., pre-reflective), its investigation requires broad means of manipulation, as well as rigorous first-person methodology for mapping ensuing s...

Objectives Mindfulness meditation (MM) practice is considered to benefit physical and mental health. In particular, several studies have shown a beneficial effect of MM practice on memory performance. However, it is still not clear how long-term training affects long-term declarative memory. In this study we aimed to examine whether long-term MM tr...

Accumulated evidence points toward a long‐axis functional division of the hippocampus, with its anterior part primarily associated with emotional processes and the posterior with navigation and cognition. It is yet unclear, however, how functional connectivity between areas along the hippocampal longitudinal axis and other brain regions differ, and...

A fundamental aspect of the sense of self is its pre-reflective dimension specifying the self as a bounded and embodied knower and agent. Being a constant and tacit feature structuring consciousness, it eludes robust empirical exploration. Recently, deep meditative states involving global dissolution of the sense of self have been suggested as a pr...

A fundamental aspect of the sense of self is its pre-reflective dimension specifying the self as a bounded and embodied knower and agent. Being a constant and tacit feature structuring consciousness, it eludes robust empirical exploration. Recently, deep meditative states involving global dissolution of the sense of self have been suggested as a pr...

The importance of silence has been emphasized in both ancient and modern traditions (Teschner, 1981; Davies and Turner, 2002; Stratton, 2015). In Eastern traditions, silence has been linked to the inner stillness of the mind, a sense of equanimity and unity (Feuerstein, 1996; Lin et al., 2008). At the same time, Western scholars such as Kierkegaard...

Objectives Initial evidence indicates positive effects of mindfulness in schools, for both teachers and students. However, theoretical conceptualization and empirical evidence of the mechanisms underlying them is scarce.Methods We propose such a model for education, which draws on other fields of mindfulness research, especially psychology and neur...

Although mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in education are widely spreading in the world, examination of mindfulness effects in Arab schools is still scarce. This pilot study aimed to fill this gap by examining the effects of an MBI among Arab teachers in Israel. This examination was conducted within the framework of the mindful self in schoo...

This paper is a practical guide to neurophenomenology. Varela’s neurophenomenological research program (NRP) aspires to bridge the gap between, and integrate, first-person (1P) and third-person (3P) approaches to understanding the mind. It does so by suggesting a methodological framework allowing these two irreducible phenomenal domains to relate a...

Human brain imaging typically employs structured and controlled tasks to avoid variable and inconsistent activation patterns. Here we expand this assumption by showing that an extremely open-ended, high-level cognitive task of thinking about an abstract content, loosely defined as "abstract thinking" - leads to highly consistent activation maps. Sp...

Understanding the relationship between brain structure, function and self-reports has hardly been addressed until now in meditation research. Here we demonstrate such relationship, using Mindfulness meditation (MM). MM aims to reduce thought-related processes and enhance bodily awareness, thereby reducing identification with thought content and dec...

Human brain imaging typically employs structured and controlled tasks to avoid variable and inconsistent activation patterns. Here we argue against this assumption by showing that an extremely open-ended, high level cognitive task-loosely defined as “abstract thinking” leads to a precise, and highly consistent activation maps. Thus we show that act...

Accumulating research in education shows that contemplative practices contribute to and foster well-being of individuals in sustainable ways. This bears special importance for teachers, as it affects not only them but also their students. Based on accumulating behavioral and neuroscientific findings, it has been suggested that a key process by whic...

Absorption, the ability to highly focus attention, as well as openness to self-altering experiences, is an important psychological construct, closely related to deep-meditation states and other altered states of consciousness. Yet, little is known about the electrophysiological profile of states of absorption, possibly due to the difficulty to indu...

Time production (TP) with or without chronometric counting both instantiates and reflects the working of an internal clock, as originally posited by Treisman. We exploit the fact that a number of experienced meditators, who had previously participated in a study wherein TP was assessed, and who had employed chronometric counting then, would be comi...

In recent years, the scientific study of meditation and psychedelic drugs has seen remarkable developments. The increased focus on meditation in cognitive neuroscience has led to a cross-cultural classification of standard meditation styles validated by functional and structural neuroanatomical data. Meanwhile, the renaissance of psychedelic resear...

The notion that exposure to a monotonous sensory environment could elicit reports indicating aberrant subjective experience and altered time perception is the impetus for the present report. Research has looked at the influence of exposure to such environments on time perception, reporting that the greater the environmental variation, the shorter i...

Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a surge of interest in diverse forms of spontaneous thinking, such as mind-wandering, and their associated brain networks. Studies demonstrate the pervasiveness of these phenomena as well as their effects on education-relevant domains such as academic skills, well-being, creativity, executive functio...

It is becoming increasingly accepted that creative performance, especially divergent thinking, may depend on reduced activity within the default mode network (DMN), related to mind-wandering and autobiographic self-referential processing. However, the relationship between trait (resting-state) DMN activity and divergent thinking is controversial. H...

The scientific study of movement-related contemplative practices has proceeded without much attention to the range of psychological and phenomenological changes thought to occur during the practice. Quadrato Motor Training (QMT) is a specifically structured walking meditation, recently found to improve creativity and reflectivity, as well as neurop...

In this paper, we relate meditation practice to participant trait absorption, affect, and transcendent experience. The motivation for this analysis stems from a new neurophenomenological model of consciousness which we recently published, named the consciousness state space. Here, we compare two distinct forms of meditation: mindfulness and transce...

One of the biggest challenges for researchers investigating altered states of consciousness (ASCs) has been the need for a systematic framework to accurately describe the phenomenological characteristics of ASCs, as well as placing them in relation to regular states of consciousness. Here, we target these two challenges by employing a new and syste...

Self-specific processes (SSPs) specify the self as an embodied subject and agent, implementing a functional self/nonself distinction in perception, cognition, and action. Despite recent interest, it is still undetermined whether SSPs are all-or-nothing or graded phenomena; whether they can be identified in neuroimaging data; and whether they can be...

FMRI data described here was recorded during resting-state in Mindfulness Meditators (MM) and control participants (see “Task-induced activity and resting-state fluctuations undergo similar alterations in visual and DMN areas of long-term meditators” [1] for details). MM participants were also scanned during meditation. Analyses focused on function...

Recently we proposed that the information contained in spontaneously emerging (resting-state) fluctuations may reflect individually unique neuro-cognitive traits. One prediction of this conjecture, termed the "spontaneous trait reactivation" (STR) hypothesis, is that resting-state activity patterns could be diagnostic of unique personalities, talen...

The importance of the cerebellum is increasingly recognized, not only in motor control but also in cognitive learning and function. Nevertheless, the relationship between training-induced cerebellar activation and electrophysiological and structural changes in humans has yet to be established. In the current paper, we suggest a general model tying...

Quadrato Motor Training (QMT) is a whole-body movement contemplative practice aimed at increasing health and well-being. Previous research studying the effect of one QMT session suggested that one of its means for promoting health is by enhancing cognitive flexibility, an important dimension of creativity. Yet, little is known about the effect of a...

This study presents two case reports of altered states spontaneously occurring during meditation in two proficient practitioners. These states, known as fruition, are common within the Mahasi School of Theravada Buddhism, and are considered the culmination of contemplation-induced stages of consciousness. Here, electrophysiological measures of thes...

Background Mantra (prolonged repetitive verbal utterance) is one of the most universal mental practices in human culture. However, the underlying neuronal mechanisms that may explain its powerful emotional and cognitive impact are unknown. In order to try to isolate the effect of silent repetitive speech, which is used in most commonly practiced Ma...

Even in absence of overt tasks, the human cortex manifests rich patterns of spontaneous "resting state" BOLD-fMRI fluctuations. However, the link of these spontaneous fluctuations to behavior is presently unclear. Attempts to directly investigate this link invariably lead to disruptions of the resting state. Here we took advantage of the well-estab...

The default mode network (DMN) has been largely studied by imaging, but not yet by neurodynamics, using electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity (FC). mindfulness meditation (MM), a receptive, non-elaborative training is theorized to lower DMN activity. We explored: (i) the usefulness of EEG-FC for investigating the DMN and (ii) the MM-...

Every experience, those we are aware of and those we are not, is embedded in a subjective timeline, is tinged with emotion, and inevitably evokes a certain sense of self. Here, we present a phenomenological model for consciousness and selfhood which relates time, awareness, and emotion within one framework. The consciousness state space (CSS) model...

Quadrato Motor Training (QMT) is a specifically-structured walking meditation, aimed at improving reflectivity and lowering habitual thought and movement. Here we set out to examine the possible effect of QMT on reflectivity, employing the Hidden Figures Test (HFT), which assesses both spatial performance (measured by correct answers) as well as re...

Meditation practice can lead to what have been referred to as “altered states of consciousness.”One of the phenomenological characteristics of these states is a joint alteration in the sense of time, space, and body. Here, we set out to study the unique experiences of alteration in the sense of time and space by collaborating with a select group of...

Contemporary philosophical and neurocognitive studies of the self have dissociated two distinct types of self-awareness: a “narrative” self-awareness (NS) weaving together episodic memory, future planning and self-evaluation into a coherent self-narrative and identity, and a “minimal” self-awareness (MS) focused on present momentary experience and...

The objective of the present study was to investigate the body-cognitive relationship through behavioral and electrophysiological measures in an attempt to uncover the underlying mediating neuronal mechanism for movement-induced cognitive change. To this end we examined the effects of Quadrato Motor Training (QMT), a new whole-body training paradig...

Even in the absence of stimulation or task, the cerebral cortex shows an incessant pattern of ultra slow fluctuations which are coherent across brain regions. In the healthy brain these coherent patterns (also termed resting state functional connectivity) often exhibit spatial similarity to the large scale organization of task-induced functional ne...

There is a growing scientific interest in mindfulness meditation (MM), yet its underlying neurophysiological mechanism is still uncertain. We investigated whether MM affects self-referential processing, associated with default mode network (DMN), either as short (state) - or long-term (trait) effects. Three levels of MM expertise were compared with...

In this chapter, we contrast a mode of engagement in video gaming and other related areas, wherein the player retains full critical capacity-being able to judge to what degree the portrayed world is authentic, and being able to reflect on the unfolding events-with a mode of engagement wherein the player becomes absorbed or immersed in the portrayed...

Rapaport (1951) made a strong claim regarding the pivotal role of reflective awareness in characterizing both cognition and consciousness. It is suggested that the transition between a state of trance to one of transcendence entails a shift in reflective awareness from awareness' apparent absence (trance) to its apparent multiplicity (transcendence...

The aim of the current research was to examine change in EEG measures of local (power) and long-distance synchronization (coherence) during a time production (TP) task as a function of Quadrato Motor Training (QMT), a complex whole body movement technique performed in response to verbal commands. In order to determine whether the electrophysiologic...

According to the cognitive-timer model, time estimation is dependent on the interplay between arousal level and attention. This anticipates that higher attention and lower arousal, two features of meditation, will result in a longer time production (P). We tested this hypothesis by using a time production task in two forms of meditation: Mindfulnes...

We propose a novel way of computing the change in size of a subjective time unit (S), based on a ratio score of produced durations, and investigate how this S-ratio changes as a function of Quadrato motor training, Vipassana meditation and a control condition of restful wakefulness, using different participants for each condition. The similar trend...

If one accepts the notion of an internal clock, then one must further presume that time production is attuned with the rate of functioning of the clock's pacemaker. We look at the individual's online EEG recording while performing a time-production task, placing one focus of interest on the individual's peak alpha frequency (PAF), and a s econd on...