Chapter

The neuroscience of meditation: classification, phenomenology, correlates, and mechanisms

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  • Institute of Noetic Sciences
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Abstract

Rising from its contemplative and spiritual traditions, the science of meditation has seen huge growth over the last 30 years. This chapter reviews the classifications, phenomenology, neural correlates, and mechanisms of meditation. Meditation classification types are still varied and largely subjective. Broader models to describe meditation practice along multidimensional parameters may improve classification in the future. Phenomenological studies are few but growing, highlighting the subjective experience and correlations to neurophysiology. Oscillatory EEG studies are not conclusive likely due to the heterogeneous nature of the meditation styles and practitioners being assessed. Neuroimaging studies find common patterns during meditation and in long-term meditators reflecting the basic similarities of meditation in general; however, mostly the patterns differ across unique meditation traditions. Research on the mechanisms of meditation, specifically attention and emotion regulation is also discussed. There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating positive benefits from meditation in some clinical populations especially for stress reduction, anxiety, depression, and pain improvement, although future research would benefit by addressing the remaining methodological and conceptual issues. Meditation research continues to grow allowing us to understand greater nuances of how meditation works and its effects.

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... The original texts liken the physical and mental aspects of pain to being struck by two subsequential darts or arrows. While untrained individuals will be pierced by both arrows, experienced meditators will be able to influence their experience of pain Table 1 Common types of meditation *Meta-awareness or metacognition can be defined as being aware of the ongoing physical and self-referential processes of consciousness [6,8,9,11] • Direct manipulation of thoughts and emotions through mental imagery techniques [8,9] • Cultivating feelings of kindness and compassion towards others [1 •• , 6, 10] • Shifting self-referential cognitive and affective patterns towards thoughts that involve the well-being of others [8] by avoiding the second arrow, which represents the worry and distress caused by a painful event [7,11,12]. ...
... The original texts liken the physical and mental aspects of pain to being struck by two subsequential darts or arrows. While untrained individuals will be pierced by both arrows, experienced meditators will be able to influence their experience of pain Table 1 Common types of meditation *Meta-awareness or metacognition can be defined as being aware of the ongoing physical and self-referential processes of consciousness [6,8,9,11] • Direct manipulation of thoughts and emotions through mental imagery techniques [8,9] • Cultivating feelings of kindness and compassion towards others [1 •• , 6, 10] • Shifting self-referential cognitive and affective patterns towards thoughts that involve the well-being of others [8] by avoiding the second arrow, which represents the worry and distress caused by a painful event [7,11,12]. ...
... The original texts liken the physical and mental aspects of pain to being struck by two subsequential darts or arrows. While untrained individuals will be pierced by both arrows, experienced meditators will be able to influence their experience of pain Table 1 Common types of meditation *Meta-awareness or metacognition can be defined as being aware of the ongoing physical and self-referential processes of consciousness [6,8,9,11] • Direct manipulation of thoughts and emotions through mental imagery techniques [8,9] • Cultivating feelings of kindness and compassion towards others [1 •• , 6, 10] • Shifting self-referential cognitive and affective patterns towards thoughts that involve the well-being of others [8] by avoiding the second arrow, which represents the worry and distress caused by a painful event [7,11,12]. ...
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Purpose of Review: We aim to present current understanding and evidence for meditation, mostly referring to mindfulness meditation, for the management of acute pain and potential opportunities of incorporating it into the acute pain service practice. Recent Findings: There is conflicting evidence concerning meditation as a remedy in acute pain. While some studies have found a bigger impact of meditation on the emotional response to a painful stimulus than on the reduction in actual pain intensities, functional Magnet Resonance Imaging has enabled the identification of various brain areas involved in meditation-induced pain relief. Summary: Potential benefits of meditation in acute pain treatment include changes in neurocognitive processes. Practice and Experience are necessary to induce pain modulation. In the treatment of acute pain, evidence is emerging only recently. Meditative techniques represent a promising approach for acute pain in various settings.
... A systematic review by Ospina et al. (2007) classifies the different types of meditation practices to five broad categories: 1) mindfulness meditation (Tang et al., 2015), 2) Yoga (Varambally & Gangadhar, 2016), 3) Tai Chi (Wayne & Kaptchuk, 2008), 4) mantra meditation (Lynch et al., 2018) and 5) Qi Gong (Feng et al., 2020) . Two further commonly used meditation techniques are loving kindness (Hofmann et al., 2011) and compassion meditation, and non-dual meditation (Dahl et al., 2015;Brandmeyer et al., 2019). In a secular world, meditation offers multiple possibilities to improve symptoms, reduce pain and develop better disease coping and management strategies ranging from psychiatric disorders (Wielgosz et al., 2019) to chronic pain Hilton et al. (2016); Zeidan and Vago (2016) and even eye diseases, such as glaucoma (Dada et al., 2019). ...
... The exact mechanisms underlying the practice of meditation is still elusive, with different meditation types having different psychophysiological effects on the practitioner (Brandmeyer et al., 2019). It has been suggested that contemplative practices might improve well-being by modulating maladaptive self-referential thought patterns (Dahl et al., 2015). ...
... For sham meditation techniques type, see Table 3 and 4, and for definitions, see Supplementary Materials Table 2 "transcendental" and "loving kindness". These meditation keywords were chosen based on the five broad categories of meditation defined by Ospina et al. (2007), and the various meditation techniques listed by Brandmeyer et al. (2019). Supplementary Materials Table 1 describes the search process and the search results for each appropriate database. ...
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Background: Low intensity transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) and meditation are two promising, yet variable, non-pharmacological interventions. Growing research is investigating combined effects of both techniques on one's cognitive, emotional, and physical health. Objective: This article reviews the current research that combines tES and meditation interventions in healthy and diseased participants. The review considers the intervention parameters and their effects in a well-organized manner. Method: A systematic search for clinical and experimental published studies was conducted in the PubMed, Cochrane, and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) databases using common keywords for tES and for meditation techniques well defined by previous studies. Unpublished ongoing studies were identified with the ClinicalTrials.gov and DRKS.de clinical trial websites. Results: 20 published studies and 13 ongoing studies were included for qualitative analysis. 13 published articles studied patients with chronic pain, psychological disorders, cognitive impairment, and movement disorders. Anodal tDCS was the only tES technique while mindfulness meditation was the most common meditation type. Eight studies had a main group effect, with outcome improvement in the active combined intervention. However, most published studies showed improvements after at least one combined intervention with variable effects. Conclusion: Pairing anodal tDCS with meditation shows promising improvements of the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of daily life. Further studies are required to confirm the relevance of this combination in the clinic.
... In general terms, the meditative state has been described in subjective first-person reports as a shift in consciousness from the mundane waking state to a more "profound" mental state, e.g., an enhanced sense of well-being, focus, calm, detachment, insight, affect, bliss, emptiness, etc.; and many research studies have demonstrated distinctive neurophysiological correlates of the meditative state (e.g., Travis and Pearson, 2000;Newberg and d' Aquili, 2001;Vaitl et al., 2005;Cahn and Polich, 2006;Lutz et al., 2007;Baerentsen et al., 2009;Dahl et al., 2015;Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Raffone et al., 2019;Travis, 2020). The meditative state may manifest as a fleeting, momentary state (as typically reported by novice practitioners), or may be sustained for considerable periods of time (as typically reported by advanced/highly experienced meditators). ...
... Regarding silent mantra vs. vocal chanting, Brandmeyer et al. (2019) stated that "accumulating research suggests that silent mantra meditation may produce unique neural correlates as a result of subvocalization and/or the effect of imagining a word or phrase (see Lazar et al., 2000;Fox et al., 2014;Tomasino et al., 2014)." ...
... That paper cited research from the broader fields of cognitive and affective neuroscience, as well as from the field of CoNS, which supported the notion that these enhanced cognitive, affective, and null states demonstrated distinctly different and measurable neurophysiological correlates (e.g., Lehmann et al., 2001;Dalgleish, 2004;Carter et al., 2005;Cahn and Polich, 2006;Hankey, 2006;Holzel et al., 2007Holzel et al., , 2008Lutz et al., 2007Lutz et al., , 2008Davidson, 2010;Travis and Shear, 2010;Josipovic et al., 2011;Leung et al., 2013). 8 Since then, our original thesis has been supported by more recent research as well (e.g., Dahl et al., 2015;Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Josipovic, 2019;Raffone et al., 2019;Afonso et al., 2020;Yordanova et al., 2020Yordanova et al., , 2021. Lee et al. (2012, p.7) concluded that "different forms of meditation have meditation-specific effects on neural activity, rather than a common neural mechanism"; "different forms of meditation practice create domain-specific plastic changes in neural activity"; and "each form of meditation is associated with a dissociable pattern of neural activity." In a review of meditation research findings to date, Travis concurs: "the assumption that a common brain marker would emerge by combining different meditation practices together in one analysis is flawed. ...
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This paper revisits the proposal for the classification of meditation methods which we introduced in our initial 2013 publication, “Toward a Universal Taxonomy and Definition of Meditation”. At that time, we advanced the thesis that meditation methods could be effectively segregated into three orthogonal categories by integrating the taxonomic principle of functional essentialism and the paradigm of Affect and Cognition; and we presented relevant research findings which supported that assertion. This iteration expands upon those theoretical and methodological elements by articulating a more comprehensive Three Tier Classification System which accounts for the full range of meditation methods; and demonstrates how recent neuroscience research continues to validate and support our thesis. This paper also introduces a novel criterion-based protocol for formulating classification systems of meditation methods, and demonstrates how this model can be used to compare and evaluate various other taxonomy proposals that have been published over the past 15 years.
... While this final goal is shared among the different meditation techniques (Cooper et al., 2022;Reddy and Roy, 2018;J.S.K. 2019;Osho, 2012), the methods of inducing such a meditative state can differ substantially (Fox et al., 2016;Raffone et al., 2019;Fucci et al., 2018;Fujino et al., 2018;Lehmann et al., 2012;Awasthi, 2013;Woods et al., 2020;West, 1987;Koshikawa and Ichii, 1996;Lutz et al., 2007). The different induction methods are often characterized by a shift of the practitioner's attentional focus on different objects of choice, ranging from spatially confined objects (such as breath or other bodily sensations) to more expansive spaces (like the room one sits in) (Braboszcz et al., 2017;Jha et al., 2007;Lutz et al., 2008;Raffone and Srinivasan, 2010;Kozhevnikov et al., 2022;Tsai and Chou, 2016;Lippelt et al., 2014;Valentine and Sweet, 1999;Manna et al., 2010;Prakash, 2021;Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Amihai and Kozhevnikov, 2015). ...
... Different meditation techniques are related to unique ways of focusing one's attention, including wider and narrow attentional windows (Braboszcz et al., 2017;Jha et al., 2007;Lutz et al., 2008;Raffone and Srinivasan, 2010;Kozhevnikov et al., 2022;Tsai and Chou, 2016;Lippelt et al., 2014;Valentine and Sweet, 1999;Manna et al., 2010;Prakash, 2021;Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Amihai and Kozhevnikov, 2015). Therefore, the present study investigated the neural mechanisms that underlie distinct meditation techniques featured by their different widths of attentional windows in the practitioners' attentional foci. ...
... Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 01 frontiersin.org A convincing corpus of literature report neurophysiological changes during meditative practices (Lutz et al., 2004;Britton et al., 2014;Lee et al., 2018;Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Volodina et al., 2021;Medvedev et al., 2022). At the same time, there is a high variability of the reported effects that accompany meditative states (Fell et al., 2010;Kaur and Singh, 2015;Lee et al., 2018;Brandmeyer et al., 2019), and this prevents the formulation of a theoretical description of ongoing neurophysiological modulations induced by meditative practices. ...
... A convincing corpus of literature report neurophysiological changes during meditative practices (Lutz et al., 2004;Britton et al., 2014;Lee et al., 2018;Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Volodina et al., 2021;Medvedev et al., 2022). At the same time, there is a high variability of the reported effects that accompany meditative states (Fell et al., 2010;Kaur and Singh, 2015;Lee et al., 2018;Brandmeyer et al., 2019), and this prevents the formulation of a theoretical description of ongoing neurophysiological modulations induced by meditative practices. e variability observed in the literature is explained by the diversity of the content of meditation practices (focused attention, active visualization, open observation, etc.), recording conditions (laboratory, retreat, and monastery), experience of the subjects (time spent in practice), and individual variability (omas and Cohen, 2014;Volodina et al., 2021). ...
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The study presents a novel approach designed to detect time-continuous states in time-series data, called the State-Detecting Algorithm (SDA). The SDA operates on unlabeled data and detects optimal change-points among intrinsic functional states in time-series data based on an ensemble of Ward's hierarchical clustering with time-connectivity constraint. The algorithm chooses the best number of states and optimal state boundaries, maximizing clustering quality metrics. We also introduce a series of methods to estimate the performance and confidence of the SDA when the ground truth annotation is unavailable. These include information value analysis, paired statistical tests, and predictive modeling analysis. The SDA was validated on EEG recordings of Guhyasamaja meditation practice with a strict staged protocol performed by three experienced Buddhist practitioners in an ecological setup. The SDA used neurophysiological descriptors as inputs, including PSD, power indices, coherence, and PLV. Post-hoc analysis of the obtained EEG states revealed significant differences compared to the baseline and neighboring states. The SDA was found to be stable with respect to state order organization and showed poor clustering quality metrics and no statistical significance between states when applied to randomly shuffled epochs (i.e., surrogate subject data used as controls). The SDA can be considered a general data-driven approach that detects hidden functional states associated with the mental processes evolving during meditation or other ongoing mental and cognitive processes.
... This can be detected when they are staying relaxed without meditating or while doing meditation. Studies have been conducted comparing different instances of the same meditation technique such as meditation vs non-meditation, novice meditators meditating vs expert meditators meditating, using EEG data [43]. ...
... The dataset was filtered using a high pass filter of 0.5 Hz and a low pass filter of 45 Hz that gave the cleaned EEG dataset a frequency range starting from 0.5 Hz to 45 Hz. This frequency range contains 5 frequency bands that are used in studying meditation EEG; Delta (0.5-4 Hz), Theta (4-8 Hz), Alpha (8-13 Hz), Beta (13-30 Hz), Lower Gamma (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45) and the filtering done also removed the 50-Hz noise that comes from electronic/electric devices in the country where the data were collected. ...
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While a very few studies have been conducted on classifying loving kindness meditation (LKM) and non-meditation electroencephalography (EEG) data for a single session, there are no such studies conducted for multiple session EEG data. Thus, this study aims at classifying existing raw EEG meditation data on single and multiple sessions to come up with meaningful inferences which will be highly beneficial when developing algorithms that can support meditation practices. In this analysis, data have been collected on Pre-Resting (before-meditation), Post-Resting (after-meditation), LKM-Self and LKM-Others for 32 participants and hence allowing us to conduct six pairwise comparisons for the four mind tasks. Common Spatial Patterns (CSP) is a feature extraction method widely used in motor imaginary brain computer interface (BCI), but not in meditation EEG data. Therefore, using CSP in extracting features from meditation EEG data and classifying meditation/non-meditation instances, particularly for multiple sessions will create a new path in future meditation EEG research. The classification was done using Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) where both meditation techniques (LKM-Self and LKM-Others) were compared with Pre-Resting and Post-Resting instances. The results show that for a single session of 32 participants, around 99.5% accuracy was obtained for classifying meditation/Pre-Resting instances. For the 15 participants when using five sessions of EEG data, around 83.6% accuracy was obtained for classifying meditation/Pre-Resting instances. The results demonstrate the ability to classify meditation/Pre-Resting data. Most importantly, this classification is possible for multiple session data as well. In addition to this, when comparing the classification accuracies of the six mind task pairs; LKM-Self, LKM-Others and Post-Resting produced relatively lower accuracies among them than the accuracies obtained for classifying Pre-Resting with the other three. This indicates that Pre-Resting has some features giving a better classification indicating that it is different from the other three mind tasks.
... Он не несет в себе адаптивной функции и не способствует эмпатичной реакции со стороны социального окружения. В основе практики осознанности лежит регуляция осознанных эмоций путем усиления префронтальных механизмов когнитивного контроля и, таким образом, подавление активности в областях, имеющих отношение к обработке аффекта [11]. ...
... Также в группе с опытом 5-10 лет участники чаще ошибаются по сравнению с группой с опытом 3-5 лет в тесте на эпизодическую зрительную память на высоком уровне сложности, когда требуется запомнить расположение 8 объектов. Это можно объяснить тем, что практика осознанности обычно представляет собой сосредоточение на одном объекте [11], таким образом, функции многозадачности и быстрой обработки большого объема информации могут подавляться. ...
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The article presents a study of the mindfulness practice effect on the cognitive and psycho-emotional profile of two groups of people who have been in social isolation for 6 months. There are few interventions that affect significantly the reduction of the adverse impact of social isolation. Mindfulness practices that train skills for monitoring the present moment experiences have shown promising results. The study was conducted on a sample of 19 participants with 3–5 and 5–10 years of mindfulness practices. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether mindfulness practices can compensate for the negative impact of social isolation on the psycho-emotional and cognitive profile of participants. To test this hypothesis, the following methods were used: the Beck Depression Scale, the Rumination Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory, the five-factor personality model, the Visual Analogue Scale for assessing the emotional state, and computerized cognitive tests. The results showed the potential value of mindfulness practices in reducing symptoms of depression and sleep disturbances.
... Electrophysiological studies of meditation have been conducted for over 50 years, and meditation-research publications have increased dramatically, while review papers on this topic appear almost every year (Singh and Telles, 2015;Kaur and Singh, 2015;Kute and Kulkarni, 2016;Lee et al., 2018;Brandmeyer et al., 2019). Nevertheless, the scientists have no clear consensus about the underlying neurophysiological changes resulting from meditation practices, as EEG oscillatory activity and event-related potentials (ERPs) assessments of meditative practice yield varying results, as summarized in the reviews. ...
... The overarching reason as to why results vary so much is that the term "meditation" carries different meanings and is generally used as an umbrella term for the many different practices in individual cultures. Many studies reveal that the cognitive effects might differ according to the type of meditation done, and various meditation techniques were shown to induce rather specific changes in oscillatory EEG activity (Brandmeyer et al., 2019) and ERPs (Singh and Telles, 2015). This is why the investigation of different meditative practices remains an ongoing process to the present day. ...
Article
Thousand-year-old Buddhist traditions have developed a wide range of methods for the subjective exploration of consciousness through meditation. Combining their subjective research with the possibilities of modern neuroscience can help us better understand the physiological mechanisms of consciousness. Therefore, we have been guided by specifically Buddhist explanations when studying the physiological mechanisms of altered states of consciousness during Buddhist meditations. In Buddhism, meditations are generally divided into two large categories: (1) one-pointed concentration and (2) analytical meditation. Maintaining both one-pointed concentration and analytical meditation on ‘bodhicitta’ (“the thought of awakening”) and ‘emptiness’ is a necessary condition for transitioning into tantric practices. Tantric practices involve sophisticated visualizations of Buddhist deities, the ‘energy structure’ of the human body, and the visualization of the stage-by-stage process of dying accompanied with the dissolution of body elements. According to Buddhism, these meditations are characterized by the gradual withdrawal from “gross levels” of consciousness associated with the five senses. From a psychophysiological perspective, this withdrawal of sensory consciousness can be considered as the decrease of sensory stimuli recognition and attentional disengagement from the external world. We concentrated on how considered meditations affect sensory and cognitive processing of external stimuli. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in the passive oddball paradigm were studied both during meditations and in a controlled state of relaxed wakefulness. It was shown with a group of 115 Buddhist monks that during meditation, mismatch negativity amplitudes, amplitudes of N1 and P2 components of ERPs to deviant stimuli, and the amplitudes of the P3a component to novel stimuli all decrease. These outcomes suggest that the considered Buddhist meditations, compared to the control state of relaxed wakefulness, are accompanied by a decrease in physiological processes responsible for maintaining attention on the outside world and recognizing changes in the stream of sensory stimuli.
... We will now describe the effects on human psychology and physiology that might be expected from the Heartfulness practices, based on current knowledge gained from research in other traditions. For extensive reviews of the effects of various styles of meditation and other contemplative practices please see Travis and Shear (2010), Dahl et al. (2015), Schmalzl et al. (2015), Brandmeyer et al. (2019), and Raffone et al. (2019). Here, we will briefly summarize the most consistent findings and theories that we consider to be relevant for the study of Heartfulness. ...
... Several neurophysiological theories have been developed to explain the mechanisms through which meditation and contemplative practices lead to improvements in well-being, and cognitive and emotion-related processes, regardless of whether the meditation has well-being as a final goal. One prominent theory proposes that meditation is an attention-regulation process that creates meta-awareness, thereby enhancing emotion regulation abilities, concentration, and attentional control (Travis and Shear, 2010;Dahl et al., 2015;Schmalzl et al., 2015;Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Raffone et al., 2019). This in turn may occur by reducing cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance, thus giving space to regulate emotions before practitioners become overwhelmed, and so that they can pause before reacting (Lutz et al., 2008;Dahl et al., 2015). ...
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Today, as research into the contemplative sciences is being widely referenced, the research community would benefit from an understanding of the Heartfulness method of meditation. Heartfulness offers an in-depth experiential practice focused on the evolution of human consciousness using the ancient technique of Pranahuti (yogic Transmission) during Meditation, in combination with the more active mental practice of “Cleaning.” Both are enabled by initiation into the Heartfulness practices. These unique features distinguish Heartfulness from other paths that have been described in the scientific literature thus far. In this introductory paper, we present the Heartfulness practices, the philosophy upon which the practices are based, and we reflect on the putative mechanisms through which Heartfulness could exert its effects on the human body and mind in the light of scientific research that has been done in other meditation systems. We conclude with suggestions for future research on the Heartfulness way of meditation.
... 2017). There are a number of studies that examine the neural correlates of awakening experiences in the context of meditation, such as awareness-as-such (Costines et al., 2021;Winter et al., 2019; for reviews see Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Davis & Vago, 2013), and a variety of instruments that quantify individual aspects of self-transcendence (Kitson et al., 2020). Much research in this area is based on (individual) case studies with qualitative approaches (Ataria et al., 2015;Full et al., 2013). ...
... Ahani et al. (2014) conducted a study on the effects of meditation on the elderly using a BioSemi in Common Mode Sense (CMS) system. Brandmeyer et al. (2019) highlighted the importance of hardware specifications by utilizing a 64-channel EEG system with a high sampling rate of 2048 Hz. A higher sampling rate allows for a larger range of frequencies to be analyzed, while an increased number of channels provides more detailed information about brain activity. ...
Article
Extensive evidence affirms meditation’s impact on both physical and mental well-being, consistently highlighting increased alpha power during meditation. This study investigates how mindful breathing meditation affects brain waves in young adults, using EEG data from 15 participants. Focusing on boosting alpha wave power, the study shows a significant postmeditation increase. Data was processed with Finite Impulse Filters, Independent Component Analysis, Short-term Fourier analysis, and power spectral density analysis. The results highlight substantial alpha wave changes pre- and post-meditation. Additionally, data was preprocessed for machine learning-based classifiers (Support Vector Machine, Logistic Regression, Decision Forest, and Naïve Bayes) to categorize brain waves into Delta, Theta, Low Alpha, High Alpha, Low Beta, and High Beta. Comparative analysis reveals the strong impact of mindful breathing meditation and binaural beats on brain wave patterns. This research enhances our understanding of meditation’s physiological effects on brain function, emphasizing its potential for improving mental well-being.
... Meditation has garnered considerable attention as a discipline aimed at enhancing individuals' attentiveness, awareness, and emotional regulation [15]. Incorporating various techniques rooted in mindfulness or contemplative traditions cultivates heightened mental focus and self-awareness. ...
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As the world accelerates, sedentary and unhealthy lifestyles have an increasingly negative impact on human physical and emotional well-being. Millions of people globally are thought to have chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is frequently brought on by diabetes, hypertension, and glomerulonephritis. Over time, the illness gets worse and eventually results in irreversible renal failure. A person's life can be seriously affected by CKD in many different ways, including emotionally, socially, physically, and financially. Apart from physiological manifestations like anemia, discomfort, and exhaustion, CKD can also result in psychological problems like anxiety and depression, which can impair one's overall standard of life. Numerous studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of yoga and meditation on people with chronic renal disease, enhancing their general health and quality of life. Because of therapeutic limitations, familial pressures, financial restraints, and symptoms of end-stage kidney disease, people with CKD frequently experience stress and anxiety. By reducing stress and anxiety, yoga and meditation can help individuals with chronic conditions maintain their health and improve their overall well-being. Recent research has found that yoga can improve blood pressure, sympathetic activity, and basal metabolic rate as well as reduce blood pressure and blood sugar levels by balancing the autonomic nervous system. Furthermore, studies have demonstrated that yoga helps CKD patients live healthier lives by lowering stress, anxiety, and sadness. Healthcare professionals can help patients with chronic renal disease manage their symptoms and enhance their general health and well-being by adding yoga and meditation into their treatment regimens. Modifying lifestyle is essential for both the prevention and treatment of chronic renal disease. CKD often co-occurs with other age-related and sedentary lifestyles and poor diet-related chronic conditions. The dearth of targeted treatment for a large percentage of CKD patients led to the investigation of the therapeutic applications of yoga and meditation in this study. These affordable, non-invasive therapies provide a comprehensive approach to controlling CKD, benefiting both healthy individuals and those with CKD in terms of their physical and mental well-being.
... Husserlian essences, whether involved in experiences of things, events, or other sentient beings, are precisely the kind of data that immediately falsify constructivist assumptions, for they not only evidence real structure at the roots of experience, but they are of the kind that can be confirmed by reference to neuroscience, and, in particular, research into the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC; see [146][147][148]). As far as I know, Husserl himself never suggested a merger of his methods with those of neuroscience. ...
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Anthropology has long resisted becoming a nomothetic science, thus repeatedly missing opportunities to build upon empirical theoretical constructs, choosing instead to back away into a kind of natural history of sociocultural differences. What is required are methods that focus the ethnographic gaze upon the essential structures of perception as well as sociocultural differences. The anthropology of experience and the senses is a recent movement that may be amenable to including a partnership between Husserlian phenomenology and neuroscience to build a framework for evidencing the existence of essential structures of consciousness, and the neurobiological processes that have evolved to present the world to consciousness as adaptively real. The author shows how the amalgamation of essences (sensory objects, relations, horizons, and associated intuitions) and the quest for neural correlates of consciousness can be combined to augment traditional ethnographic research, and thereby nullify the “it’s culture all the way down” bias of constructivism.
... A few examples are dream-like experiences reported upon awakening from general anesthesia (Radek et al., 2018;Mashour, 2011), epilepsy seizures (Picard & Friston, 2014), meditation (Martial, Simon et al., 2020;Brandmeyer, Delorme, & Wahbeh, 2019), hypnosis (Timmermann, Bauer, et al., 2023), trance Martial, Simon et al., 2020), and life-threatening situations (e.g., coma; Martial, Cassol et al., 2020). If a series of specific prototypical features such as out-of-body experience or seeing a bright light arise during an episode of disconnected consciousness after a life-threatening situation, we may call them near-death experiences (Martial, Cassol et al., 2020;Martial, Simon et al., 2020). ...
... At present, approaches such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 7 electroencephalography (EEG), 8,9 electromyogram, 10 and heart rate variability are widely used to study meditation. 11 Researchers have used these methods to explore how meditation improves subjects' concentration, mindfulness, and memory and reduces anxiety and stress. ...
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Objective: To investigate the differences between meditation and resting states using infrared thermal imaging (IRTI) to determine facial temperature distribution features during meditation and annotate the patterns of facial temperature changes during meditation from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine facial diagnosis. Methods: Each participant performed 10 min meditation and 10 min resting but in different sequences. A concentration test was set as the task load, followed by a meditation/resting or resting/meditation session, during which the participants' facial temperatures were observed using IRTI. Participants were scored on the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). Results: Forehead temperatures decreased more during meditation than during the resting state. The chin temperature increased only during meditation (P
... Benefits of meditation have been vastly studied in the current literature. Among others, benefits relating to stress reduction, anxiety, depression and pain improvement (Brandmeyer et al., 2019) seem to consistently arise when introducing meditation protocols. While some studies have proposed a vast number of structural and functional correlates of the mechanisms by which meditation influences healthrelated outcomes, such as reduced activity in the Default Mode Network (Garrison et al., 2015) or increased cortical thickness in prefrontal and insular regions (Hölzel et al., 2011), we argue that brain dynamics converging toward the critical state could be a potential explanatory factor of beneficial outcomes of meditation. ...
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The healthy conscious brain is thought to operate near a critical state, reflecting optimal information processing and high susceptibility to external stimuli. Conversely, deviations from the critical state are hypothesized to give rise to altered states of consciousness (ASC). Measures of criticality could therefore be an effective way of establishing the conscious state of an individual. Furthermore, characterizing the direction of a deviation from criticality may enable the development of treatment strategies for pathological ASC. The aim of this scoping review is to assess the current evidence supporting the criticality hypothesis, and the use of criticality as a conceptual framework for ASC. Using the PRISMA guidelines, Web of Science and PubMed were searched from inception to February 7th 2022 to find articles relating to measures of criticality across ASC. N = 427 independent papers were initially found on the subject. N = 378 were excluded because they were either: not related to criticality; not related to consciousness; not presenting results from a primary study; presenting model data. N = 49 independent papers were included in the present research, separated in 7 sub-categories of ASC: disorders of consciousness (DOC) (n = 5); sleep (n = 13); anesthesia (n = 18); epilepsy (n = 12); psychedelics and shamanic state of consciousness (n = 4); delirium (n = 1); meditative state (n = 2). Each category included articles suggesting a deviation of the critical state. While most studies were only able to identify a deviation from criticality without being certain of its direction, the preliminary consensus arising from the literature is that non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep reflects a subcritical state, epileptic seizures reflect a supercritical state, and psychedelics are closer to the critical state than normal consciousness. This scoping review suggests that, though the literature is limited and methodologically inhomogeneous, ASC are characterized by a deviation from criticality, though its direction is not clearly reported in a majority of studies. Criticality could become, with more extensive research, an effective and objective way to characterize ASC, and help identify therapeutic avenues to improve criticality in pathological brain states. Furthermore, we suggest how anesthesia and psychedelics could potentially be used as neuromodulation techniques to restore criticality in DOC.
... Meditation research continues to advance, allowing us to better understand how meditation works and its effects. 9 Although further research is needed to determine the psychotheoretical mechanism of how meditation works, the current conceptual hypothesis presented in this study might be helpful. ...
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Based on the author’s clinical experience, the aim of this paper is to conceptually analyse the theory of psychological functioning and action mechanisms in the way mindfulness meditation works. Meditation is a method of revealing unconsciousness. It works in a similar way to the inhibitory and excitatory mechanisms of neurones. Block pathogenic thoughts and emotions that reach the unconscious to the conscious mind. The long-term implementation of mediation may be more effective than the short-term and interrupted implementation.
... We did not observe any significant correlation between mindfulness disposition and false memory recall indicating that such controls might not be necessary, and more widely, that mindfulness disposition is not a confounding factor in previous work. We also set out to account for potential individual differences on mindfulness state effects based on self-reported effort Yamaya et al., 2023), success (Brandmeyer et al., 2019) and motivation (Spanos et al., 1980). We did not find any correlation of self-reported effort, success or motivation Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. ...
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Previous investigations into the effect of mindfulness meditation on false memory have reported mixed findings. One potential issue is that mindfulness meditation involves different styles that establish distinct cognitive control states. The present work aimed to address this issue by comparing the effects of single-session focused attention (FAM) and open monitoring (OMM) mindfulness meditation styles on true and false memory recall. Strengthened cognitive control states associated with FAM were predicted to increase true memory recall and decrease false memory recall. Conversely, weakened cognitive control established by OMM was predicted to increase false memory recall. Thirty-four meditation-naïve participants (23 females, mean age = 23.4 years, range = 18–33) first completed pre-meditation learning and recall phases of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task. Participants then completed a single session of FAM or OMM prior to a second, post-meditation, round of DRM task learning and recall phases with a novel word list. Finally, participants completed a recognition test with true and false memory, and distractor words. Both FAM and OMM groups demonstrated significant increase in false memory recall between pre- and post-meditation recall tests but these groups did not differ with respect to true and false memory recall and recognition. The present findings are consistent with previous reports of increased false memory arising from mindfulness meditation. Distinct cognitive control states associated with FAM and OMM states do not result in distinct true and false memory formation, at least in meditation-naïve adults.
... Such activities include "contemplative practices," referring to a wide range of volitional activities associated with first-person reflection on bodily and mental states, such as meditation or mindfulness-based practices. Contemplative practices involve attentional, perceptual and metacognitive processes, grounding of sensorial experience in the present moment, openness toward others and, in general, promoting psychophysiological wellbeing (Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Farb et al., 2015). One of the mechanisms through which contemplative practices are thought to foster wellbeing is through modulation of interoceptive system activity (Weng et al., 2021). ...
Chapter
Interoception is a perceptual process of gathering information on the physiological and functional state of the body. It is thought to underlie different affective and social processes such as emotional regulation, self-other distinction, understanding of others' emotions and, more generally, to support psychophysiological wellbeing. Recent studies have suggested that interoception plays an important role in the embodiment of abstract concepts as well, thus providing a link between perception of bodily signals and conceptual representations. Considering that contemplative practices such as meditation and mindfulness-based practices usually engage the practitioner in a focus on bodily sensations, contemplative practices are thought to foster enhanced bodily awareness and empathic behaviors through modulation of interoceptive functions, leading practitioners to have a more embodied experience of the world. In the current study, we compared a group of practitioners (N = 66) with a matched control group of non-practitioners, adopting self-report questionnaires examining interoceptive sensibility, empathy, and perceptual components of conceptual representations. Differences between the two groups were found, with practitioners showing greater interoceptive sensibility, greater empathy and overall greater perceptual experiences for both abstract and concrete concepts. However, a mediation analysis showed that interoceptive sensibility was observed to affect empathy through mediation of interoceptive components of conceptual representations only in the non-practitioners group. Considering that practitioners are trained to “ground” their experience in bodily sensations, this study suggests that embodying experiences in interoceptive sensations may be a crucial gateway to reach higher states of consciousness characterized by greater bodily sensibility and enhanced empathy.
... Of note, the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus gray matter have been shown to change with yoga/meditation. [22][23][24][25] Interestingly, hypertonicity of the CB [12,[26][27][28][29] and increased size and weight of the CB [30][31][32][33][34][35] are common findings in HT. However, inconsistent evidence has revealed a decrease in systemic blood pressure (BP) through CB deactivation in response to hyperoxia in hypertensive subjects, [36][37][38] suggesting that hyperactivity of the CB may be mechanistically associated with sympathetic dysregulation. ...
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Adjunctive therapy for hypertension is in high demand for clinical research. Therefore, several meta-analyses have provided sufficient evidence for meditation as an adjunct therapy, without being anchored on reliable physiological grounds. Meditation modulates the autonomic nervous system. Herein, we propose a hierarchical-dependent effect for the carotid body (CB) in attenuating blood pressure (BP) and ventilatory variability (VV) fine-tuning due to known nerve connections between the CB, prefrontal brain, hypothalamus, and solitary tract nucleus. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the role of CB in the possible decrease in BP and changes in VV that could occur in response to meditation. This was a prospective, single-center, parallel-group, randomized, controlled clinical trial with concealed allocation. Eligible adult subjects of both sexes with stage 1 hypertension will be randomized into 1 of 2 groups: transcendental meditation or a control group. Subjects will be invited to 3 visits after randomization and 2 additional visits after completing 8 weeks of meditation or waiting-list control. Thus, subjects will undergo BP measurements in normoxia and hyperoxia, VV measurements using the Poincaré method at rest and during exercise, and CB activity measurement in the laboratory. The primary outcome of this study was the detection of changes in BP and CB activity after 8 weeks. Our secondary outcome was the detection of changes in the VV at rest and during exercise. We predict that interactions between hyperoxic deactivation of CB and meditation; Will reduce BP beyond stand-alone intervention or alternatively; Meditation will significantly attenuate the effects of hyperoxia as a stand-alone intervention. In addition, VV can be changed, partially mediated by a reduction in CB activity. Trial registration number: ReBEC registry (RBR-55n74zm). Stage: pre-results.
... Meditation is a self-regulatory practice of the body and mind that can be performed in various ways and is a nonpharmaceutical low-cost tool that can be integrated into a healthy lifestyle [5]. A host of literature has examined the effects of meditation on a range of psychological factors and brain outcomes, with multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in this field [6][7][8][9]. ...
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Background Mindfulness and meditation have a rich historical tradition, and a growing scientific base of evidence supports their use in creating positive psychological and neuroplastic changes for practitioners. Although meditation can be taught in various ways, the scientific community has yet to systematically study the impact of different types of meditation on neuropsychological outcomes, especially as it pertains to digital implementation. Therefore, it is critical that the instruction of mindfulness be evidence based because meditation is being used in both scientific and clinical settings. Objective This study investigated the use of teacher cueing and the integration of neuroscience education into a meditation program. Compassion cueing was chosen as the element of experimental manipulation because traditional lineages of Buddhist meditation teach compassion for self and others as one of the primary outcomes of meditation. We hypothesized that participants receiving compassion cueing would have enhanced neuropsychological outcomes compared with those receiving functional cueing and that gains in neuroscience knowledge would relate to positive neuropsychological outcomes. Methods Participants (n=89) were randomized to receive either functional cueing (control group) or compassion cueing (experimental group) and engaged with five 10-minute meditation sessions a week for 4 weeks. All intervention sessions were administered through digital presentation. All participants completed ecological momentary assessments before and after the daily intervention, as well as pre- and postintervention questionnaires. ResultsParticipants demonstrated significant benefits over time, including increased mindfulness and self-compassion, decreased depression, and gains in neuroscience content (all P
... Additionally, both cognitively and neurobiologically, the state of flow shares overlap with other altered states of consciousness, including meditative and psychedelic states, states of traumatic stress, and socalled peak or optimal experiences (Carhart- Harris et al., 2012Harris et al., , 2014Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Wheeler and Dyer, 2020). While scientists have explored some of the neurobiological changes beneath the aforementioned altered states (Brewer et al., 2011;Nash et al., 2018;Yanes and Loprinzi, 2018), the precise neural mechanisms underpinning the onset of flow and the state itself remain unclear, both empirically and theoretically. ...
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Flow is a cognitive state that manifests when there is complete attentional absorption while performing a task. Flow occurs when certain internal as well as external conditions are present, including intense concentration, a sense of control, feedback, and a balance between the challenge of the task and the relevant skillset. Phenomenologically, flow is accompanied by a loss of self-consciousness, seamless integration of action and awareness, and acute changes in time perception. Research has begun to uncover some of the neurophysiological correlates of flow, as well as some of the state’s neuromodulatory processes. We comprehensively review this work and consider the neurodynamics of the onset of the state, considering large-scale brain networks, as well as dopaminergic, noradrenergic, and endocannabinoid systems. To accomplish this, we outline an evidence-based hypothetical situation, and consider the flow state in a broader context including other profound alterations in consciousness, such as the psychedelic state and the state of traumatic stress that can induce PTSD. We present a broad theoretical framework which may motivate future testable hypotheses.
... Cognitive Relevance Years of neuroscience research have shown several advantages to meditation practice (Brandmeyer et al., 2019). A recent article offered a possible course of action with a unified framework (Dahl et al., 2020). ...
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Research into the similarities and differences between various forms of meditation practice is still in its early stages. Here, utilizing functional connectivity and graph measures, we present our work examining three meditation traditions: Himalayan Yoga (HT), Isha Shoonya (SNY), and Vipassana (VIP). EEG activity of the meditative block is used to build functional brain connections to exploit the resulting networks between various meditation traditions and a control group. Support vector machine is employed for binary classification, and models are built with features generated via graph theory measures. We obtain maximum accuracy of 84.76% with gamma1, 90% with alpha, and 84.76% with theta in HT, SNY, and VIP, respectively. Our key findings involve (a) higher delta connectivity in Vipassana meditators, (b) synchronization of theta networks in the left hemisphere inspected to be stronger in the anterior frontal area across meditators, (c) greater involvement of gamma2 processing observed among Himalayan and Vipassana meditators, (d) increased left frontal activity contribution for all meditators in theta and gamma bands, and (e) modularity engaged extensively in gamma processing across all meditation traditions. Furthermore, we discuss the implication of this research for neurotechnology products to enable guided meditation among naive practitioners.
... Relief from a negative emotional state can also improve the individual's ability to regulate emotions to a certain extent. In addition, the individual is in a state of physical and mental relaxation during the intervention period, which is conducive to helping the individual effectively cope with and deal with related negative emotions [13][14][15]. ...
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Objective: This study aims to explore the application effect of meditation relaxation training and the Rosenthal effect in patients with adenoidectomy. Methods: This study included 94 children who underwent adenoidectomy in our hospital from April 2020 to May 2022 and were divided into a study group and a control group. The control group was given routine care, and the study group was given meditation relaxation training and the Rosenthal effect on the basis of the control group. The negative emotions, treatment compliance, complication rates, and nursing satisfaction of children's family members before and after the intervention were compared between the two groups. Results: The results of this study showed that after the intervention, the CDI and SCARED scores of the children in the study group were significantly lower than those in the control group. The treatment compliance in the study group was significantly higher than that in the control group, and the incidence of complications was significantly lower than that in the control group. Conclusion: The intervention of meditation relaxation training and the Rosenthal effect on children with adenoidectomy can relieve their negative emotions, improve treatment compliance, reduce the incidence of complications, and the children's family members are more satisfied.
... Meditation is a mental practice aiming to improve the psychological capacity of self-regulation regarding attention, awareness, and emotion [59]. Studies have found evidence of the positive effects of meditation on health and well-being, but the difficulty of learning and engaging in meditation practice has been identified as a major barrier [60]. ...
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Background: The application of virtual reality (VR) in clinical settings is growing rapidly, with encouraging results. As VR has been introduced into complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), a systematic review must be undertaken to understand its current status. Aim: This review aims to evaluate and summarize the current applications of VR in CAM, as well as to explore potential directions for future research and development. Methods: After a brief description of VR technology, we discuss the past 20 years of clinical VR applications in the medical field. Then, we discuss the theoretical basis of the combination of VR technology and CAM, the research thus far, and practical factors regarding usability, etc., from the following three main aspects: clinical application, teaching, and scientific research. Finally, we summarize and propose hypotheses on the application of VR in CAM and its limitations. Results: Our review of the theoretical underpinnings and research findings to date leads to the prediction that VR and CAM will have a significant impact on future research and practice. Conclusion: Although there is still much research needed to advance the science in this area, we strongly believe that VR applications will become indispensable tools in the toolbox of CAM researchers and practitioners and will only grow in relevance and popularity in the era of digital health.
... While the term "mindfulness" is defined differently in Buddhist and modern research-community contexts (Dahl et al., 2015;Brandmeyer et al., 2019), in the research community, it "often refers to a self-regulated attentional stance oriented toward the present-moment experience that is characterized by curiosity, openness, and acceptance" (Dahl et al., 2015, p. 516), which includes "a non-evaluative awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, and other experiences in the moment" (Lebois et al., 2015, p. 506). Thus, mindfulness involves an accepting, non-evaluative-often also termed a "non-judging" (e.g., Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 150)-stance toward one's current mental life or one's current life in general. ...
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Background: 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 (N-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. Methods: In this open-label outpatient study, the dose level and frequency for the ketamine infusions were adjusted individually in close consultation with the patients suffering from depression with the overall goal to maximize antidepressant benefits—a novel dose regimen that we term personalized antidepressant dosing. In general, treatment started with an initial series of ketamine infusions with a dosage of 0.5 mg/kg body weight and was then adjusted (usually increased). A possible relationship between ketamine-induced antidepressant benefits and retrospectively reported peri-infusion experiences of opposite diminishing and non-judging was assessed based on a total of 45 ketamine-infusion treatment sessions from 11 different patients suffering from depression. Opposite diminishing and non-judging were measured with the two items from the Altered States of Consciousness Inventory (ASCI) that measure these concepts. Depression was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Results: Peri-infusion experiences of both opposite diminishing and non-judging were associated with antidepressant responses confirming our hypothesis. Furthermore, opposite diminishing and non-judging were closely related to one another while relating to antidepressant response in distinguishable ways. Conclusion: Future controlled randomized trials with dissociative and other psychedelics and with a larger number of participants are needed to establish the possible link of psychedelically induced opposite diminishing and non-judging with an antidepressant response more firmly.
... Meditation encompasses several ancient self-regulation practices, and can greatly improve stress-related outcomes (Goyal et al., 2014;Delorme, 2016, 2020b;Brandmeyer, Delorme and Wahbeh, 2019). A popular form of meditation practice is the focus of attention onto an object (e.g., mantra, beads counting, breath focus) and the monitoring of mind-wandering thoughts (i.e., distractor), to then reallocate attention to the object. ...
Thesis
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Over the last 30 years we have observed dramatic declines in mental health worldwide, with nearly 450 million people currently suffering from a mental or behavioral disorder. Globally, there is less than 1 mental health professional for every 10,000 people, with 76-85% of the population in low and middle-income countries without access to treatment. The overarching aim of this thesis is the identification of novel and cost-effective methods for measuring, detecting, and assessing well-being. In the first study of this research project, we validated the ability of a quick global scale to capture multidimensional well-being on 1,615 participants that participated in an online survey, identified some predictors of well-being, and observed improvements from online interventions. Mental health and individual well-being also influences the structure and function of our brains across the lifespan, which in turn, mediate well-being levels. While progress has been made regarding our understanding of the interacting relationships between well-being and brain function, much is still unknown. Recent technological advances have led to the development of affordable, light-weight, wearable, and wireless electroencephalography (EEG) technologies that offer fast preparation time, high mobility, and that facilitate the collection of EEG data over large and diversified populations by increasing access to populations that were previously difficult to study with conventional systems. The analysis of large datasets with robust statistical methods or advanced machine-learning algorithms can ease the identification of trends, the mediator role of covariables, and the classification of mental states. While low-cost, low-density EEG systems have presented significant challenges for conducting EEG research, here we validated a wearable system for recording spectral measures relevant to the study of well-being, by comparison with a state-of-the-art system (study 2). In study 3, we used the tools validated in studies 1 and 2 to examine the relation between EEG and multidimensional well-being in a large sample (N = 353). We found a potential EEG marker of well-being, consistent with some literature on anxiety and depression, with age as a mediator. We discuss interpretations and limitations related to the studies and the broader field, as well as future directions (e.g., real-world EEG monitoring, dyadic or multimodal applications, brain-computer interfaces, neurofeedback training) and ethical implications for the field. The broader applications of this line of research will hopefully help to reduce the prevalence of mental health disparities worldwide (e.g., chronic stress, anxiety disorder, depression, psychiatric conditions), and will also help to predict and prevent mental illness in the broader population.
... Transcendental experience may be an engine that fuels human development and creates potential for the evolution of higher forms of human "intelligence, " to be understood here in terms of mental capability. Insights from the neuroscience of meditation and its effects on human wellbeing and the development of higher forms of consciousness (Muehsam et al., 2017;Mahone et al., 2018;Vieten et al., 2018;Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Vivot et al., 2020) points toward states of enhanced consciousness in deep meditation as a crucial driver of human psychological development . Deep meditation also has proven therapeutic effects, as in chronic pain management (Hilton et al., 2017) in individuals where consciousness is often reduced to little else than overwhelming sensations of pain, limiting the full, health expression of conscious capability in their everyday lives. ...
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In the field theories in physics, any particular region of the presumed space-time continuum and all interactions between elementary objects therein can be objectively measured and/or accounted for mathematically. Since this does not apply to any of the field theories, or any other neural theory, of consciousness, their explanatory power is limited. As discussed in detail herein, the matter is complicated further by the facts than any scientifically operational definition of consciousness is inevitably partial, and that the phenomenon has no spatial dimensionality. Under the light of insights from research on meditation and expanded consciousness, chronic pain syndrome, healthy aging, and eudaimonic well-being, we may conceive consciousness as a source of potential energy that has no clearly defined spatial dimensionality, but can produce significant changes in others and in the world, observable in terms of changes in time. It is argued that consciousness may have evolved to enable the human species to generate such changes in order to cope with unprecedented and/or unpredictable adversity. Such coping could, ultimately, include the conscious planning of our own extinction when survival on the planet is no longer an acceptable option.
... The counter view, perhaps more vociferous within scientific literature, argues that such experiences are largely cultural and contextual elaborations of ordinary human experiences (Proudfoot, 1985;Sharf, 2000), which may have a strong emotional accompaniment (in phenomenological terms overvalued ideas). Neurosurgeons have identified brain systems involved in transcendental experiences (Urgesi et al., 2010), and electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies of faithbased rituals and meditation have discovered neurological and brain function correlates of contemplative states (Brandmeyer et al., 2019;Newberg, 2014;Wahbeh et al., 2018). Studies of meditation have consistently shown brain activation in specific regions including the insula, premotor cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and frontoparietal cortex (Fox et al., 2016;Fox et al., 2014). ...
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Mystical and spiritual experiences have been reported throughout human history. Causal explanations for these range from psychopathology of mental illness, drugs such as hallucinogens, neurological disorders including temporal lobe epilepsy, and genuine mystical or spiritual awakening. There is a common core of phenomena in such experiences, as described both in historical accounts and recent research, but also evidence of cultural specificity. This article is a personal account of such an experience, which occurred in a postanesthetic state. A striking feature of the experience was noesis: a sense of revelation and complete understanding. I argue that while there must be a neural basis to these phenomena, it is difficult to reduce the subjective meaning of the experience purely to a brain dysfunction. Reconciling mechanism and meaning of such experiences remains a challenge for both neuroscience and philosophy.
... However, it remains challenging to ensure any such study on Vedic meditation. In view of the heterogeneous nature of the meditation styles and practitioners, oscillatory EEG studies could not provide conclusive findings (Brandmeyer, Delorme, & Wahbeh, 2019). ...
Chapter
Interpersonal emotion regulation relates to the state of well-being of the people by augmenting work engagement, performance, and limiting the experience of negative emotions in relationships. Vedic tradition considers emotional maturity as the capacity to endure the emotional upheavals in life. But the common belief is that Vedic contemplative practices are for intrapersonal emotional regulation only. Contemporary research needs further conceptual and methodological innovations to facilitate interpersonal emotion regulation through diverse contemplative practices. To this end, the current work has sought to analyze the role and mechanisms of Vedic contemplative practices in improving interpersonal emotion regulation. Also, it illustrates several contemplative activities, used as stand-alone or adjunct, to ameliorate difficulties in relationships. It further illuminates significant neurological mechanisms and theoretical and methodological challenges in research on the promotion of interpersonal emotion regulation through Vedic contemplative techniques.
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This chapter delves into the scientific underpinnings of mindfulness, showcasing its transformative effects on mental and physical health through neural mechanisms and empirical research. It explores how mindfulness practices influence key brain networks, including the Default Mode, Salience, and Central Executive Networks, promoting neural coherence and enhancing attentional control. The chapter highlights mindfulness’s ability to modulate the limbic system, fostering improved emotional regulation and reducing stress responses. Additionally, it outlines the positive impacts of mindfulness on attention, demonstrating increased cognitive flexibility and reduced distractibility. The clinical benefits of mindfulness are emphasized, with evidence supporting its efficacy in managing pain, anxiety, and stress-related hormonal responses. By integrating mindfulness into healthcare, individuals can cultivate resilience, empathy, and a more compassionate approach to both self-care and patient care, leading to improved overall well-being and quality of life.
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Patients undergoing cancer treatment experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms throughout their cancer care journey. Optimal symptom management before and after surgery is crucial in improving patient functioning and quality of life and positively impacting post-operative recovery. While pharmacological treatments are the conventional standard for cancer symptom management, the benefits of medications must be weighed against their risks. To offset medication related risks, non-pharmacological therapies are increasingly being considered as adjunct treatment options. These therapies include conventional physical or psychosocial interventions as well as complementary or integrative therapies such as acupuncture, hypnosis and music therapy. This chapter provides an overview of non-pharmacological approaches with the strongest evidence supporting their use for treating commonly experienced symptoms.
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Cosmopsychism is a novel paradigm that has the potential to respond to the hard problem of consciousness. It is based on the theoretical framework of stochastic electrodynamics. Considering both consciousness and matter as the primary reality, cosmopsychism describes the dynamic interaction of the brain with the ubiquitous field of consciousness (UFC), resulting in a number of information states. The UFC is conceived to exhibit twofold properties— extrinsic and intrinsic. The extrinsic property has the characteristics of the field of physics, whereas the intrinsic property is hard to decipher but is interpreted in terms of the characteristics of a color palate representing different shades of consciousness. Scientific analysis reveals that the concept of UFC, as theorized in cosmopsychism, resonates with the philosophical ideas of the Indian knowledge system (IKS). This article attempts to integrate the paradigm of cosmopsychism with the philosophical insights of the IKS in order to develop a holistic framework that contributes substantially to the science of consciousness
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Conventional Buddhist texts illustrate meditation as a condition of relaxed alertness that must fend against extreme hypoarousal (sleep, drowsiness) and extreme hyperarousal (restlessness). Theoretical, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging investigations of meditation have highlighted the relaxing effects and hypoarousing without emphasizing the alertness-promoting effects. Here we performed a systematic review supported by an activation-likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis in an effort to counterbalance the surfeit of scholarship emphasizing the hypoarousing and relaxing effects of different forms of Buddhist meditation. Specifically, the current systematic review-cum-meta-analytical review seeks to highlight more support for meditation’s wake-promoting effects by drawing from neuroimaging research during wakefulness and meditation. In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 fMRI studies, we aim to highlight support for Buddhist meditation’s wake-promoting or arousing effects by identifying brain regions associated with alertness during meditation. The most significant peaks were localized medial frontal gyrus (MFG) and precuneus. We failed to determine areas ostensibly common to alertness-related meditation such as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), superior parietal lobule, basal ganglia, thalamus, most likely due to the relatively fewer fMRI investigations that used wakefulness-promoting meditation techniques. Also, we argue that forthcoming research on meditation, related to alertness or wakefulness, continues to adopt a multi-modal method to investigate the correlation between actual behaviors and neural networks connected to Buddhist meditation. Moreover, we recommend the implementation of fMRI paradigms on Buddhist meditation with clinically diagnosed participants to complement recent trends in psychotherapy such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT).
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Contemplative practice has demonstrated benefits for mental health and well-being. Most previous studies, however, implemented in-person trainings containing a mix of different, mostly solitary, practices and focused on pre- to post-training outcomes. In this randomized trial, we explore the immediate differential efficacy of two daily app-delivered practices in shifting emotional (valence, arousal) and thinking patterns (thought content on future-past, self-other, positive–negative dimensions). For 10 weeks of daily training, 212 participants (18–65 years) performed either a novel 12-min partner-based socio-emotional practice (Affect Dyad) or a 12-min attention-focused solitary mindfulness-based practice. Using ordinal Bayesian multilevel modeling, we found that both practice types led to more positive affect and higher arousal. However, whereas mindfulness-based practice partly led to a decrease in active thoughts, particularly in future-, other-related and negative thoughts, the Dyad in contrast led to increases in other-related, and positive thoughts. This shift towards more social and positive thoughts may specifically support overcoming ruminative thinking patterns associated with self-related and negative thought content. Overall, these differential findings may help inform the adaptation of scalable app-based mental trainings in different segments of the population with the goal to improve mental health and well-being.
Thesis
One of the essential characteristics that differentiate animal and plant species is their ability to move in space. It thus appears that motor skills condition the development of cognition. In this respect, the present thesis begins with a triple observation, that: (1) attention is subordinated to action, (2) there is an intimate relationship between attentional control and sensorimotor control through the exercise of sustained attention, and (3) there is a second (inverse) relationship between attentional control and sensorimotor control through the exercise of stillness. Through work on brain electrophysiology in different attentional conditions - action observation, attention deficit (with or without hyperactivity), and mindfulness meditation - the present thesis aims to contribute to the identification of brain dynamics underlying attentional control and the ways in which the exercise of this control can, in turn, modulate the brain's procedural activities. After a detailed review of the fundamental properties of attention, the general principles of electroencephalogram, and the neural correlates underlying attentional control, we preliminarily focused on the oscillatory dynamics associated with visual attention. From an experimental point of view, the aim was to distinguish the different functional components (visual, attentional, sensorimotor) of the brain rhythms by modifying the visual information (an animation of walking) passively submitted to the subject's attention. On this basis, we next explored brain dynamics in children with attention deficit (with/without hyperactivity, ADHD) during an attention/inhibition task (Cue-GO/NoGO). We showed an alteration of the rhythms linked to the processing of visual information. From a neuroanatomical point of view, our data indicated that this deficit would be based on an imbalance between the two fronto-parietal attention systems, ventral-medial and dorso-lateral, which could make these children more sensitive to the salience of visual information and induce less flexibility in cognitive control. In contrast, we showed that the 'non-reactive' dimension of mindfulness altered the temporal dynamics of large-scale neural networks. This effect appeared to be support by increased cerebellum activity, and to induce less (re)activity of the attentional salience network to distractions. The theoretical and potentially clinical implications of these results are discussed, taking into account the specific scientific context of each study, the analytical tools used (event-related potentials, source location, microstates) and their limitations. In sum, our data suggest that mindfulness meditation may induce a reorganization of the cortico-subcortical loops that govern attentional behavior, and may be useful in the treatment of ADHD.
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El mindfulness, una de las terapias denominadas mente-cuerpo, se define como la capacidad de trasladar la atención al momento presente. Dicha terapia fue formalizada por el Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn en 1982 para su aplicación en la práctica clínica y se ha implementado en el manejo de diversas patologías. El objetivo de este artículo es sintetizar los principales mecanismos biológicos a través–– de los cuales el mindfulness actúa, para así comprender sus beneficios en la salud física y mental. Se incluyeron 38 artículos (catorce experimentos clínicos, veintidós revisiones sistemáticas y metanálisis y dos guías de práctica clínica) que identifican los mecanismos neuronales, cardiovasculares, inmunológicos y hormonales del mindfulness. Entre los hallazgos principales se encuentran cambios cerebrales asociados con el procesamiento de información nociceptiva, reducción en cifras de presión arterial, mejoría en la perfusión miocárdica, regulación autonómica cardiovascular, disminución de las citocinas proinflamatorias y disminución del cortisol. Estos mecanismos se correlacionan con los hallazgos de la literatura, según los cuales se han reportado beneficios en el tratamiento de trastornos del afecto, condiciones que producen dolor crónico, entidades asociadas con estados inflamatorios y enfermedades cardiovasculares como la hipertensión arterial. Se considera una alternativa terapéutica segura, dada la baja frecuencia de efectos adversos reportados.
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Yoga is an ancient Indian technique of healthy living. Numerous studies have corroborated yoga’s beneficial effects, including a favorable influence on autonomic function and negative emotions. Extensive research in the last few decades has revealed the critical role that yoga can play in eradicating stress. This has laid to the foundation for a scientific understanding of pathophysiological changes attributed to stress, particularly at the molecular and genetic levels. This primarily has helped understand the epigenetic and genetic mechanisms at play to induce and alleviate stress, particularly those related to emotional aberrations. As research has indicated, negative emotions are translated into vascular inflammation appropriately accentuated by a sympathetic predominant autonomic function. This cascade is bolstered by multiple factors, including activation of “stressor” genes and elaborating hormones, including steroids with sometimes nocuous consequences, particularly when chronic. Yoga has been categorically found to have inhibited each and every one of these baneful effects of stress. In fact, it also changes the neuronal circuits that potentiate such a plethora of pathological changes. This, in turn, has accentuated yoga’s relevance as a powerful preventive intervention in noncommunicable diseases (NCD). NCDs, including heart disease, stroke, and rheumatological disorders, are essentially inflammatory diseases that perpetuate inflammation in different beds like vascular or joint spaces. The precise mechanism by which yoga induces such beneficial changes is yet to be delineated. However, a cornucopia of pointers indicates that neural, endocrine, immunological, cellular, genetic, and epigenetic mechanisms are at play. This chapter attempts to cobble together newfangled research to delineate a medical model for this 5000-year-old practice from India. This is imperative, as a mechanistic model of this ancient-but-complex system would enable a more comprehensive understanding of its mechanism and reveal its yet-undiscovered positive health effects.
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Mindfulness-based mental training interventions have become a popular means to alleviate stress and stress-associated health risks. Previous scientific investigations emphasize the importance of exploring the effects of such interventions in naturalistic settings to evaluate their implementation into daily life. Therefore, the current study examined the effects of three distinct mental training modules on a range of measures of daily life experience in the scope of the ReSource Project, a 9-month longitudinal mental training study comparing modules targeting attention and interoception (Presence), socio-affective (Affect) or socio-cognitive abilities (Perspective). We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to repeatedly probe levels of stress and stress-coping efficacy combined with stress-reactive cortisol levels, and further explored arousal, affective states, and thought patterns in the daily lives of 289 healthy adults (172 women; 20–55 years). We found increased presence-focused thought and heightened arousal after a training duration of 3-6 months, independent of the type of prior training. Increased coping efficacy emerged specifically after socio-cognitive Perspective training, following 6-9 months of training duration. No training effects were found for subjective stress, stress-reactive cortisol levels, or daily life affect. Our findings corroborate and add ecological validity to previous ReSource findings by showing that they replicate in participants’ everyday environment. Regarding endocrine and subjective stress markers, our results suggest caution in generalizing acute laboratory findings to individuals’ everyday routines. Overall, the current study provides substantiated insights into how cultivating one’s mind through contemplative mental training translates to daily life experience, enhances stress-coping, and may ultimately aide in maintaining health.
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This review focuses on human psychoneuroimmunology studies published in the past decade. Issues discussed include the routes through which psychological factors influence immune function, how a stressor's duration may influence the changes observed, individual difference variables, the ability of interventions to modulate immune function, and the health consequences of psychosocially mediated immune dysregulation. The importance of negative affect and supportive personal relationships are highlighted. Recent data suggest that immune dysregulation may be one core mechanism for a spectrum of conditions associated with aging, including cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, Type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and frailty and functional decline; production of proinflammatory cytokines that influence these and other conditions can be stimulated directly by negative emotions and indirectly by prolonged infection.
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State manifestations of the trait of absorption—a trait associated with differential responsivity to hypnosis, meditation, marijuana intoxification, and electromyograph (EMG) biofeedback—were assessed to determine (a) if absorption correlates with various (sub)dimensions of phenomenological experience, and (b) if individuals of differing absorption ability experience different states of consciousness. In two experiments 249 and 304 participants completed Tellegen's absorption scale and experienced several stimulus conditions. Each condition's phenomenological state was assessed by means of a retrospective self-report questionnaire and quantified in terms of intensity and pattern parameters. The results indicated that absorption correlated with increased and more vivid imagery, inward and absorbed attention, and positive affect; decreased self-awareness; and increased alterations in state of consciousness and various aspects of subjective experience. In addition, individuals of high absorption ability, relative to lows, experienced a different state of consciousness during ordinary, waking consciousness that became an altered state with eye closure and an hypnoticlike induction. The usefulness of the results for understanding altered-state induced procedures such as hypnosis is discussed.
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Meditation training can improve mood and emotion regulation, yet the neural mechanisms of these affective changes have yet to be fully elucidated. We evaluated the impact of long- and short-term mindfulness meditation training on the amygdala response to emotional pictures in a healthy, non-clinical population of adults using blood-oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging. Long-term meditators (N = 30, 16 female) had 9081 h of lifetime practice on average, primarily in mindfulness meditation. Short-term training consisted of an 8-week Mindfulness- Based Stress Reduction course (N = 32, 22 female), which was compared to an active control condition (N = 35, 19 female) in a randomized controlled trial. Meditation training was associated with less amygdala reactivity to positive pictures relative to controls, but there were no group differences in response to negative pictures. Reductions in reactivity to negative stimuli may require more practice experience or concentrated practice, as hours of retreat practice in long-term meditators was associated with lower amygdala reactivity to negative pictures - yet we did not see this relationship for practice time with MBSR. Short-term training, compared to the control intervention, also led to increased functional connectivity between the amygdala and a region implicated in emotion regulation - ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) - during affective pictures. Thus, meditation training may improve affective responding through reduced amygdala reactivity, and heightened amygdala-VMPFC connectivity during affective stimuli may reflect a potential mechanism by which MBSR exerts salutary effects on emotion regulation ability.
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Background: Several studies have reported that mindfulness meditation has a potential effect in controlling headaches, such as migraine and tension-type headache; however, its role remains controversial. This review assessed the evidence regarding the effects of mindfulness meditation for primary headache pain. Methods: Only English databases (PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials [the Cochrane Library], PsycINFO, Psychology and behavioral science collection, PsyArticles, Web of Science, and Scopus) were searched from their inception to November 2016 with the keywords ("meditation" or "mindfulness" or "vipassana" or "dzogchen" or "zen" or "integrative body-mind training" or "IBMT" or "mindfulness-based stress reduction" or "MBSR" or "mindfulness-based cognitive therapy" or "MBCT" and "Headache" or "Head pain" or "Cephalodynia" or "Cephalalgia" or "Hemicrania" or "Migraine"). Titles, abstracts, and full-text articles were screened against study inclusion criteria: controlled trials of structured meditation programs for adult patients with primary headache pain. The quality of studies included in the meta-analysis was assessed with the Yates Quality Rating Scale. The meta-analysis was conducted with Revman 5.3. Results: Ten randomized controlled trials and one controlled clinical trial with a combined study population of 315 patients were included in the study. When compared to control group data, mindfulness meditation induced significant improvement in pain intensity (standardized mean difference, -0.89; 95% confidence interval, -1.63 to -0.15; P = 0.02) and headache frequency (-0.67; -1.24 to -0.10; P = 0.02). In a subgroup analysis of different meditation forms, mindfulness-based stress reduction displayed a significant positive influence on pain intensity (P < 0.000). Moreover, 8-week intervention had a significant positive effect (P < 0.000). Conclusions: Mindfulness meditation may reduce pain intensity and is a promising treatment option for patients. Clinicians may consider mindfulness meditation as a viable complementary and alternative medical option for primary headache.
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Background Despite an exponential growth in research on mindfulness-based interventions, the body of scientific evidence supporting these treatments has been criticized for being of poor methodological quality. Objectives The current systematic review examined the extent to which mindfulness research demonstrated increased rigor over the past 16 years regarding six methodological features that have been highlighted as areas for improvement. These feature included using active control conditions, larger sample sizes, longer follow-up assessment, treatment fidelity assessment, and reporting of instructor training and intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses. Data sources We searched PubMed, PsychInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science in addition to a publically available repository of mindfulness studies. Study eligibility criteria Randomized clinical trials of mindfulness-based interventions for samples with a clinical disorder or elevated symptoms of a clinical disorder listed on the American Psychological Association’s list of disorders with recognized evidence-based treatment. Study appraisal and synthesis methods Independent raters screened 9,067 titles and abstracts, with 303 full text reviews. Of these, 171 were included, representing 142 non-overlapping samples. Results Across the 142 studies published between 2000 and 2016, there was no evidence for increases in any study quality indicator, although changes were generally in the direction of improved quality. When restricting the sample to those conducted in Europe and North America (continents with the longest history of scientific research in this area), an increase in reporting of ITT analyses was found. When excluding an early, high-quality study, improvements were seen in sample size, treatment fidelity assessment, and reporting of ITT analyses. Conclusions and implications of key findings Taken together, the findings suggest modest adoption of the recommendations for methodological improvement voiced repeatedly in the literature. Possible explanations for this and implications for interpreting this body of research and conducting future studies are discussed.
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During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and “key to building more resilient soldiers.” Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism. Misinformation and poor methodology associated with past studies of mindfulness may lead public consumers to be harmed, misled, and disappointed. Addressing such concerns, the present article discusses the difficulties of defining mindfulness, delineates the proper scope of research into mindfulness practices, and explicates crucial methodological issues for interpreting results from investigations of mindfulness. For doing so, the authors draw on their diverse areas of expertise to review the present state of mindfulness research, comprehensively summarizing what we do and do not know, while providing a prescriptive agenda for contemplative science, with a particular focus on assessment, mindfulness training, possible adverse effects, and intersection with brain imaging. Our goals are to inform interested scientists, the news media, and the public, to minimize harm, curb poor research practices, and staunch the flow of misinformation about the benefits, costs, and future prospects of mindfulness meditation.
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In this paper, we examined whether meditation practice influences the epigenetic clock, a strong and reproducible biomarker of biological aging, which is accelerated by cumulative lifetime stress and with age-related chronic diseases. Using the Illumina 450K array platform, we analyzed the DNA methylome from blood cells of long-term meditators and meditation-naïve controls to estimate their Intrinsic Epigenetic Age Acceleration (IEAA), using Horvath's calculator. IEAA was similar in both groups. However, controls showed a different IEAA trajectory with aging than meditators: older controls (age≥52) had significantly higher IEAAs compared with younger controls (age <52), while meditators were protected from this epigenetic aging effect. Notably, in the meditation group, we found a significant negative correlation between IEAA and the number of years of regular meditation practice. From our results, we hypothesize that the cumulative effects of a regular meditation practice may, in the long-term, help to slow the epigenetic clock and could represent a useful preventive strategy for age-related chronic diseases. Longitudinal randomized controlled trials in larger cohorts are warranted to confirm and further characterize these findings.
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Buddhist-derived meditation practices are currently being employed as a popular form of health promotion. While meditation programs draw inspiration from Buddhist textual sources for the benefits of meditation, these sources also acknowledge a wide range of other effects beyond health-related outcomes. The Varieties of Contemplative Experience study investigates meditation-related experiences that are typically underreported, particularly experiences that are described as challenging, difficult, distressing, functionally impairing, and/or requiring additional support. A mixed-methods approach featured qualitative interviews with Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan traditions. Interview questions probed meditation experiences and influencing factors, including interpretations and management strategies. A follow-up survey provided quantitative assessments of causality, impairment and other demographic and practice-related variables. The content-driven thematic analysis of interviews yielded a taxonomy of 59 meditation-related experiences across 7 domains: cognitive, perceptual, affective, somatic, conative, sense of self, and social. Even in cases where the phenomenology was similar across participants, interpretations of and responses to the experiences differed considerably. The associated valence ranged from very positive to very negative, and the associated level of distress and functional impairment ranged from minimal and transient to severe and enduring. In order to determine what factors may influence the valence, impact, and response to any given experience, the study also identified 26 categories of influencing factors across 4 domains: practitioner-level factors, practice-level factors, relationships, and health behaviors. By identifying a broader range of experiences associated with meditation, along with the factors that contribute to the presence and management of experiences reported as challenging, difficult, distressing or functionally impairing, this study aims to increase our understanding of the effects of contemplative practices and to provide resources for mediators, clinicians, meditation researchers, and meditation teachers.
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Recent evidence suggests that the effects of meditation practice on affective processing and resilience have the potential to induce neuroplastic changes within the amygdala. Notably, literature speculates that meditation training may reduce amygdala activity during negative affective processing. Nonetheless, studies have thus far not verified this speculation. In this longitudinal study, participants (N = 21, 9 men) were trained in awareness-based compassion meditation (ABCM) or matched relaxation training. The effects of meditation training on amygdala activity were examined during passive viewing of affective and neutral stimuli in a non-meditative state. We found that the ABCM group exhibited significantly reduced anxiety and right amygdala activity during negative emotion processing than the relaxation group. Furthermore, ABCM participants who performed more compassion practice had stronger right amygdala activity reduction during negative emotion processing. The lower right amygdala activity after ABCM training may be associated with a general reduction in reactivity and distress. As all participants performed the emotion processing task in a non-meditative state, it appears likely that the changes in right amygdala activity are carried over from the meditation practice into the non-meditative state. These findings suggest that the distress-reducing effects of meditation practice on affective processing may transfer to ordinary states, which have important implications on stress management.
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Despite decades of research, effects of different types of meditation on electroencephalographic (EEG) activity are still being defined. We compared practitioners of three different meditation traditions (Vipassana, Himalayan Yoga and Isha Shoonya) with a control group during a meditative and instructed mind-wandering (IMW) block. All meditators showed higher parieto-occipital 60–110 Hz gamma amplitude than control subjects as a trait effect observed during meditation and when considering meditation and IMW periods together. Moreover, this gamma power was positively correlated with participants meditation experience. Independent component analysis was used to show that gamma activity did not originate in eye or muscle artifacts. In addition, we observed higher 7–11 Hz alpha activity in the Vipassana group compared to all the other groups during both meditation and instructed mind wandering and lower 10–11 Hz activity in the Himalayan yoga group during meditation only. We showed that meditation practice is correlated to changes in the EEG gamma frequency range that are common to a variety of meditation practices.
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This qualitative study explored and compared the subjective experiences of 102 veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 arms: (a) body scan, (b) mindful breathing, (c) slow breathing, or (d) sitting quietly. Qualitative data were obtained via semistructured interviews following the intervention and analyzed using conventional content analysis. The percentage of participants within each intervention who endorsed a specific theme was calculated. Two-proportion z tests were then calculated to determine if the differences among themes endorsed in specific groups were statistically significant. Six core themes emerged from analysis of participant responses across the 4 groups: (a) enhanced present moment awareness, (b) increased nonreactivity, (c) increased nonjudgmental acceptance, (d) decreased physiological arousal and stress reactivity, (e) increased active coping skills, and (f) greater relaxation. More participants in the mindfulness intervention groups reported improvement in PTSD symptoms when compared to participants in non-mindfulness groups. Different types of intervention targeted different symptoms and aspects of well-being. Furthermore, type of intervention may have also differentially targeted potential mechanisms of action. This article highlights the importance of employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods when investigating the dynamic process of mindfulness and may inform how practices can be tailored to the needs of the veteran with PTSD.
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One outstanding question in the contemplative science literature relates to the direct impact of meditation experience on the monitoring of internal states and its respective correspondence with neural activity. In particular, to what extent does meditation influence the awareness, duration and frequency of the tendency of the mind to wander. To assess the relation between mind wandering and meditation, we tested 2 groups of meditators, one with a moderate level of experience (non-expert) and those who are well advanced in their practice (expert). We designed a novel paradigm using self-reports of internal mental states based on an experiential sampling probe paradigm presented during ~1 h of seated concentration meditation to gain insight into the dynamic measures of electroencephalography (EEG) during absorption in meditation as compared to reported mind wandering episodes. Our results show that expert meditation practitioners report a greater depth and frequency of sustained meditation, whereas non-expert practitioners report a greater depth and frequency of mind wandering episodes. This is one of the first direct behavioral indices of meditation expertise and its associated impact on the reduced frequency of mind wandering, with corresponding EEG activations showing increased frontal midline theta and somatosensory alpha rhythms during meditation as compared to mind wandering in expert practitioners. Frontal midline theta and somatosensory alpha rhythms are often observed during executive functioning, cognitive control and the active monitoring of sensory information. Our study thus provides additional new evidence to support the hypothesis that the maintenance of both internal and external orientations of attention may be maintained by similar neural mechanisms and that these mechanisms may be modulated by meditation training.
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The colors identifying “Breathing meditation” and “Body Scan” were unfortunately switched in the figure relative to the legend. The correct Figure 2 is below.
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Background Chronic pain patients increasingly seek treatment through mindfulness meditation. PurposeThis study aims to synthesize evidence on efficacy and safety of mindfulness meditation interventions for the treatment of chronic pain in adults. Method We conducted a systematic review on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with meta-analyses using the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method for random-effects models. Quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach. Outcomes included pain, depression, quality of life, and analgesic use. ResultsThirty-eight RCTs met inclusion criteria; seven reported on safety. We found low-quality evidence that mindfulness meditation is associated with a small decrease in pain compared with all types of controls in 30 RCTs. Statistically significant effects were also found for depression symptoms and quality of life. Conclusions While mindfulness meditation improves pain and depression symptoms and quality of life, additional well-designed, rigorous, and large-scale RCTs are needed to decisively provide estimates of the efficacy of mindfulness meditation for chronic pain.
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Despite increasing interest in the effects of mental training practices such as meditation, there is much ambiguity regarding whether and to what extent the various types of mental practice have differential effects on psychological change. To address this gap, we compare the effects of four common meditation practices on measures of state change in affect, mind-wandering, meta-cognition, and interoception. In the context of a 9-month mental training program called the ReSource Project, 229 mid-life adults (mean age 41) provided daily reports before and after meditation practice. Participants received training in the following three successive modules: the first module (presence) included breathing meditation and body scan, the second (affect) included loving-kindness meditation, and the third (perspective) included observing-thought meditation. Using multilevel modeling, we found that body scan led to the greatest state increase in interoceptive awareness and the greatest decrease in thought content, loving-kindness meditation led to the greatest increase in feelings of warmth and positive thoughts about others, and observing-thought meditation led to the greatest increase in meta-cognitive awareness. All practices, including breathing meditation, increased positivity of affect, energy, and present focus and decreased thought distraction. Complementary network analysis of intervariate relationships revealed distinct phenomenological clusters of psychological change congruent with the content of each practice. These findings together suggest that although different meditation practices may have common beneficial effects, each practice can also be characterized by a distinct short-term psychological fingerprint, the latter having important implications for the use of meditative practices in different intervention contexts and with different populations.
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This paper discusses meditation from the unique perspective of the nondual approach and explores the possible relevance of this approach to applications of love and compassion meditation in clinical settings. It contrasts the nondual approach with the better known gradual or goal-oriented, dualistic view of meditation. This paper also introduces one of the central ideas of the nondual approach-that love and compassion, like other positive qualities that are ordinarily considered as goals of meditation practice, can be found to be already present within oneself as innate dimensions of one's authentic being.
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This paper describes the research process – from planning to presentation, with the emphasis on credibility throughout the whole process – when the methodology of qualitative content analysis is chosen in a qualitative study. The groundwork for the credibility initiates when the planning of the study begins. External and internal resources have to be identified, and the researcher must consider his or her experience of the phenomenon to be studied in order to minimize any bias of his/her own influence. The purpose of content analysis is to organize and elicit meaning from the data collected and to draw realistic conclusions from it. The researcher must choose whether the analysis should be of a broad surface structure (a manifest analysis) or of a deep structure (a latent analysis). Four distinct main stages are described in this paper: the decontextualisation, the recontextualisation, the categorization, and the compilation. This description of qualitative content analysis offers one approach that shows how the general principles of the method can be used.
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Objective: This cross-sectional study evaluated event-related potentials (ERPs) across three groups: naïve, novice, and experienced meditators as potential physiological markers of mindfulness meditation competence. Methods: Electroencephalographic (EEG) data was collected during a target tone detection task and a Breath Counting task. The Breath Counting task served as the mindfulness meditation condition for the novice and experienced meditator groups. Participants were instructed to respond to target tones with a button press in the first task (Tones), and then ignore the primed tones while breath counting. The primary outcomes were ERP responses to target tones, namely the N2 and P3, as markers of stimulus discrimination and attention, respectively. Results: As expected, P3 amplitudes elicited by target tones were attenuated within groups during the Breath Counting task in comparison to the Tones task (p < .001). There was a task by group interaction for P3 (p = .039). Both meditator groups displayed greater change in peak-to-trough P3 amplitudes, with higher amplitudes during the Tones condition and more pronounced reductions in P3 amplitudes during the Breath Counting meditation task in comparison to the naïve group. Conclusions: Meditators had stronger P3 amplitude responses to target tones when instructed to attend to the tones, and a greater attenuation of P3 amplitudes when instructed to ignore the same tones during the Breath Counting task. This study introduces the idea of identifying ERP markers as a means of measuring mindfulness meditation competence, and results suggest this may be a valid approach. This information has the potential to improve mindfulness meditation interventions by allowing objective assessment of mindfulness meditation quality.
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Objective: This study's objective was to evaluate the effect of two common components of meditation (mindfulness and slow breathing) on potential mechanistic pathways. Methods: A total of 102 combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were randomized to (a) the body scan mindfulness meditation (MM), (b) slow breathing (SB) with a biofeedback device, (c) mindful awareness of the breath with an intention to slow the breath (MM+SB), or (d) sitting quietly (SQ). Participants had 6 weekly one-on-one sessions with 20 minutes of daily home practice. The mechanistic pathways and measures were as follows: (a) autonomic nervous system (hyperarousal symptoms, heart rate [HR], and heart rate variability [HRV]); (b) frontal cortex activity (attentional network task [ANT] conflict effect and event-related negativity and intrusive thoughts); and (c) hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (awakening cortisol). PTSD measures were also evaluated. Results: Meditation participants had significant but modest within-group improvement in PTSD and related symptoms, although there were no effects between groups. Perceived impression of PTSD symptom improvement was greater in the meditation arms compared with controls. Resting respiration decreased in the meditation arms compared with SQ. For the mechanistic pathways, (a) subjective hyperarousal symptoms improved within-group (but not between groups) for MM, MM+SB, and SQ, while HR and HRV did not; (b) intrusive thoughts decreased in MM compared with MM+SB and SB, while the ANT measures did not change; and (c) MM had lower awakening cortisol within-group (but not between groups). Conclusion: Treatment effects were mostly specific to self-report rather than physiological measures. Continued research is needed to further evaluate mindfulness meditation's mechanism in people with PTSD.
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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 transcendental meditation, as well as two different levels of expertise within the mindfulness group. Participants comprised 64 mindfulness practitioners, 18 transcendental meditation practitioners, and 59 healthy controls, who had no prior meditation experience. We further split our mindfulness participants into two groups, using a cutoff point of 2000 h of accumulated experience. We tested three predictions. The first prediction was that contemplative practices should result in increased first-order awareness as a trait, or trait absorption. Our findings revealed that meditators (in general) scored higher on trait absorption than comparable controls, with no difference between meditators from the two traditions. A second prediction was that contemplative practices should result in a reduced sense of regular (narrative) self; hence, transcendent experience should be enhanced for long-term practitioners of meditation. Our findings show that meditators (in general) score higher on the Mystical Scale than comparable controls, with no difference between meditators from the two traditions. We further predicted that contemplative practices should result in lower positive and negative valence, measured by Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) scores on both positive and negative affect scales, as a trait, but this hypothesis was only partly supported by the data.
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Ability in cognitive domains is usually assessed by measuring task performance, such as decision accuracy. A similar analysis can be applied to metacognitive reports about a task to quantify the degree to which an individual is aware of his or her success or failure. Here, we review the psychological and neural underpinnings of metacognitive accuracy, drawing primarily on research in memory and decision-making. These data show that metacognitive accuracy is dissociable from task performance and varies across individuals. Convergent evidence indicates that the function of rostral and dorsal aspects of lateral prefrontal cortex is important for the accuracy of retrospective judgements of performance. In contrast, prospective judgements of performance may depend upon medial prefrontal cortex. We close by considering how metacognitive processes relate to concepts of cognitive control, and propose a neural synthesis in which dorsolateral and anterior prefrontal cortical subregions interact with interoceptive cortices (cingulate and insula) to promote accurate judgements of performance.
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Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a promising intervention for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression; however, a more detailed examination of the different elements of MBSR and various facets of mindfulness to determine what works best for whom is warranted. One hundred and two veterans with PTSD were randomly assigned to one of four arms: (a) body scan (BS; n = 27), (b) mindful breathing (MB; n = 25), (c) slow breathing (SB; n = 25), or (d) sitting quietly (SQ; n = 25). The purpose of this study was to (a) examine two separate components of MBSR (i.e., body scan and mindful breathing) among veterans with PTSD when compared to a nonmindfulness intervention (SB) and a control group (SQ), (b) assess if changes in specific mindfulness facets were predictive of post-treatment PTSD and depression for individuals who participated in a mindfulness intervention (BS vs. MB), and (c) investigate if type of mindfulness intervention received would moderate the relationship between pre- to post-treatment changes in mindfulness facets and post-treatment outcomes in PTSD and depression. Participants in the mindfulness groups experienced significant decreases in PTSD and depression symptom severity and increases in mindfulness, whereas the nonmindfulness groups did not. Among veterans who participated in a mindfulness group, change in the five facets of mindfulness accounted for 23 % of unique variance in the prediction of post-treatment depression scores. Simple slope analyses revealed that type of mindfulness intervention moderated the relationship among changes in facets of mindfulness and post-treatment depression.
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There has been a great increase in literature concerned with the effects of a variety of mental training regimes that generally fall within what might be called contemplative practices, and a majority of these studies have focused on mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation practices can be conceptualized as a set of attention-based, regulatory, and self-inquiry training regimes cultivated for various ends, including wellbeing and psychological health. This article examines the construct of mindfulness in psychological research and reviews recent, nonclinical work in this area. Instead of proposing a single definition of mindfulness, we interpret it as a continuum of practices involving states and processes that can be mapped into a multidimensional phenomenological matrix which itself can be expressed in a neurocognitive framework. This phenomenological matrix of mindfulness is presented as a heuristic to guide formulation of next-generation research hypotheses from both cognitive/behavioral and neuroscientific perspectives. In relation to this framework, we review selected findings on mindfulness cultivated through practices in traditional and research settings, and we conclude by identifying significant gaps in the literature and outline new directions for research. (PsycINFO Database Record
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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 these experiences were measured, with the participant’s personal reports used to guide the neural analyzes. The preliminary results demonstrate an increase in global long-range gamma (25–45 Hz) synchronization during the fruition states, compared to the background meditation. The discrepancies and similarities with other neuroscientific studies of meditation-induced altered states are discussed. Albeit preliminary, the results presented here provide support for the possibility - previously raised by various authors - that long-range global gamma synchronization may offer an underlying mechanism for un-learning of habitual conditioning and mental patterns, possibly underpinning the neural correlate of the Buddhist concept of liberation. Finally, this pilot study highlights the utility of employing neuro-phenomenology, namely using first-person reports to guide neural analyzes, in the study of subtle human consciousness states.
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Significance Our sensory system constantly receives multiple inputs, which are usually perceived as a seamless stream. Thus, perception is commonly regarded as a continuous process. Alternatively, a few phenomena and recent studies suggest that perception might work in a discrete and periodic sampling mode. In a human magnetoencephalography study, we challenged the common view of continuous perception. We demonstrate that neuronal oscillations in the alpha band and low beta band determine discrete perceptual sampling windows in primary somatosensory cortex. The current results elucidate how ongoing neuronal oscillations shape discrete perceptual cycles, which constitute the basis for a discontinuous and periodic nature of somatosensory perception.
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Study Objectives. To evaluate the effect of mind-body interventions (MBI) on sleep. Methods. We reviewed randomized controlled MBI trials on adults (through 2013) with at least one sleep outcome measure. We searched eleven electronic databases and excluded studies on interventions not considering mind-body medicine. Studies were categorized by type of MBI, whether sleep was primary or secondary outcome measure and outcome type. Results. 1323 abstracts were screened, and 112 papers were included. Overall, 67 (60%) of studies reported a beneficial effect on at least one sleep outcome measure. Of the most common interventions, 13/23 studies using meditation, 21/30 using movement MBI, and 14/25 using relaxation reported at least some improvements in sleep. There were clear risks of bias for many studies reviewed, especially when sleep was not the main focus. Conclusions. MBI should be considered as a treatment option for patients with sleep disturbance. The benefit of MBI needs to be better documented with objective outcomes as well as the mechanism of benefit elucidated. There is some evidence that MBI have a positive benefit on sleep quality. Since sleep has a direct impact on many other health outcomes, future MBI trials should consider including sleep outcome measurements.
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This chapter discusses the inclusion of phenomenological analysis in the cognitive psychological research of meditation. Different meditation styles involve the specific changes of the mind, such as a long-lasting, vivid, and stable mental imagery in some types of Tibetan meditation. Comparative phenomenological analysis of the Deity Yoga, mandala, Vipashyana, and Rig-pa types of Tibetan meditation was included in designing a cognitive experiment. Results indicate the increase of visual working memory due to the practice of Deity Yoga, suggesting access to the heightened visual processing resources (Kozhevnikov, Louchakova, Josipovic, & Motes. Psychological Science 20(5):645–653, 2009). The phenomenological part of the design, reported here for the first time, included a new methodology termed phenomenological-cognitive mapping (PCM). PCM linked the comparative phenomenological analysis of meditation to the psychological parameters of cognitive testing. PCM proved to be crucial in designing a successful experiment that led to novel findings. In the absence of PCM, isolating the meditation style that causes the optimization of visual-spatial processing and finding at what stage of meditation this happens would not be possible. This chapter argues in favor of including a detailed phenomenological analysis of experience in the cognitive research of meditation, as opposed to using only general classifications such as meditation styles.
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