The subjective experience of one’s environment is constructed by interactions among sensory, cognitive, and affective processes. For centuries, meditation has been thought to influence such processes by enabling a non-evaluative representation of sensory events. To better understand how meditation influences the sensory experience, we examined brain activity by which meditation influences pain. After four-days (20m/d) …
Continue reading “The influence of meditative experience on pain perception”
This study examines the effects of a contemplative education intervention for Asian Indian adolescents living and going to high school in Singapore. The intervention aims to (a) reduce adolescents’ perceived levels of life stress and (b) enhance their ability to regulate their attention. While relaxation techniques have generally been found effective in dealing with adolescent …
Continue reading “Study of mindfulness meditation on stress reduction and attention regulation in adolescents with mild learning disabilities”
This study uses a rigorous interdisciplinary approach to analyze EEG data collected during two 3-month long intensive meditation retreats in four steps. First, novel tools were developed for preprocessing the EEG data. Second, in order to identify the cortical correlates of meditation, longitudinal changes in the cortical activity were measured using spectral analysis. Three main …
Continue reading “Developing a computational model for meditation using cross cortical synchrony in EEG data”
The practice of meditative concentration has been proposed to be somewhat equivalent to an attention task. Because the attention and working memory systems are intimately linked, we hypothesized that practicing this particular attention task would make the working memory system more efficient. We tested 29 participants of a Dathun (a month-long intensive meditation retreat), before …
Continue reading “Mathematical modeling of acute effects of meditation on cognition”
Research on the effects of meditation has focused on understanding both the meditative state as well as characteristics resulting from long-term, regular meditation practice. Understanding these states and traits is of interest because of potential clinical applications and the possibility for better understanding of brain states and function. In particular, this is of interest for …
Continue reading “White tantric kundalini yoga: Physiological, behavioral, and EEG effects of an intensive and immersive yogic meditation experience”
Human neuroimaging offers a powerful way to connect animal and human research on emotion, with profound implications for psychological science. However, the gulf between animal and human studies remains a formidable obstacle: Human studies typically focus on the cortex and a few subcortical regions such as the amygdala, whereas deeper structures such as the brainstem …
Continue reading “Meditation-induced changes in anticipation and experience of pain”
Most meditation traditions integrate attention to the internal state of the body into the practice of meditation, and teach that a central effect of the meditative practice is increased awareness of the body. To test whether meditators have increased body awareness we examined the performance of two groups of experienced meditators compared to one group …
Continue reading “Neural systems supporting interoceptive awareness in experienced and beginning meditators”
A spirit of Ubuntu gestures towards both an embrace and a challenge that holds Others to greater moral accountability, and calls on them to be ethical subjects. Ubuntu is fundamental in both ethics and politics, and is relevant to the embodied politics of forgiveness after mass trauma and violence. I will elaborate on this notion …
Continue reading “Session V – Reparative Humanism: Exploring the Meaning of Ubuntu”
In previous work, experienced meditators demonstrated sustained high-amplitude gamma oscillations during meditation at frequencies associated with mental processes such as attention, working memory, and perception, suggesting that meditation might lead to long-term behavioral and neural changes. We examined the effects of meditation experience on attention, perception, and decision-making through two studies of individuals with extensive …
Continue reading “Regulating emotion in social situations: An fMRI study of experienced Buddhist meditators”
To date, the traditions and techniques that have been most substantively researched in the field of contemplative science have largely derived from Buddhism and Buddhist-inspired movements. While there have been tremendous advances and developments due to this collaboration—indeed there would be no field without it—a natural consequence of this specific alliance is that insights from …
Continue reading “Abrahamic Contemplative Traditions”
