Possible Biological Substrates of Meditation: Synchronization of brain rhythms as a possible mecha­nism for the unification of distributed mental processes

Possible Biological Substrates of Meditation: Synchronization of brain rhythms as a possible mecha­nism for the unification of distributed mental processes

Overview

Modern scientific knowledge of how stress affects the brain and body and how the brain can become re-organized to produce states of focused attention that promote learning and change has burgeoned over the past decade.

This session will showcase some of the latest scientific research on these topics to provide a foundation for the likely substrates upon which med­itation might operate. In addition, a detailed understanding of the bio­logical substrates of stress and plasticity will provide a framework for the design of new research that is based upon this recent understanding.

  • Dialogue 13
    16 sessions
  • November 8, 2005
    Dar Constitution Hall, Washington, DC
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Speakers

Wolf Singer

Wolf Singer is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and Founding Director of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and the Ernst Strüngmann Institute (ESI) for Brain Research. He studied medicine at the Universities of Munich and Paris, received his M.D. from the Ludwig Maximilian University and his Ph.D. from the Technical University in Munich. Until the mid-eighties his research interests were focused on the experience-dependent development of the cerebral cortex and on mechanisms of use-dependent synaptic plasticity. Subsequently, his research concentrated on the binding problem that arises from the distributed organization of the cerebral cortex.