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neuroscience

Emotion Regulation Therapy: A Synthesis of Affective Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices to Target Mechanisms Underlying Anxious Depression

Despite the availability of efficacious treatments for emotional disorders, a sizable subgroup of patients fails to evidence adequate treatment response. This situation is especially true for patients with anxious depression (a combination of apprehensive anxiety and depression symptoms) who often feel their emotions very intensely resulting in trouble resolving the simultaneous motivational cues for avoiding …

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Concurrent Session 5 – Yoga, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, and the Body: Getting to the Heart of Matter

Transformation is a mind-body endeavor. Yet in the quest for enlightenment, meditation can overlook body-based practices, while modern yoga can omit the training of the mind and emotions. This talk focuses on the body’s role in transformation. We examine the significance of the body in mindfulness-based practices such as interoception and self-compassion. Drawing from emerging …

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Concurrent Session 5 – Externally-Induced Contemplation: A Neuroscience Study of Architecture

Neuroscience research on contemplation usually considers only internally induced (self-directed) methods for attaining mindfulness (e.g., meditation, prayer). We explored other “external methods” for cultivating mindfulness, focusing on architecture that we design and inhabit. Our study evaluated if buildings designed for contemplation would elicit brain activation patterns similar to those found under contemplation. We used a …

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Concurrent Session 2 – Contemplative Neuroscience, the Phenomenology of Attention and the Mereology of the Subject

In this paper, I argue that results from contemplative neuroscience can help resolve a dispute between Husserl and Gurwitsch regarding whether attention is endogenous or exogenous. The empirical results indicate that attention is endogenous, i.e., that we are subjectively aware — and to a certain extent in control — of the direction of our attention. …

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Concurrent Session 2 – Transforming Moral Distress: Lessons from Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Contemplative Practice

For clinicians exposed daily to pervasive suffering, death, and moral conflict in their work, maintaining composure, courage, and resilience is especially difficult and can lead to moral distress. In this experiential, interactive workshop, we will present collaborative work, supported by the Mind & Life Institute, between clinicians, philosophers, and leaders in contemplative practice and neuroscience. …

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Concurrent Session 1 – Distinctions of Contemplative Practice in Different Religious Traditions and Relevance to Neuroscience

Contemplative practices of the many traditions of the West and of the East have different characteristics. For example, the absorption of mystics (in Christian or Sufi traditions) has a different character than does Buddhist contemplation. Whereas the mystic enters into the subtle domain of mind in the experience of a higher power (in the face …

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