I am a PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Aarhus, Denmark where I conduct research on the neurobiology of meditation, social cognition, and neural plasticity. I’m particularly interested in the role of rest-stimulus interaction in learning and cognition, and have developed my own model of social-cognitive action control. I come from a …
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Neural and physiological correlates of Tibetan energy-channel meditation in highly trained practitioners
The goal of this grant is to investigate how advanced practitioners of gTum-mo (inner heat) meditation are able to tap into and manipulate the body’s homeostasis mechanisms―classically considered to be beyond voluntary control. In particular, we are interested in how this practice relates to the central and autonomic nervous systems. We propose to measure brain …
Anthony Zanesco
Dr. Anthony Zanesco is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Miami. He completed his PhD in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California, Davis. His work investigates attention and mind wandering using behavioral and electrophysiological methods. One primary aspect of his research is focused on how attentional processes might …
Anthony King
Anthony King, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at University of Michigan Medical School, and faculty associate of Institute for Social Research (ISR) and Trauma, Stress, and Anxiety Research Group, is a clinical psychologist and translational neuroscience researcher, whose research focuses on neuroimaging (fMRI), genomic, and epigenetic effects of trauma exposure, and psychotherapeutic interventions for Posttraumatic …
James Austin
James Henry Austin was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1925. He attended Brown University, graduated from Harvard Medical School (1948), and did his medical internship at Boston City Hospital, where his first year of residency was in neurology. Austin’s neurology teachers were Derek Denny Brown, Raymond Adams and Joseph Foley. Austin’s two years of naval reserve …
Fellow Spotlight: Norm Farb
In this month’s Fellow Spotlight we are pleased to share the work of Norman Farb, Associate Professor of Psychology and Principal Investigator of the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Norm studies the social neuroscience of the self and human emotion, with a focus on how biases in self-representation shape emotions to determine …
Varieties of Contemplative Experience
The Contemplative Development Mapping Project (CDMP) is a group of scholars, scientists, and practitioners who are personally and professionally committed to enriching our understanding of contemplative practices and experiences. This interdisciplinary “think tank” is comprised of researchers from a range of disciplines, including philosophy, sociology, psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience and religious studies. By integrating first-person, second-person, …
Trust and Christian contemplative practice: A social neuroscientific study of spiritual capital in a contemplative tradition
Growing recognition of the benefits of contemplative practice for the reduction of harmful stress and the improvement of prosocial behavior is prompting research into how these effects arise. We define contemplative practice as intentionally attempting to suspend all discursive and evaluative thought. In practice, most forms of contemplative practice emphasize compassion for self and others, …
Understanding the neural correlates of attention
Interest in investigating the neural correlates of different meditation practices is increasing within the neuroscience community. In particular, shamatha practice, which strengthens the ability of a practitioner to sustain a concentrated, single-pointed focus of attention, is a natural focus for attention researchers within cognitive neuroscience. However, studies of the medium- and long-term effects of shamatha …
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Nathan Fisher
Nathan Fisher received his BA in Religious Studies (Honors) from Vanderbilt University in 2011. He then joined the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Brown University where he managed the “Varieties of Contemplative Experience” study from 2012-2015. He received the Francisco J. Varela Research Award in 2012 and began a PhD program in Religious Studies and …
