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”
Previous studies have provided some evidence that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) may be beneficial for patients with chronic pain. This effect may be mediated by an improved ability to regulate emotional responses to pain due to improved attentional control. Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) are useful for measuring the time-course of anticipatory and pain-evoked responses and their …
Continue reading “Electrophysiological and behavioral assessment of a mindfulness-based pain management program for patients with chronic pain”
With recently discharged veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) as our subjects, this study examines the neuroanatomical underpinnings as well as cognitive and perceptual biases associated with the progression of early onset Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We are comparing the efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; treatment) to Supportive Therapy (ST; control) as early interventions …
Continue reading “Neural Correlates of PTSD Prevention with MBSR in Iraq Veterans”
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”
Previous emotion regulation studies (Ochsner et al., 2004, Urry et al., 2006) have used reappraisal as a strategy to investigate neural mechanisms of down-regulating negative emotion. Compassion may also be viewed as a regulatory strategy to cope with negative emotion, which may differ in neural mechanism and positive behavioral outcomes. In a pilot study, we investigate …
Continue reading “Compassion meditation vs. cognitive reappraisal as emotion regulation strategies to negative stimuli: An fMRI investigation”
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”
Previous studies have indicated that mindfulness and other forms of meditation training are associated with improvements in sleep quality. However, none of these studies used objective polysomnographic sleep recordings. The aim of this study was to examine whether mindfulness meditation was associated with improvements in objectively measured sleep, according to polysomnography (PSG), and to relate …
Continue reading “Mindfulness-based interventions for depression: Possible neurophysiological mechanisms”
Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an 8 week course that teaches participants to change their patterns of reacting to stress. To accomplish this goal, participants practice meditation to increase their ability to attend to emotions and develop the ability to attend to their patterns of reactivity. In theory, this awareness will eventually enable participants to …
Continue reading “Dissociable neural modes of self-reference and emotion regulation”
Prior studies have focused on the impact of mindfulness-based interventions on alleviating physical or psychological symptoms or difficulties (e.g., Teasdale et al., 2000; Ma & Teasdale, 2004), or on enhancing positive states, including mindfulness itself (E.g., Brown & Ryan, 2003). Relatively little work has focused on cognitive measures that might reflect the presence or absence …
Continue reading “Establishing mindfulness and mind wandering as mediators of patient benefit in MBCT”
