Meditation-naïve participants (n=45) will be recruited from Auburn University. Once recruited, participants will be randomized to either the meditation group, the active control group, or the inactive control group. Every effort will be made to promote engagement and reduce attrition, including offering extra credit in psychology classes along with monetary incentives. Each EEG and psychophysiological …
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The neural bases of heightened awareness to the present moment
Over years of long-term practice, meditators’ brains and minds develop extraordinary abilities. One such ability is being able to exercise control over even basic mental processes that have long thought to be automatic from decades of research on non-meditating populations. A prior behavioral study conducted with expert Tibetan Buddhist practitioners who were shown ambiguous visual …
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From egocentric to ecocentric: Pro-social and pro-environmental actualizations of mindfulness at an intensive monastic retreat
The present research uniquely sheds light on the practices of Humanistic Buddhism (a form of Engaged Buddhism most prevalent in modern Taiwan), which have been completely neglected in contemplative science. It also explores the social and ecological implications of contemplative practice, another under-investigated area of research. By investigating the effects of a Buddhist monastic retreat …
Unseaming the secular: Poetry, process, and belief in the world
Our “real responsibility,” H.H. the Dalai Lama has suggested, is to find a “new approach” or “more holistic view” for the 21st century. A good place to begin might be a holistic understanding of meditation. Yet, is such a view fully articulable in current contemplative science and embodied philosophy? Do concepts such as cognitive ecology …
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A community-engaged approach to contemplative neuroscience in a diverse contemplative community
We are working to increase diversity within neuroscience of meditation studies to reflect the increasingly diverse population of the United States and to improve representation of minorities. We are using community engagement and dialogue with the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, CA, one of the most diverse meditation communities in the U.S. EBMC …
An ethnographic analysis of the integration of contemplatives in neuroimaging laboratories
Research into the physiological effects of meditation comprises a significant domain within neuroimaging studies. While such research studies contemplatives and their practices, the practitioners themselves have yet to be fully integrated into the research process. Appropriately, a key issue at the 2013 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute was the need to integrate contemplatives and …
Mindfulness and the neurophysiological substrates of fear conditioning
The goals of the research grant were to examine the effects of mindfulness meditation training on pain and fear learning processes, in order to validate the efficacy of this practice in disorders involving fear of threatening stimuli (eg. anxiety, chronic pain). The effects long-term meditation training on fear learning and pain were assessed in highly …
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Neural mechanisms of self-transcendence: Insights from noninvasive brain stimulation
Religious beliefs and mystical experiences can be found in human societies across the globe and throughout history. Self-transcendence (ST)—a state characterized by the loss of boundaries between self and others and a feeling of connectedness to everything—is a primary feature of such spiritual experiences. However, little is known about the brain’s role in this uniquely …
Does meditation cause pain relief through endogenous opioids?
There is growing evidence that meditation practice can reduce the experience of pain. However, what is going on in the brain during meditation that causes this pain relief has been a mystery. We guessed that meditation might reduce pain by releasing natural brain chemicals called endogenous opioids. Endogenous opioids reduce pain via the same brain …
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Neural dynamics of attention and meta-attention during meditation
Mindfulness meditation can reduce the effects of mind-wandering, but how? Meditation may reduce mind-wandering directly by reducing distracting thoughts or improving sustained attention. Alternatively, meditation may not reduce mind-wandering itself, but enhance the ability to detect and correct mind-wandering. Disentangling these mechanisms is difficult because subjective reports of mind-wandering depend on both factors, but in …
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