Meditation and the Neuroscience of Consciousness: An Introduction
@inproceedings{Lutz2007MeditationAT, title={Meditation and the Neuroscience of Consciousness: An Introduction}, author={Antoine Lutz and John D. Dunne and Richard J. Davidson}, year={2007} }
The overall goal of this chapter is to explore the initial findings of neuroscientific research on meditation; in doing so, the chapter also suggests potential avenues of further inquiry. It has three sections that, although integral to the chapter as a whole, may also be read independently. The first section, “Defining Meditation,” notes the need for a more precise understanding of meditation as a scientific explanandum. Arguing for the importance of distinguishing the particularities of…
Figures from this paper
398 Citations
A Methodological Review of Meditation Research
- PsychologyFront. Psychiatry
- 2014
It is argued that more meaningful results can be obtained by expanding the methodological paradigm to include multiple domains including: the cultural setting, the life situation, details of the particular meditation practice, and the state of consciousness of the meditator (“the phenomenology”).
Contemplative Neuroscience: An Integrative Approach for Investigating Consciousness
- Psychology
- 2012
Author(s): Stimson, Dayna Averiett | Abstract: This paper explores the field of contemplative neuroscience as a means of studying consciousness on both neurological and experiential levels. While our…
Meditation and Hypnosis at the Intersection Between Phenomenology and Cognitive Science
- Psychology
- 2014
Cognitive scientists increasingly turn to contemplative practices such as hypnosis and meditation to shed light on consciousness and cognition. By their very nature, such practices call scientists to…
Investigating the Depths of Consciousness Through Meditation
- Philosophy
- 2016
This article explores the theory and practice of a contemplative phenomenology. In general, contemplative phenomenology investigates and describes the activity and effects of meditation. Drawing on…
Meditation and the Brain: Attention, Control and Emotion**
- PsychologyMens sana monographs
- 2011
Analysing "one-pointed concentration" and "compassion meditation", the differences between novice and expert meditation practitioners in terms of brain activity and connectivity are shown, considering the relationship among increased attention and concentration and decreased activity in areas related to discursive thought and emotion.
Empirical Studies of Meditation
- Psychology
- 2017
This Chapter contains a review of empirical studies of meditation. Included in the discussion are psychological and neurophysiological effects and correlates, EEG, and neuroimaging studies of…
Hypnosis and meditation: Vehicles of attention and suggestion
- Psychology
- 2012
Although hypnosis and meditation represent distinct domains of practice, they appear to overlap in phenomenology, cognitive mechanisms, neural substrates, and potential therapeutic merits. Whereas…
What Buddhism Taught Cognitive Science about Self, Mind and Brain
- Psychology
- 2011
In the past twenty years, new optimism about the relevance of Buddhism to cognitive science has been expressed by a number of established researchers. In this article I ask what are the conceptual…
How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective
- PsychologyPerspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
- 2011
Several components through which mindfulness meditation exerts its effects are explored, suggesting that the mechanisms described here work synergistically, establishing a process of enhanced self-regulation.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 169 REFERENCES
Meditation and the neuroscience of consciousness
- Art
- 2007
The overall goal of this essay is to explore the initial findings of neuroscientific research on meditation; in doing so, the essay also suggests potential avenues of further inquiry. The essay…
Zen-Brain Reflections
- Psychology
- 2006
A sequel to the popular Zen and the Brain further explores pivotal points of intersection in Zen Buddhism, neuroscience, and consciousness, arriving at a new synthesis of information from both…
The Physiology of Meditation and Mystical States of Consciousness
- PsychologyPerspectives in biology and medicine
- 1976
The current unprecedented public interest in the varieties of conscious experience is reflected in a number of research papers and theoretical analyses attempting to deal with physiological correlates of altered states of consciousness (ASCs).
The Psychophysiological Model of Meditation and Altered States of Consciousness: A Critical Review
- Psychology
- 1980
In recent years, a growing literature has addressed itself to the psychophysiological bases of altered states of consciousness (ASCs). An unprecedented interest in meditation, biofeedback, and other…
Meditation and somatic arousal reduction. A review of the experimental evidence.
- PsychologyThe American psychologist
- 1984
The conceptual and methodological issues associated with research on the effects of meditation are reviewed and the question of whether subjects who meditate show lower somatic arousal while they are meditating than other subjects show whilst they are simply resting is focused on.
IMPLICATIONS OF EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED CONTEMPLATIVE MEDITATION
- PsychologyThe Journal of nervous and mental disease
- 1966
The problem of unusual perceptions is still a puzzle, a challenge, and a matter of philosophical dispute.
Psychophysiological correlates of meditation.
- PsychologyArchives of general psychiatry
- 1975
The scientific research that has investigated the physiological changes associated with meditation as it is practiced by adherents of Indian Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and Zen Buddhism has not…
On Becoming Aware: A pragmatics of experiencing
- Psychology
- 2003
This book searches for the sources and means for a disciplined practical approach to exploring human experience. The spirit of this book is pragmatic and relies on a Husserlian phenomenology…
The embodied mind.
- PsychologyThe Journal of analytical psychology
- 2009
This paper considers Fonagy et al's concept of mentalization and contrasts aspects of this with aspects of Bion's model of the mind. The author argues that although mentalization adds to our…
Electrocortical activity and related phenomena associated with meditation practice: a literature review.
- PsychologyThe International journal of neuroscience
- 1984
The evidence to date does not support the notion of unique state effects associated with the practice of meditation, but certain individuals, namely the psychologically "healthy" and those with a capacity for relaxed absorbed attention, appear to be more favourably disposed to meditation.