bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
October 26, 2024
Saampras Ganesan, Nicholas T. van Dam, Sunjeev K. Kamboj et al.
3 citations
preprint
Meditation can benefit well-being and mental health, but novices often struggle to effectively recognize and disengage from mental processes during meditation due to limited awareness, potentially diminishing meditation's benefits. We investigated whether personalised high-precision neurofeedback (NF) can improve disengagement from mental activity during meditation and enhance meditation's...
Brain Topography
September 1, 2024
Remko Van Lutterveld, Avijit Chowdhury, Daniel M. Ingram et al.
29 citations
Mindfulness meditation is a contemplative practice that is informed by Buddhism. It has been proven effective for improving mental and physical health in clinical and non-clinical contexts. To date, mainstream dialogue and scientific research on mindfulness has focused primarily on short-term mindfulness training and applications of mindfulness for reducing stress. Understanding advanced...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
August 1, 2024
Kilian Abellaneda-Pérez, Ruby M. Potash, Á. Pascual-Leone et al.
The neuroscience of meditation is providing insight into meditation's beneficial effects on well-being and informing understanding of consciousness. However, further research is needed to explicate mechanisms linking brain activity and meditation. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) presents a promising approach for causally investigating neural mechanisms of meditation. Prior NIBS-meditation...
World Psychiatry
June 1, 2024
Matthew D. Sacchet, Maurizio Fava, Eric L Garland
35 citations
Modulating self-referential processing through meditation and psychedelics: is scientific investigation of self-transcendence clinically relevant?
Mindfulness
May 22, 2024
T. Sparby, M. Sacchet
The jhānas are series of advanced concentrative absorption meditative (ACAM) states brought about by meditation. While previously cultivated mostly in monastic settings, a series of modern meditation manuals both openly discuss the jhānas and describe how they may be attained by laypeople. Simultaneously, the phenomenological and neuroscientific investigation of the jhānas is advancing....
Heliyon
May 14, 2024
Winson F.z. Yang, Terje Sparby, Malcolm Wright et al.
30 citations
Volitional mental absorption in meditation: Toward a scientific understanding of advanced concentrative absorption meditation and the case of jhana.
Human Brain Mapping
May 1, 2024
Saampras Ganesan, Winson F.z. Yang, Avijit Chowdhury et al.
23 citations
Advanced meditation such as jhana meditation can produce various altered states of consciousness (jhanas) and cultivate rewarding psychological qualities including joy, peace, compassion, and attentional stability. Mapping the neurobiological substrates of jhana meditation can inform the development and application of advanced meditation to enhance well-being. Only two prior studies have...
Mindfulness
May 1, 2024
Malcolm Wright, Julieta Galante, J. S. Corneille et al.
Adoption of potentially consciousness-altering practices may be leading to a rise in emergent phenomena (EP): sudden unusual mental or somatic experiences often interpreted as spiritual, mystical, energetic, or magical in nature. It is unclear how frequently these altered states of consciousness occur and what the clinical implications may be. Anecdotal accounts and prior literature suggest...
European Psychiatry
April 1, 2024
Amanda M. Klassen, Caitlin Baten, J. H. Shepherd et al.
Introduction Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a tremendous global disease burden and the leading cause of disability worldwide. Unfortunately, individuals diagnosed with MDD typically experience a delayed response to traditional antidepressants and many do not adequately respond to pharmacotherapy, even after multiple trials. The critical need for novel antidepressant treatments has led to a...
European Psychiatry
April 1, 2024
J. H. Shepherd, Angela Hickman, Caitlin Baten et al.
Introduction There has been rapidly growing interest in understanding the pharmaceutical and clinical properties of psychedelic and dissociative drugs, with a particular focus on ketamine. This compound, long known for its anesthetic and dissociative properties, has garnered attention due to its potential to rapidly alleviate symptoms of depression, especially in individuals with...
Scientific Reports
February 19, 2024
Rosalind McAlpine, Matthew D. Sacchet, Otto Simonsson et al.
13 citations
Psychedelic substances induce profound alterations in consciousness. Careful preparation is therefore essential to limit adverse reactions, enhance therapeutic benefits, and maintain user safety. This paper describes the development of a self-directed, digital intervention for psychedelic preparation. Drawing on elements from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for developing...
January 31, 2024
Joshua Cain, Tracy Brandmeyer, Ninette Simonian et al.
9 citations
preprint
This study aims to assess the validity of focused ultrasound (FUS) stimulation as a method for facilitating meditative development, which may have application for novice or intermediate meditators seeking to improve their practice. A growing body of work suggests profound benefits to health and wellbeing following consistent meditation practice; however, successfully maintaining such a practice...
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
January 14, 2024
Winson Fu Zun Yang, Avijit Chowdhury, Marta Bianciardi et al.
41 citations
Jhanas are profound states of mind achieved through advanced meditation, offering valuable insights into the nature of consciousness and tools to enhance well-being. Yet, its neurophenomenology remains limited due to methodological difficulties and the rarity of advanced meditation practitioners. We conducted a highly exploratory study to investigate the neurophenomenology of jhanas in an...
PLOS mental health
2024
Leonardo Christov-Moore, Félix Schoeller, Caitlin Lynch et al.
11 citations
Self-transcendence (ST) is a state of consciousness associated with feelings of ego-dissolution, connectedness, and moral elevation, which mediates well-being, meaning-making, and prosociality. Conventional paths to ST, like religious practice, meditation, and psychedelics, pose nontrivial barriers to entry, limiting ST's study and application. Aesthetic chills (henceforth "chills") are a...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2024
Marjorie Woollacott, Justin Riddle, Niffe Hermansson et al.
5 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapy studies suggest that the induction of "mystical experiences" combined with psycho-therapy is a possible intervention for psychiatric illness. Advanced meditation may induce powerful experiences comparable to psychedelics. We investigated effects of an intensive meditation practice called Fire Kasina. Six individuals completed a retreat, and participated in an...
November 22, 2023
Rosalind McAlpine, Katarina Krajnović, Maisha M. Khan et al.
preprint
Psychedelic substances induce profound alterations in consciousness. Careful preparation is therefore essential to limit adverse reactions, enhance therapeutic benefits, and maintain user safety. This paper describes the development of a self-directed, digital intervention for psychedelic preparation. Drawing on elements from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for developing...
Neuropsychologia
September 28, 2023
Avijit Chowdhury, Remko Van Lutterveld, Ruben Laukkonen et al.
54 citations
Investigation of advanced mindfulness meditation "cessation" experiences using EEG spectral analysis in an intensively sampled case study.
Mindfulness
April 13, 2023
Julieta Galante, Andrea Grabovac, Malcolm Wright et al.
82 citations
Abstract Millions of people globally have learned mindfulness meditation with the goal of improving health and well-being outcomes in both clinical and non-clinical contexts. An estimated half of these practitioners follow mindfulness teachers’ recommendations to continue regular meditation after completion of initial instruction, but it is unclear whether benefits are strengthened by regular...
Mindfulness
April 10, 2023
Malcolm Wright, Joseph L. Sanguinetti, Shinzen Young et al.
41 citations
Abstract Objectives Research into meditation-related emergent phenomenology is advancing, yet progress is hampered by significant incongruities between meditator self-reports and objective measurements (e.g., of brain states). We address these incongruities by developing and demonstrating the potential of contemplative theory to support scientific investigation. Method Our approach is to...
European Psychiatry
March 1, 2023
J. H. Shepherd, Caitlin Baten, A. C. Klassen et al.
Introduction Curiosity toward the effects of psychedelic drugs on neural activation has increased due to their potential therapeutic benefits, particularly serotonergic psychedelics that act as 5-HT2A receptor agonists such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA. However, the pattern of their effects on neural activity in various brain regions in both clinical and healthy populations is still not well...
Progress in Brain Research
2023
Ruben Laukkonen, Matthew D. Sacchet, Henk Barendregt et al.
56 citations
Absence of consciousness can occur due to a concussion, anesthetization, intoxication, epileptic seizure, or other fainting/syncope episode caused by lack of blood flow to the brain. However, some meditation practitioners also report that it is possible to undergo a total absence of consciousness during meditation, lasting up to 7 days, and that these "cessations" can be consistently induced....
Journal of Psychiatric Research
December 1, 2022
David H Rosmarin, Caroline C Kaufman, Stephanie Friree Ford et al.
Prior research highlights the importance of spirituality/religion (S/R) as it relates to several aspects of mental health and clinical interventions. This research has been expanded to include the concurrent examination of neurobiological correlates of S/R to elucidate potential biological mechanisms. However, the majority of neurobiological research on S/R has neglected mental health, and the...
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
February 22, 2022
Idil Sezer, Diego A. Pizzagalli, Matthew D. Sacchet
206 citations
Resting-state fMRI functional connectivity and mindfulness in clinical and non-clinical contexts: A review and synthesis.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
2022
Magnus Bein, Myriam Lesage, Elena Dikaios et al.
Late-life depression (LLD) affects up to 18% of older adults and has been linked to elevated dementia risk. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) holds promise for treating symptoms of depression and ameliorating cognitive deficits in older adults. While preliminary findings are promising, a definitive RCT investigating its effects on late life depression and cognition have not yet been...
Frontiers in Psychology
2021
Terje Sparby, Matthew D. Sacchet
68 citations
Classifying different meditation techniques is essential for the progress of meditation research, as this will enable discerning which effects are associated with which techniques, in addition to supporting the development of increasingly effective and efficient meditation-based training programs and clinical interventions. However, both the task of defining meditation itself, as well as...