bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
July 3, 2026
Sébastien Czajko, Jelle Zorn, Oussama Abdoun et al.
Nonduality is a foundational but conceptually elusive notion across several contemplative traditions. Nondual traditions challenge the assumption that a subject-object structure characteristic of ordinary experience is an intrinsic feature of conscious awareness. However, little remains known about the neurocognitive mechanisms associated with such experiential state. Here, we investigated how...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
November 7, 2025
Arnaud Poublan-Couzardot, Alexandre Foncelle, Éric Koun et al.
Active inference describes motor action as a prediction-driven inferential process, whereby ascending proprioceptive prediction errors are attenuated to allow the fulfillment of expected movement. Meditative practices typically involve a heightened attention to bodily sensations, begging the question of whether this could partially offset the normal proprioceptive suppression during a simple...
Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
July 1, 2025
Oussama Abdoun, Arnaud Poublan-Couzardot, Stéphane Offort et al.
5 citations
A significant share of meditation research relies on trait psychometric measures of mindfulness, which neglect the complex and dynamic unfolding of experiential processes entailed by meditation over time. However, there have been a few attempts to capture ongoing changes in experience during meditation. In this study, we integrated and expanded on 3 of these previous approaches to create a...
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Antoine Lutz, Oussama Abdoun, Yair Dor-Ziderman et al.
18 citations
There is a renewed interest in taking phenomenology seriously in consciousness research, contemporary psychiatry, and neurocomputation. The neurophenomenology research program, pioneered by Varela, rigorously examines subjective experience using first-person methodologies, inspired by phenomenology and contemplative practices. This review explores recent advancements in neurophenomenological...
Scientific Reports
May 2, 2024
Sucharit Katyal, Oussama Abdoun, Hugues Mounier et al.
4 citations
While consciousness is typically considered equivalent to mental contents, certain meditation practices-including open monitoring (OM)-are said to enable a unique conscious state where meditators can experience mental content from a de-reified perspective as "ongoing phenomena." Phenomenologically, such a state is considered as reduction of intentionality, the mental act upon mental content. We...
Journal of Experimental Psychology General
February 22, 2024
Enrico Fucci, Oussama Abdoun, Constanza Baquedano et al.
5 citations
Within western social psychology and neuroscience, compassion is described as being conditioned by cost-benefit appraisals, such as the attribution of responsibility for the causes of suffering. Buddhist traditions maintain the possibility of cultivating and embodying unconditioned and universal forms of compassion. Whereas a growing body of empirical literature suggests that Buddhist-inspired...
International Journal of Psychophysiology
March 28, 2022
Enrico Fucci, Arnaud Poublan-Couzardot, Oussama Abdoun et al.
The auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) is a well characterized event-related potential component which has gained recent attention in theoretical models describing the impact of various styles of mindfulness meditation on attentional processes and perceptual inference. Previous findings highlighted a distinct modulation of the MMN amplitude by different meditation practices and degrees of...
April 13, 2021
Marco Schlosser, Thorsten Barnhofer, Florence Requier et al.
2 citations
Objectives: Deepening our understanding of the mechanisms by which meditation practices impact well-being and human flourishing is essential for advancing the science of meditation. The phenomenologically grounded classification system introduced by Dahl, Lutz, and Davidson (2015) distinguishes attentional, constructive, and deconstructive forms of meditation based on the psychological...
European Journal of Pain
April 2, 2021
Stefano Poletti, Oussama Abdoun, Jelle Zorn et al.
25 citations
BACKGROUND: The way people respond to pain is based on psychological mechanisms, beliefs and expectations. Mindfulness meditation (MM) has been shown to regulate pain and mental suffering through different mechanisms such as positive reappraisal, attentional and emotional regulation. Yet, subjective experience and meaning of pain in connection with MM are still largely unexplored. METHODS: The...
Psychosomatic Medicine
March 31, 2021
Jelle Zorn, Oussama Abdoun, Sandrine Sonié et al.
32 citations
OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness meditation can downregulate the experience of pain. However, its specific underlying regulatory mechanisms are still largely unknown. Here, we aimed to investigate the role of cognitive defusion-a form of psychological distancing from internal experiences-in mindfulness-based pain regulation. METHODS: We implemented a thermal heat paradigm that was designed to amplify the...
November 7, 2020
Stefano Poletti, Oussama Abdoun, Jelle Zorn et al.
preprint
Background: The way people respond to pain is based on psychological mechanisms, beliefs and expectations. Mindfulness meditation (MM) has been shown to regulate pain and mental suffering through different mechanisms such as positive reappraisal, attentional and emotional regulation. Yet, subjective experience and meaning of pain in connection with MM are still largely unexplored.Methods: The...
European Journal of Pain
April 20, 2020
Jelle Zorn, Oussama Abdoun, Romain Bouet et al.
55 citations
BACKGROUND: Mindfulness meditation can alleviate acute and chronic pain. It has been proposed that mindfulness meditation reduces pain by uncoupling sensory and affective pain dimensions. However, studies to date have reported mixed results, possibly due to a diversity of styles of and expertise in mindfulness meditation. Furthermore, the interrelations between mindfulness meditation and pain...
Consciousness and Cognition
February 1, 2019
Oussama Abdoun, Jelle Zorn, Stefano Poletti et al.
44 citations
Empirical descriptions of the phenomenology of meditation states rely on practitioners' ability to provide accurate information on their experience. We present a meditation training protocol that was designed to equip naive participants with a theoretical background and experiential knowledge that would enable them to share their experience. Subsequently, novices carried on with daily practice...
Neuropsychologia
July 21, 2018
Enrico Fucci, Oussama Abdoun, Anne Caclin et al.
58 citations
Non-dual meditation aims to undo maladaptive cognitive and affective patterns by recognizing their constructed and transient nature. We previously found high-amplitude spontaneous gamma (25-40 Hz) oscillatory activity during such practice. Nonetheless, it is unclear how this meditation state differs from other practices, in terms of perceptual information processing. Here, we hypothesized that...
Oussama Abdoun, Arnaud Poublan-Couzardot, Stéphane Offort et al.
preprint
BACKGROUND: A significant share of meditation research relies on trait psychometric measures of mindfulness, which neglect the complex and dynamic unfolding of experiential processes entailed by meditation over time. However, there have been a few attempts to capture ongoing changes in experience during meditation. In this study, we integrated and expanded on 3 of these previous approaches to...