The cloud of unknowing: Cognitive dedifferentiation in whole-body perceptual deprivation.

Michele Pellegrino; Joseph Glicksohn; Fabio Marson; Francesco Ferraiuolo; Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan

doi:10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.004

The cloud of unknowing: Cognitive dedifferentiation in whole-body perceptual deprivation.

Michele Pellegrino, Joseph Glicksohn, Fabio Marson, Francesco Ferraiuolo, Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan

Progress in Brain Research 2023 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.004 (opens in new tab)

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AI-extracted from the abstract

Characteristics	Qualitative study Peer reviewed
Sample size	32
Population	Participants immersed in the OVO Whole-Body Perceptual Deprivation chamber
Topics	Meditation
Keywords	Cognitive dedifferentiation Ganzfeld Ovo-wbpd Space perception Synesthesia Time perception Whole-body perceptual deprivation
Citations	3
Key findings	The OVO-WBPD chamber consistently elicits positively connotated, bodily-oriented, and cognitively dedifferentiated subjective states of consciousness in the majority of participants.

Abstract

An altered sensory environment, especially a homogeneous one like a ganzfeld, can induce a wide range of experiences in people immersed in it. The ganzfeld of our current focus is the OVO Whole-Body Perceptual Deprivation chamber (OVO-WBPD). Previous literature has found this specific immersive environment to be capable of softening and dissolving perception of boundaries across time and sensory modalities, among other domains. Since recent published electrophysiological results demonstrated that immersion in the OVO-WBPD significantly increased delta and beta activity, in the left inferior frontal cortex and in the left insula, we sought to better understand the subjective experiences of participants utilizing this altered sensory environment via semi-qualitative methodology. Consequently, semi-structured interviews of participants were analyzed by three independent evaluators focusing on several domains of experience often reported in perceptual deprivation environments. We found a significantly shared consensus on the presence of experiences belonging to semantic domains of altered experience, demonstrating that the OVO-WBPD chamber consistently elicits positively connotated, bodily-oriented and cognitively dedifferentiated subjective states of consciousness in the majority of 32 examined participants.

Comparable studies

Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.

Study	Year	Design	Participants
The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan...	2017	Qualitative study with mixed-methods
The Effects of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on Nurse Stress and Burnout Nurses in a hospital system	2004	Implementation study with mixed methods
An exploratory mixed methods study of the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness -based cognitive therapy for patients with active depression and anxiety in primary care Primary care patients with recurrent depression or recurrent depression and anxiety	2006	Exploratory mixed methods study	n = 13
A qualitative study of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy for depression Participants in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in a mental-health context	2001	Qualitative study	n = 7
Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report Meditators	2013	Qualitative study using grounded theory methodology

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