Decentering the Self? Reduced Bias in Self- vs. Other-Related Processing in Long-Term Practitioners of Loving-Kindness Meditation
Fynn-Mathis Trautwein, José R. Naranjo, Stefan Schmidt
Frontiers in Psychology November 21, 2016 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01785 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional, quasi-experimental Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 24 |
| Population | Long-term practitioners of loving-kindness meditation and matched controls |
| Interventions | Loving-kindness meditation control priming procedure |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Empathy Self Oddball paradigm Developmental psychology Clinical psychology Cognitive psychology Event-related potential Cognition |
| Citations | 44 |
| Key findings | Long-term loving-kindness meditation practitioners exhibited reduced P300 amplitude differences between self and other faces, and this reduction correlated with more meditation practice and higher compassion. |
Abstract
Research in social neuroscience provides increasing evidence that self and other are interconnected, both on a conceptual and on an affective representational level. Moreover, the ability to recognize the other as "like the self" is thought to be essential for social phenomena like empathy and compassion. Meditation practices such as loving-kindness meditation (LKM) have been found to enhance these capacities. Therefore, we investigated whether LKM is associated to an increased integration of self-other-representations. As an indicator, we assessed the P300 event-related potential elicited by oddball stimuli of the self-face and a close other's face in 12 long-term practitioners of LKM and 12 matched controls. In line with previous studies, the self elicited larger P300 amplitudes than close other. This effect was reduced in the meditation sample at parietal but not frontal midline sites. Within this group, smaller differences between self- and other-related P300 were associated with increasing meditation practice. Across groups, smaller P300 differences correlated with self-reported compassion. In meditators, we also investigated the effect of a short LKM compared to a control priming procedure in order to test whether the state induction would additionally modulate self- vs. other-related P300. However, no effect of the priming conditions was observed. Overall, our findings provide preliminary evidence that prolonged meditation practice may modulate self- vs. other-related processing, accompanied by an increase in compassion. Further evidence is needed, however, to show if this is a direct outcome of loving-kindness meditation.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cited by 23
- Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness Frontiers in Psychology September 4, 2018
- P300‐mediated modulations in self–other processing under psychedelic psilocybin are related to connectedness and changed meaning: A window into the self–other overlap Human Brain Mapping August 21, 2020
- Examining the Potential Synergistic Effects Between Mindfulness Training and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Frontiers in Psychiatry August 11, 2021
- Training the embodied self in its impermanence: meditators evidence neurophysiological markers of death acceptance. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2025
- Mindfulness, cognition, and long-term meditators: Toward a science of advanced meditation. Imaging Neuroscience 2025
and 18 more in the library
Cites 17
- How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective Perspectives on Psychological Science October 14, 2011
- Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology October 27, 2008
- Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being JAMA Internal Medicine January 6, 2014
- Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences October 11, 2007
- Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 8, 2004
and 12 more in the library