Suspending the Embodied Self in Meditation Attenuates Beta Oscillations in the Posterior Medial Cortex.
Fynn-Mathis Trautwein, Yoav Schweitzer, Yair Dor-Ziderman, Ohad Nave, Yochai Ataria, Stephen Fulder, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana
Journal of Neuroscience June 26, 2024 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1182-23.2024 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Preregistered experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 46 |
| Population | Long-term meditators |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Meg Neurophenomenology Posterior cingulate Self |
| Citations | 27 |
| Key findings | Frequency-specific high-beta activity reductions in the posterior medial cortex were driven by a subgroup describing radical embodied self-disruptions, including suspension of agency and dissolution of a localized first-person perspective. |
Abstract
Human experience is imbued by the sense of being an embodied agent. The investigation of such basic self-consciousness has been hampered by the difficulty of comprehensively modulating it in the laboratory while reliably capturing ensuing subjective changes. The present preregistered study fills this gap by combining advanced meditative states with principled phenomenological interviews: 46 long-term meditators (19 female, 27 male) were instructed to modulate and attenuate their embodied self-experience during magnetoencephalographic monitoring. Results showed frequency-specific (high-beta band) activity reductions in frontoparietal and posterior medial cortices (PMC). Importantly, PMC reductions were driven by a subgroup describing radical embodied self-disruptions, including suspension of agency and dissolution of a localized first-person perspective. Neural changes were correlated with lifetime meditation and interview-derived experiential changes, but not with classical self-reports. The results demonstrate the potential of integrating in-depth first-person methods into neuroscientific experiments. Furthermore, they highlight neural oscillations in the PMC as a central process supporting the embodied sense of self.
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 24
- Exploring 5-MeO-DMT as a pharmacological model for deconstructed consciousness. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2025
- An Overview of Neurophenomenological Approaches to Meditation and Their Relevance to Clinical Research. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging April 1, 2025
- Multimodal neurophenomenology of advanced concentration absorption meditation: An intensively sampled case study of Jhana. Neuroimage December 14, 2024
- Investigating the complex cortical dynamics of an advanced concentrative absorption meditation called jhanas (ACAM-J): a geometric eigenmode analysis. Cerebral Cortex February 5, 2025
- Training the embodied self in its impermanence: meditators evidence neurophysiological markers of death acceptance. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2025
and 19 more in the library
Cites 48
- A default mode of brain function Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 16, 2001
- Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self Trends in Cognitive Sciences October 12, 2013
- Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 23, 2011
- The precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex plays a pivotal role in the default mode network: Evidence from a partial correlation network analysis Neuroimage June 13, 2008
- Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences April 11, 2016
and 43 more in the library