Self-specific processing in the meditating brain: a MEG neurophenomenology study.
Yair Dor-Ziderman, Yochai Ataria, Stephen Fulder, Abraham Goldstein, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2016 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niw019 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Neurophenomenological study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 11 |
| Population | Long-term meditation practitioners |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Meg Beta band Minimal self Neurophenomenology Parietal cortex |
| Citations | 100 |
| Key points | Self-specific processes are graded phenomena that can be altered through attentional training, with neural correlates in right-lateralized beta oscillations in the temporo-parietal junction and medial parietal cortex. |
Abstract
Self-specific processes (SSPs) specify the self as an embodied subject and agent, implementing a functional self/nonself distinction in perception, cognition, and action. Despite recent interest, it is still undetermined whether SSPs are all-or-nothing or graded phenomena; whether they can be identified in neuroimaging data; and whether they can be altered through attentional training. These issues are approached through a neurophenomenological exploration of the sense-of-boundaries (SB), the fundamental experience of being an 'I' (self) separated from the 'world' (nonself). The SB experience was explored in collaboration with a uniquely qualified meditation practitioner, who volitionally produced, while being scanned by magnetoencephalogram (MEG), three mental states characterized by a graded SB experience. The results were then partly validated in an independent group of 10 long-term meditators. Implicated neural mechanisms include right-lateralized beta oscillations in the temporo-parietal junction, a region known to mediate the experiential unity of self and body; and in the medial parietal cortex, a central node of the self's representational system. The graded nature as well as the trainable flexibility and neural plasticity of SSPs may hold clinical implications for populations with a disturbed SB.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.
Citations in the library
Cited by 58
- Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness Frontiers in Psychology September 4, 2018
- From many to (n)one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews September 1, 2021
- A neurophenomenological approach to non-ordinary states of consciousness: hypnosis, meditation, and psychedelics Trends in Cognitive Sciences December 22, 2022
- Defining Contemplative Science: The Metacognitive Self-Regulatory Capacity of the Mind, Context of Meditation Practice and Modes of Existential Awareness Frontiers in Psychology November 17, 2016
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to Neurophenomenology - The Case of Studying Self Boundaries With Meditators. Frontiers in Psychology 2020
and 53 more in the library
Cites 46
- A default mode of brain function Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 16, 2001
- How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective Perspectives on Psychological Science October 14, 2011
- 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
- Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 8, 2004
and 41 more in the library