Mindfulness meditators’ brains show an acceptance of death which predicts positively-valenced meditative self-dissolution experiences
Yair Dor-Ziderman, Yoav Schweitzer, Ohad Nave, Fynn-Mathis Trautwein, Stephen Fulder, Antoine Lutz, Abraham Goldstein, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana
PsyArXiv August 21, 2023 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/vn582 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pre-registered cross-sectional neuroimaging study (magnetoencephalography) Preregistered |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 38 |
| Population | Meditators pooled from a previous project investigating self-dissolution neurophenomenology |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key findings | Meditators' brains responded to the coupling of death and self-stimuli in a manner indicating acceptance rather than denial, and this response corresponded to increased well-being. Death acceptance predicted positively-valenced meditation-induced self-dissolution experiences. The authors argue the neural mechanisms underlying death avoidance are amenable to mental training rather than hard-wired. |
Abstract
We recently showed using a magnetoencephalogram visual mismatch-response paradigm that self-specific prediction-based neural mechanisms shield the self from existential threat by attributing death to the ‘other’. Here we test the pre-registered hypothesis that mindfulness meditation is associated with a reduction in the brain’s defensiveness towards mortality. Additionally, we examine putative links between death acceptance and the phenomenology of meditative self-dissolution. Thirty-eight meditators pooled from a previous project investigating self-dissolution neurophenomenology underwent the task. The findings indicated that meditators’ brains responded to the coupling of death and self-stimuli in a manner indicating acceptance rather than denial, and corresponding to increased well-being. Additionally, death acceptance predicted positively-valenced meditation-induced self-dissolution experiences, thus shedding light on possible mechanisms underlying wholesome vs. pathological disruptions to self-consciousness. Overall, these findings provide empirical support for the hypothesis that the neural mechanisms underlying the human tendency to avoid death are not hard-wired but are amenable to mental training.
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 2
Cites 30
- Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation Perspectives on Psychological Science October 10, 2017
- Quality of Acute Psychedelic Experience Predicts Therapeutic Efficacy of Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression Frontiers in Pharmacology January 17, 2018
- The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Drugs: Past, Present, and Future. Neuropsychopharmacology April 26, 2017
- The Standardized Psychometric Assessment of Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) in Humans Pharmacopsychiatry July 1, 1998
- The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists PLoS One May 24, 2017
and 25 more in the library