The epistemic and pragmatic value of non-action: a predictive coding perspective on meditation
Antoine Lutz, Jérémie Mattout, Giuseppe Pagnoni
January 24, 2019 DOI: 10.31231/osf.io/hgyqa (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Focused attention meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Cognitive psychology Inference Epistemology Cognitive science Psychotherapist |
| Citations | 7 |
| Key points | Proposes that active inference can account for how focused attention meditation reduces habitual reactions and distracting thoughts by downweighting automatic trajectories via precision-weighting. |
Abstract
The surge of interest about mindfulness meditation is associated with a growing empirical evidence about its impact on the mind and body. Yet, despite promising phenomenological or psychological models of mindfulness, a general mechanistic understanding of meditation steeped in neuroscience is still lacking. In parallel, predictive processing approaches to the mind are rapidly developing in the cognitivesciences with an impressive explanatory power: processes apparently as diverse as perception, action, attention and learning, can be seen as unfolding and being coherently orchestrated according to the single general mandate of free-energy minimization. Here we briefly explore the possibility to supplement previous phenomenological models of focused attention meditation by formulating them in terms of active inference. We first argue that this perspective can account for how paying voluntary attention to the body in meditation helps settling the mind by downweighting habitual and automatic trajectories of (pre)motor and autonomic reactions, as well as the pull of distracting spontaneous thought at the same time. Secondly, we discuss a possible relationship between phenomenological notions such as opacity and de-reification, and the deployment of precision-weighting via the voluntary allocation of attention. We propose the adoption of this theoretical framework as a promising strategy for contemplative research. Explicit computational simulations and comparisons with experimental and phenomenological data will be critical to fully develop this approach.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Self-Boundary Dissolution in Meditation: A Phenomenological Investigation. Brain Sciences June 21, 2021
- The computational unconscious: Adaptive narrative control, psychopathology, and subjective well-being
- Learning to Attenuate Myself: A Predictive Processing Account of the Body-Scan Meditation PsyArXiv April 9, 2024
- A Computational Theory of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy from the “Bayesian Brain” Perspective
Cites 15
- Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering Psychological Science March 28, 2013
- Conceptual and methodological issues in research on mindfulness and meditation. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
- Investigating the phenomenological matrix of mindfulness-related practices from a neurocognitive perspective. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
- Interoception, contemplative practice, and health Frontiers in Psychology June 9, 2015
- Prospects for a clinical science of mindfulness-based intervention. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
and 10 more in the library