Looping Effects and the Cognitive Science of Mindfulness Meditation

Cognitive neuroscience often mistakes the brain activity that accompanies mindfulness for mindfulness itself. Mindfulness, classically understood, is not merely inner observation but an integrated exercise of cognitive and bodily skills in ethically directed, situated action. From an enactive perspective, mindfulness depends on internalized social cognition and is a mode of skillful, embodied cognition that relies not only on the brain but also on the body and the physical, social, and cultural environment.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Cognitive neuroscience tends to conceptualize mindfulness meditation as inner observation of a private mental realm of thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, and tries to model mindfulness as instantiated in neural networks visible through brain imaging tools such as EEG and fMRI. This approach confuses the biological conditions for mindfulness with mindfulness itself, which, as classically described, consists in the integrated exercise of a whole host of cognitive and bodily skills in situated and ethically directed action. From an enactive perspective, mindfulness depends on internalized social cognition and is a mode of skillful, embodied cognition that depends directly not only on the brain, but also on the rest of the body and the physical, social, and cultural environment.