We address the hypothesis that the entropy of neural dynamics indexes the intensity and quality of conscious content. Previous work established that serotonergic psychedelics can have a dysregulating effect on brain activity, leading to subjective effects that present a considerable overlap with the phenomenology of certain meditative states. Here we propose that the prolonged practice of...
Background and Purpose: Despite the high prevalence of post-stroke depression (PSD) and negative impact on stroke survivors (SS) and their informal caregivers ([IC]; e.g., unpaid spouses), treatment of PSD is inadequate. Meditation has been associated with improved psychological outcomes. The purpose of this study was to establish the feasibility and acceptability of a 12-week randomized...
Abstract: Introduction: This study examines the effectiveness of integrating mindfulness-based techniques within therapy for women suffering to achieve orgasm. Although widely applied in psychotherapy, this approach has only recently been introduced in the treatment of female sexual dysfunction. Aim: To compare the effectiveness of a video-based self-administered treatment, rooted within the...
The objective of this study was to examine the efficacy of a novel binaural beat meditation technology for the treatment of anxiety symptoms in both psychiatric outpatients and nonpatients. Twenty psychiatric outpatients with anxiety disorder and eight individuals (nonpatients) in the healing professions were given the opportunity to use this meditation technology over the course of 2 weeks to...
BACKGROUND Mindfulness-based therapies (MBTs) are effective in many neuropsychiatric disorders, and represent a potential therapeutic strategy for psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical effect of a manualized 12-session MBT for PNES in an uncontrolled trial. We hypothesized reductions in PNES frequency, intensity, and...
AbstractThe present paper argues that experimental phenomenology has an important role to play in research on mindfulness. Experimental phenomenology is defined as a subcategory of phenomenology (defined as the science of our subjective experience of being in the world), which explores the effects of intentional variations of subjective experiencing (direction of attention and choice of...
Master's thesisNumerous studies have reported that, compared to an equivalent period of wakefulness,post-training sleep (overnight or daytime naps) benefits memory consolidation (Diekelmann & Born, 2010; Mednick, Nakayama, & Stickgold, 2003; Plihal & Born, 1999; Walker et al.,2003). However, most investigations have employed various forms of “active wakefulness” (e.g., sensorimotor and...
Background: Mindfulness meditation has become a common method for reducing stress, stress-related psychopathology and some physical symptoms. As mindfulness programs become ubiquitous, concerns have been raised about their unknown potential for harm. We estimate multiple indices of harm following Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on two primary outcomes: global psychological and...
Importance Patients with residual depressive symptoms face a gap in care because few resources, to date, are available to manage the lingering effects of their illness. Objective To evaluate the effectiveness for treating residual depressive symptoms with Mindful Mood Balance (MMB), a web-based application that delivers mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, plus usual depression care compared...
The aim of the study was to understand the perspectives of mental health consumers, staff, and yoga teachers on the characteristics of a yoga-based intervention to be developed for consumers with a long-term mental health condition, in addition to anxiety and/or depression. Two focus groups were held with mental health consumers (n = 8), two focus groups with mental health staff (n = 13) from a...
OBJECTIVE Despite consistent evidence for the beneficial effects of meditation on mental health, little is known about the mechanisms that make mindfulness meditation effective. METHOD The levels of mental health, self-compassion, presence of meaning in life, and experiential avoidance of meditators (n = 414) and nonmeditators (n = 414) were measured and compared. Bootstrap-based structural...
arXiv Preprint ArchiveJanuary 23, 2020Zosia A. C. Krusberg, Andrew Feldman, Elam Coalson
preprint
One of the objectives of the undergraduate physics curriculum is for students to become aware of the connections between formal physical principles and personal experience. However, research has shown that awareness of connections between the abstract and the experiential tends to deteriorate, sometimes significantly, following instruction in undergraduate physics courses. Although this...
Aim: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and sleep spindles are all implicated in the consolidation of procedural memories. Relative contributions of sleep stages and sleep spindles were previously shown to depend on individual differences in task processing. However, no studies to our knowledge have focused on individual differences in experience with Vipassana...
Background: Diseases with a chronic and debilitating nature, such as chronic kidney disease, are frequently associated with psychiatric disorders like anxiety and depression. Objective: To assess the efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on anxiety and depression in hemodialysis patients. Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, fifty hemodialysis patients were selected from...
This study examines the effects of focused-attention meditation on functional brain states in novice meditators. There are a number of feature metrics for functional brain states, such as functional connectivity, graph theoretical metrics, and amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF). It is necessary to choose appropriate metrics and also to specify the region of interests (ROIs) from a...
IntroductionTeaching is a stressful profession that exposes workers to the risk of burnout. Techniques involving higher mental functions, such as transcendental meditation and prayer, have been used in stress and burnout prevention programs. In this study, we report the results of an experience conducted in a group of teachers of a religious institute, in which prayer was used as a technique to...
Background Populations with reduced sensory and motor function, such as spinal cord injury (SCI) are at increased risk of depression, anxiety, pain, and poorer quality of life (QoL). Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) have been developed with the aim of improving outcomes for people with SCI. To understand the value of MBIs, a systematic review was conducted pertaining to the use of MBIs,...
Depression is one of the most common diagnoses which patients with mood disorders can hear every day. It is a serious condition which influences both physical and mental health. There are several causes of depression (for instance, abuse, certain medications, conflicts at home, work, school, university, etc). Basically, symptoms can vary from feelings of unhappiness and hopelessness to losing...
PsychophysiologyJanuary 17, 2020Marcelo Bigliassi, Bruno M Galano, A. Lima-Silva et al.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of an audio-guided mindfulness (MF) single session on psychological and psychophysiological responses during an outdoor walking task. Twenty-four participants (12 females and 12 males; Mage = 23.6, SD = 3.9 years) were required to walk 200 m at a pace of their choosing. Two experimental conditions (mindfulness meditation and...