Mindfulness-induced selflessness: A MEG neurophenomenological study

Mindfulness-induced selflessness: A MEG neurophenomenological study

Blog Article

Contemporary philosophical and neurocognitive studies of the self have dissociated two distinct types of self-awareness: a 'narrative' self-awareness (NS) weaving together episodic memory, future planning and self-evaluation into a coherent self-narrative and identity, and a 'minimal' self-awareness (MS) focused on present momentary experience and closely tied to the sense of agency and ownership.Long-term Buddhist meditation practice aims at realization of a 'selfless' mode of awareness (SL), where identification with a static sense of self is replaced by identification with the phenomenon of experiencing itself.NS-mediating mechanisms have been explored by neuroimaging, mainly fMRI, implicating prefrontal midline structures, but MS processes are not well characterized and SL even less so.To this end we bostik roll-cote tested 12 long-term mindfulness meditators using a neurophenomenological study turbo air m3f24-1-n design, incorporating both magnetoencephalogram (MEG) recordings and first person descriptions.

We found that (1) NS attenuation involves extensive frontal, and medial prefrontal gamma band (60-80 Hz) power decreases, consistent with fMRI and intracranial EEG findings; (2) MS attenuation is related to beta-band (13-25 Hz) power decreases in a network that includes ventral medial prefrontal, medial posterior and lateral parietal regions; and (3) the experience of selflessness is linked to attenuation of beta-band activity in the right inferior parietal lobule.These results highlight the role of dissociable frequency-dependent networks in supporting different modes of self-processing, and the utility of combining phenomenology, mindfulness training and electrophysiological neuroimaging for characterizing self-awareness.