Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report

Garrison, Kathleen A.; Santoyo, Juan F.; Davis, Jake H.; Thornhill, Thomas; Kerr, Catherine E.; Brewer, Judson A.

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00440

Cited by 187 publications

(162 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

140

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Compared to the observing mode of direct experience of the meditators, controls might have entered a more cognitive elaborative mode, although this specific interpretation needs to be addressed in follow-up studies. This view supports the results of recent studies (Jo, Wittmann, Borghardt, et al, 2014;Garrison et al, 2013) that experienced meditators are suitable participants for the difficult task of relating introspective first person data with third person measurements.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Do meditators have higher awareness of their intentions to act?

Hinterberger²,

Wittmann

et al. 2015

Cortex

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Do meditators have higher awareness of their intentions to act?

Hinterberger²,

Wittmann

et al. 2015

Cortex

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The deactivation of this important hub of the DMN has been related to effortless awareness (Garrison et al 2013a) and was also found deactivated in an fMRI study during focused attention meditation (Garrison et al 2013b). PCC deactivation reportedly reflects increased present-centered awareness, whereas PCC activation is related to being caught up in mental content and is associated with decreased attention (Brewer et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Zazen meditation and no-task resting EEG compared with LORETA intracortical source localization

Faber¹,

Lehmann²,

Gianotti

et al. 2014

Cogn Process

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Meditation is a self-induced and willfully initiated practice that alters the state of consciousness. The meditation practice of Zazen, like many other meditation practices, aims at disregarding intrusive thoughts while controlling body posture. It is an open monitoring meditation characterized by detached moment-to-moment awareness and reduced conceptual thinking and self-reference. Which brain areas differ in electric activity during Zazen compared to task-free resting? Since scalp electroencephalography (EEG) waveforms are reference-dependent, conclusions about the localization of active brain areas are ambiguous. Computing intracerebral source models from the scalp EEG data solves this problem. In the present study we applied source modeling using low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) to 58-channel scalp EEG data recorded from 15 experienced Zen meditators during Zazen and no-task resting. Zazen compared to no-task resting showed increased alpha-1 and alpha-2 frequency activity in an exclusively right-lateralized cluster extending from prefrontal areas including the insula to parts of the somatosensory and motor cortices and temporal areas. Zazen also showed decreased alpha and beta-2 activity in the left angular gyrus and decreased beta-1 and beta-2 activity in a large bilateral posterior cluster comprising the visual cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex and the parietal cortex. The results include parts of the default mode network and suggest enhanced automatic memory and emotion processing, reduced conceptual thinking and self-reference on a less judgmental, i.e., more detached moment-to-moment basis during Zazen compared to no-task resting. Computing intracerebral source models from the scalp EEG data solves this problem. In the present study we applied source modeling using low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) to 58-channel scalp EEG data recorded from 15 experienced Zen meditators during Zazen and no-task resting. Zazen compared to no-task resting showed increased alpha-1 and alpha-2 frequency activity in an exclusively right-lateralized cluster extending from prefrontal areas including the insula to parts of the somatosensory and motor cortices and temporal areas. Zazen also showed decreased alpha and beta-2 activity in the left angular gyrus and decreased beta-1 and beta-2 activity in a large bilateral posterior cluster comprising the visual cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex and the parietal cortex. The results include parts of the default mode network and suggest enhanced automatic memory and emotion processing, reduced conceptual thinking and self-reference on a less judgmental, i.e., more detached moment-to-moment basis during Zazen compared to no-task resting.

show abstract

“…A study utilizing the first-person narratives of the meditating participants suggested that the better the participants can stop thinking, the better they can inhibit the activity in the PCC; conversely, PCC activity was related to the spontaneous thoughts when these participants were effortfully contriving to self regulate [46].…”

Section: Some Considerations On the Brain Substrates Of The Agir Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healing Dysfunctional Identity: Bridging Mind-Body Intervention to Brain Systems

Ho¹,

Nakamura²

2017

JBBS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, we aim to use an innovative model to integrate applied work on a fast-acting mind-body intervention, Mind-Body Bridging (MBB), with theoretical work based on psychology and neuroscience. In an affect-object generative inference and regulation (AGIR) model, we propose that functional dynamics between two systems, the affect-object thought generation system and the cognitive control system, can guide an individual to achieve homeostasis within self and harmonious relationships with others. We used Neurosynth (www.neurosynth.org), an automated meta-analysis database, to identify potential brain substrates underlying the key components in the AGIR model. Based on the findings, some brain regions are implicated as the key cortical substrates in this model, corroborating our central hypothesis that a hallmark of mind-body wellbeing can be characterized as a low-frequency anti-correlantion between 1) the cognitive control system including the dorsal anterior/middle cingulate cortex, and 2) the affect-object thought generation system including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. MBB provides an efficient strategy for responding to and dissolving a fundamental problem that impairs mind-body wellbeing, i.e., unrealistic identity-grasping consisting of self-centered embodied expectations of self and others. We demonstrated how theoretical and applied work could be integrated by drawing evidence from the neuroscience literature to support the AGIR model, and then we applied the AGIR model to elucidate how MBB might work.

show abstract

Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report

Cited by 187 publications

References 25 publications

Do meditators have higher awareness of their intentions to act?

Do meditators have higher awareness of their intentions to act?

Zazen meditation and no-task resting EEG compared with LORETA intracortical source localization

Healing Dysfunctional Identity: Bridging Mind-Body Intervention to Brain Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About