Self-specific processing in the meditating brain: a MEG neurophenomenology study.
Yair Dor-Ziderman, Yochai Ataria, Stephen Fulder, Abraham Goldstein, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana
Neuroscience of consciousness January 1, 2016 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1093/nc/niw019 via PubMed
Summary
Self-specific processes (SSPs) are shown to have a graded nature and can be influenced by attentional training. In a study involving a meditation practitioner scanned with magnetoencephalogram (MEG), three mental states reflecting different levels of sense-of-boundaries (SB) were identified. Validation with an independent group of 10 long-term meditators highlighted neural mechanisms tied to right-lateralized beta oscillations in the temporo-parietal junction and medial parietal cortex, suggesting potential clinical applications for those with disturbed SB.
Study at a glance
| Design | neurophenomenological exploration |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 11 |
| Population | one meditation practitioner and an independent group of 10 long-term meditators |
| Key finding | The study demonstrates that self-specific processes are graded phenomena that can be altered through attentional training. |
Abstract
Self-specific processes (SSPs) specify the self as an embodied subject and agent, implementing a functional self/nonself distinction in perception, cognition, and action. Despite recent interest, it is still undetermined whether SSPs are all-or-nothing or graded phenomena; whether they can be identified in neuroimaging data; and whether they can be altered through attentional training. These issues are approached through a neurophenomenological exploration of the sense-of-boundaries (SB), the fundamental experience of being an 'I' (self) separated from the 'world' (nonself). The SB experience was explored in collaboration with a uniquely qualified meditation practitioner, who volitionally produced, while being scanned by magnetoencephalogram (MEG), three mental states characterized by a graded SB experience. The results were then partly validated in an independent group of 10 long-term meditators. Implicated neural mechanisms include right-lateralized beta oscillations in the temporo-parietal junction, a region known to mediate the experiential unity of self and body; and in the medial parietal cortex, a central node of the self's representational system. The graded nature as well as the trainable flexibility and neural plasticity of SSPs may hold clinical implications for populations with a disturbed SB.