Mindfulness-induced selflessness: a MEG neurophenomenological study.
Yair Dor-Ziderman, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Joseph Glicksohn, Abraham Goldstein
Frontiers in human neuroscience January 1, 2013 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00582 via PubMed
Summary
Long-term mindfulness meditation practice affects self-awareness in distinct ways. The study found that narrative self-awareness (NS) is associated with decreased gamma band activity, while minimal self-awareness (MS) is linked to reduced beta-band activity in specific brain regions. Additionally, the experience of selflessness correlates with lower beta-band activity in the right inferior parietal lobule. These findings emphasize the different neural networks involved in processing various aspects of self-awareness.
Study at a glance
| Design | neurophenomenological study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 12 |
| Population | long-term mindfulness meditators |
| Key finding | Narrative self-awareness is linked to gamma band power decreases, while minimal self-awareness is related to beta-band power decreases in specific brain regions. |
Abstract
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 tested 12 long-term mindfulness meditators using a neurophenomenological study 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.