Mapping meditative states and stages with electrophysiology: concepts, classifications, and methods.
Poppy la Schoenberg, David R Vago
Current opinion in psychology August 1, 2019 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.01.007 via PubMed
Summary
The exploration of human consciousness in neuroscience focuses on how the brain's structure and function relate to the mind. Mindfulness and other contemplative practices provide systematic mental training that can develop the mind in specific ways. While there have been advances in identifying electrophysiological markers of meditation, key questions remain about classifying 'mind states' of consciousness, the best measures for these classifications, and how they relate to neurobiological substrates.
Abstract
Exploration of human consciousness remains a final frontier within basic neuroscience; that is, how the finite biological structure and function of the brain give rise to the seemingly infinite expanse that encompasses the terrain of the mind. Contemporary mindfulness and other contemplative practices across historical and post-modern traditions involve systematic forms of mental training that allow a practitioner to develop the mind in very specific and quantifiable ways. While there has been some progress identifying specific electrophysiological markers of meditation, some fundamental questions remain to this scientific enquiry; (1) how to concisely classify discrete and developmentally specific 'mind states' of consciousness that are in line with the subtle complex phenomenology of experience so to yield ontological quantifications? (2) what measures best represent such classification/quantification systems? (3) can the present electrophysiological purview map developmentally specified mind states and stages to neurobiological substrates, based on extant contention (i.e. discrete EEG band functionality, phenomenological significance, and underlying mechanisms) regarding the interpretation of EEG physiology/morphology?