Neural correlates of nondual awareness in meditation.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences January 1, 2014 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1111/nyas.12261 via PubMed
Summary
Nondual awareness (NDA), a state of consciousness experienced in Tibetan Buddhist meditation, allows individuals to perceive without the usual dualities of self versus other or good versus bad. The study reviews how NDA influences anticorrelated intrinsic and extrinsic networks in the brain. Preliminary data suggest that a network involving the precuneus may play a role in this experience.
Study at a glance
| Population | participants practicing Tibetan Buddhist meditation |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The study explores the influence of nondual awareness on anticorrelated intrinsic and extrinsic networks in the brain. |
Abstract
Dualities such as self versus other, good versus bad, and in-group versus out-group are pervasive features of human experience, structuring the majority of cognitive and affective processes. Yet, an entirely different way of experiencing, one in which such dualities are relaxed rather than fortified, is also available. It depends on recognizing, within the stream of our consciousness, the nondual awareness (NDA)--a background awareness that precedes conceptualization and intention and that can contextualize various perceptual, affective, or cognitive contents without fragmenting the field of experience into habitual dualities. This paper introduces NDA as experienced in Tibetan Buddhist meditation and reviews the results of our study on the influence of NDA on anticorrelated intrinsic and extrinsic networks in the brain. Also discussed are preliminary data from a current study of NDA with minimized phenomenal content that points to involvement of a precuneus network in NDA.