Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
George Deane, Mark Miller, Sam Wilkinson
88 citations
Disruptions in the ordinary sense of self can lead to either devastating depersonalization or sought-after selfless experiences in meditation. Using the active inference framework, the authors propose that selfhood emerges from a temporally deep generative model that tunes agents to counterfactually rich possibilities for action. Depersonalization may result from an inferred loss of allostatic control, contrasting with the euphoric selfless experiences reported by meditation practitioners. This unified account conceptualizes the experiential similarities and differences between these states, with implications for understanding dissociative disorders and the therapeutic potential and dangers of meditation.
Neuroscience of consciousness
January 1, 2023
Julian Kiverstein, Mark Miller
6 citations
Playfulness, understood as a learned high-level prior that tolerates and explores uncertainty in safe contexts, can contribute to human flourishing by expanding the amount of surprise a person is prepared to accept. Playful individuals attend to the world in an open, expansive, and effortless way that fosters presence and deep engagement, leading to renewed appreciation for life. They actively seek challenges at the edge of their abilities, promoting growth in skills and relationships. Additionally, they monitor and learn from their own affective responses to uncertainty, turning it into something familiar and enjoyable to explore. Thus, openness to uncertainty may be an important ingredient in a meaningful life.
American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council
December 1, 2024
Josh Brahinsky, Jonas Mago, Mark Miller et al.
5 citations
Buddhist Jhāna meditation and Christian speaking in tongues, despite appearing very different, share key phenomenological features. Interviews with experienced practitioners in the USA reveal a dynamic interplay between focused attention, aroused joy, and a sense of letting go or release crucial to both practices. The paper theorizes that these shared features engage an autonomic field built through a spiral between attention, arousal, and release (AAR), analyzed through sensory gating and predictive processing theories of brain function.
Scientific reports
April 3, 2025
Joel Patchitt, Sarah Garfinkel, William H Strawson et al.
4 citations
False physiological feedback—mismatches between perceived and actual bodily signals—can bias how people judge the emotional intensity of faces. Prior work using auditory feedback suggested that perceived changes in heart rate increase intensity ratings regardless of whether the feedback indicates a faster or slower heart rate, with the right anterior insula acting as a mismatch detector. This study used pulsatile somatosensory stimulation (vibration) at rates above, below, or matching participants' heart rate, or no stimulation, while they rated emotional faces during brain scanning. Feedback produced a bidirectional effect: intensity ratings increased over each 20-second stimulation block.