Psychological assessment
December 1, 2018
Adam W Hanley, Yoshio Nakamura, Eric L Garland
125 citations
Two new questionnaires, the Nondual Awareness Dimensional Assessment-Trait (NADA-T) and the Nondual Awareness Dimensional Assessment-State (NADA-S), were developed to measure nondual awareness—a sense of oneness or absence of self-other boundaries. Principal component analysis with 528 participants identified two dimensions of the NADA-T: self-transcendence and bliss. Further analyses in three independent samples (totaling 725 participants) showed both dimensions reflect a single overarching nondual awareness construct. The NADA-T correlated with interdependent self-construals and dispositional mindfulness.
Psychological medicine
April 1, 2023
Eric L Garland, Spencer T Fix, Justin P Hudak et al.
51 citations
Long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain can lead to anhedonia, or reduced ability to experience pleasure from natural rewards. A behavioral intervention called Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) was tested in 63 veterans on long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain, who were randomly assigned to eight weeks of MORE or a supportive group therapy. MORE increased brain and physiological responses to natural reward cues and reduced subjective anhedonia more than the control. The reduction in anhedonia was linked to increased brain activity during savoring of rewards. MORE may be an effective treatment for anhedonia in chronic opioid users and those at risk for opioid use disorder.
Science advances
October 14, 2022
Eric L Garland, Adam W Hanley, Justin Hudak et al.
39 citations
Theta oscillations (4 to 8 Hz) in frontal midline brain regions, which support self-regulation, are inversely linked to default mode network activity involved in self-referential processing. Addiction involves impaired self-regulation and default mode network dysfunction. In a mechanistic study of 165 long-term opioid users, Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement increased frontal midline theta during meditation compared to supportive psychotherapy. Theta during meditation was associated with self-transcendent experiences such as ego dissolution and bliss. Increased theta mediated the treatment's effect on reducing opioid misuse, suggesting mindfulness-induced theta stimulation may reset default mode network dysfunction to inhibit addictive behavior.
Frontiers of Architectural Research
January 24, 2024
Zakaria Djebbara, Juliet King, Amir Ebadi et al.
22 citations
A theoretical framework for contemplative neuroaesthetics is proposed, grounded in sensorimotor dynamics. The authors argue that the capacity of arts and architecture to induce contemplative phenomenological states has been largely overlooked. They operationalize how attunement to architecture can lead to such states, contrasting externally-induced methods with internally-induced ones. Architecture may spontaneously elicit contemplative states as built features naturally resonate with the sensorimotor system. Becoming sensible of this resonance creates an occasion for an externally-induced contemplative state. Neuroscientific studies of architecture are reviewed, brain regions involved in aesthetic contemplative responses are elaborated, and contributions to evidence-based design are pointed at.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2020
S Shaun Ho, Yoshio Nakamura, James E Swain
15 citations
Compassion meditation, rooted in Buddhist philosophy, may help protect mental health amid intensifying conflicts. The practice involves attuning equally to friend, enemy, and neutral person, aiming to suspend identity-based conceptual thoughts and ego-preserving biases that obscure reality. A Bayesian active inference framework models the person as a Bayesian Engine that constructs phenomena from aggregates (forms, sensations, discriminations, actions, consciousness). Rigid identity-grasping beliefs cause the engine to malfunction by blocking updates from prediction errors. The proposed brain model has three components: Relation-Modeling (Default-Mode Network), Reality-Checking (Frontoparietal and Ventral Attention Networks), and Conflict-Alarming (Salience Network). Compassion meditation may strengthen brain regions that suspend prior beliefs and enhance attunement to others.