Meditation in the third-person perspective modulates minimal self and heartbeat-evoked potentials

Practicing meditation from a third-person perspective in virtual reality, compared with a first-person perspective, produces stronger feelings of detachment and disconnection, a less distinct sense of one's body boundary, and reduced identification with the body. These subjective changes are accompanied by a more negative heartbeat evoked potential amplitude and activation of the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. The findings link altered states of self during meditation to neural and behavioral measures of the bodily self, demonstrating that manipulating perspective in VR can modulate the sense of self during meditation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Experienced meditation practitioners often report altered states of their sense of self, including decentering and distancing the self from the body and one’s current concerns. Altered states of the sense of self, such as disembodiment and distancing of the self from the body, have also been induced experimentally using virtual reality (VR) and linked neurally to heartbeat evoked potentials (HEPs). Whereas many studies investigated the related neural correlates of such decentering during meditation, none experimentally modulated the sense of self during meditation practice using VR nor determined the potentially associated behavioral changes of the sense of self. Here we determined HEPs and behavioral measures in 23 participants who performed a guided meditation practice in VR, either from a third-person (3PP) or first-person perspective (1PP) to modulate the sense of self. In the 3PP versus 1PP meditation condition, we report stronger sensations of detachment and disconnection, reduced salience of the perceived body boundary, and reduced self-identification with the body. HEP analysis revealed differential neural responses between conditions, characterized by a more negative HEP amplitude in the 3PP condition, associated with activation of the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. Leveraging a new VR-supported meditation platform and methods, these data link the sense of self in meditation practice to the neuroscience of the bodily self, based on subjective, behavioral, and neural measures.