Neuroscience of Meditation - Chapter 6

8/13/2019 Neuroscience of Meditation - Chapter 6

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© Copyright 2010-2011 Eric Thompson. All Rights Reserved.

The Neuroscience of Meditation

An Introduction to the Scientific Study of How Meditation

Impacts the Brain

Eric Thompson

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Contents Introduction

1. Contemplative Neuroscience, Neuroplasticity and the Transformative Power of

Consciousness

2. Brainwaves - What They Are

3. Brainwave States in Science

4. Brainwave States in Meditation

5. Brainwave States in Traditional Buddhist and Hindu Teachings

6. Attention-Gate Theory: How Awareness Changes the Brain

7. Meta-Awareness: Deepening the Transformative Power of Attention

8. Neurological Processes During Passive Meditation

9. Meditation and the Tao of the Human Nervous System

10. How The Brains of Advanced Meditators Differ from Non-Meditators - Part 1

11. How The Brains of Advanced Meditators Differ from Non-Meditators - Part 2

12. Scientific Studies on Tibetan Buddhist Loving Kindness Meditation

Meditation & Cortical Thickness




CHAPTER 6 Attention-Gate Theory:

How Awareness Changes the Brain

Meditation as Attention

The scientific literature generally defines meditation as a form of attentional training, eitheractive or passive in nature. In its active form, meditation concentrates on a single object until the

subject-object duality of the observation collapses in on itself, giving rise to nonduality.Meditation can also take on a more passive quality in which, instead of putting forth effort tomeditate, one simply allows oneself to be meditated . You could say that the former type ofmeditation is yang, while the latter is yin. Regardless of whether it’s active or passive in nature, alegitimate meditation practice, as defined in the scientific literature, must involve:

1. Self-induced attentional activity2. A focal point for anchoring attention3. A significant minimization of logical processes4. Muscle relaxation5. A specific, teachable technique

In essence, meditation involves the way in which we engage attention. Whether we’re practicing Vipassana, shaktipat meditation, Tai Chi, qi gong, yoga or centering prayer, each of thesepractices involves the development of diffuse modes of attention. In fact, virtually all spiritualpractices and teachings are, at their heart, modes of attention. Think about it. When Jesus toldthe multitude on the mount to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God,” he was pointing to a mode ofattention in which God and alignment with God were the sole objects of desire and attention.Islam’s emphasis of submission of the will to God is, again, a unique mode of attention. And theEightfold Path of Buddhism (right view, right intention, right speech, right action, rightlivelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration) is itself a mode of attention




passively listening to music in the background, the visual areas of the brain will be activated andthe areas associated with hearing will not. Conversely, if the music is listened to attentively whilepassively looking at a book, the areas associated with hearing will become active.

It is apparent from this example that conscious attention directs the flow of energy andinformation within the brain. In terms of the mind-body problem mentioned in Chapter 1,

conscious intention and attention seem to act as the gateway for mental causation in the physicalrealm. You may have heard this observation expressed elsewhere as “ Energy goes whereattention flows.”

We can see this principle at work in various Hindu forms of meditation, for example, whereinattention is placed on the “third eye,” located at the point just above where the eye brows meet. It

just so happens that key brain areas involved in certain forms of meditation are located just behind this point, not the least of which is the pituitary gland. As attention is stabilized in thisarea, a positive feedback loop is developed that increases the amplitude of the signal until, atsome point, the pituitary gland releases neuropeptides conducive to deep relaxation.

While understanding how attention acts as a gateway to directing the flow of energy and

information in the brain is of great importance, it is also helpful know how that gateway ismaintained as an ever-present way of being in the world . The theory of Canadian psychologistDonald Hebb can help us in this regard.

Hebbian Learning

Donald Hebb theorized in 1949 that, as a brain cell repeatedly and persistently excites anothercell, the firing process between these two cells becomes strengthened. The electrochemical bonds between these brain cells are reinforced and enhanced through continued use. And the morethese pathways are strengthened, the more prominent are their psychophysiological correlates inthe personality and in conscious experience. In this way the brain learns behaviors by therepeated and sustained activation of particular neural and synaptic pathways over time, untilthey become more or less hardwired into the brain’s neural circuitry.

You have probably heard this notion expressed as, “Neurons that fire together wire together.”




Again, we can see the conscious focus of attention as the “drill sergeant” that establishes at leastthree important factors in involved in meditation: 1) the direction of the flow of energy andinformation; 2) the overarching cadence of that flow; and 3) the amplitude, or power, of thatresulting signal. We can envision a cultivated meditation practice as a means of directing the flowof energy and information in such continuous, rhythmic and synchronous fashion that iteventually establishes a positive feedback loop that builds in amplitude. The resulting coherence

is experienced as lucidity, clarity and penetrating insight.

The Narrow Gate as a Strange Attractor

Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads todestruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrowthat leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14, New American StandardBible). He is also recorded as having stated, “. . . the kingdom of heaven is within you” (Luke17:21, New International Version). Buddhist teaching in the Madhyamaka tradition likewiseemphasizes the potential for enlightenment (which can be seen as the Buddhist equivalent of thekingdom of heaven) as being readily available. Yet the conditioned mind remains oblivious to theliberating reality of its immediate proximity.

This chapter theorizes that the “wide gate” that leads to destruction is the culturally andneurologically conditioned mind, which is oblivious to the enlightened Buddha-nature. In other

words, inefficient modes of attention that were established as the result of ingrained neurological




conditioning throughout the lifespan act collectively as the “wide gate” that leads to an innerexperience of hell.

The distinction between wide and narrow in this regard refers to one gate being more easilynoticed and having a stronger attractive pull than the other in immediate experience. The widegate is a strange attractor of sorts, because it habitually attracts our attention based on our

previous, mostly unconscious, conditioning. Inherent in such conditioning are top-down processes—global neuro-electrical currents that entrain and therefore distort local processesinvolved in perception. Through this top-down process, certain neural networks createpersuasive attractor patterns, some of which have been linked to various psychiatric disorders.The term attractor pattern is used in chaos theory to denote systemic patterns toward whichchaotic systems tend to evolve.

It is further theorized here that the narrow gate which leads to life is nothing other than themindful and conscious awareness of the Buddha-nature—consciousness as presence—within;i.e., meta-awareness—the awareness of awareness. This gate, then, is narrow because it is lessobvious to the conditioned mind and because it is mediated by both an enlightened intention andan exclusive neural circuit involving the middle prefrontal areas. Scientific evidence suggests that

these areas work together in mindfulness meditation to preclude the top-down neural processesinvolved in the expectations of attachment and aversion arising from the conditioned mind.Sometimes referred to as a bottom-up process, this narrow gate involves present-momentawareness, attentive not only of mental and bodily processes, but of conscious presence as well.This anchoring of awareness in the present moment, as such, acts to override the conditionedmind, effectively making embodied meta-awareness a strange attractor for heightenedconsciousness.




Further Reading

Begley, S. (2007). Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How Science Reveals Our

Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves. New York: Ballentine Books.

Combs, A. (2002). The Radiance of Being: Understanding the Grand Integral Vision; Living

the Integral Life. St Paul, MN: Paragon House.

Creswell, S., B. M. Way, N. I. Eisenberger, & M. D. Liberman. (2007). Neural Correlates of

Dispositional Mindfulness during Affect Labeling. Psychosomatic Medicine, 69, 560-565.

Davidson, R., & Neville, H. (2004). Neuroplasticity: The Neuronal Substrates of Learning and

Transformation. Mind and Life II . Symposium conducted at the meeting of the The Mind

and Life Institute, Dharamsala, India.

Engel, A. K., Fries, P., Singer, W. (2001). Dynamic predictions: Oscillations and synchrony in

top-down processing. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 704-716.

Ewen, R. B. (2004). An Introduction to Theories of Personality. Mawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Hoffman, R. E. (1992). Attractor Neuro Networks and Psychotic Disorders. Psychiatric Annals,

22(3), 119-124.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World through

Mindfulness. New York: Hyperion Press.

Li, E., & Spiegel, D. (1992). A Neuro Network Model of Associative Disorders. Psychiatric

Annals, 22(3), 144-145.

Mathew, R. J. (2002). The True Path: Western Science and the Quest for Yoga. New York: Basic

Books.

Nataraja, S. (2008). The Blissful Brain: Neuroscience and proof of the power of meditation.

London: Hachette.

Pinel, J. P. J. (2003). Biopsychology. New York: Pearson.

Prigogine, I., & Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature. New

York: Bantam.

Pujol, J., Lopez, A., Deus, J., Cardoner, N., Vallejo, J., Capdevila, A., & Paus, T. (2002).

Anatomical variability of the anterior cingulate gyrus and basic dimensions of human

personality. NeuroImage, 15 , 847-855.Ramel, W., Goldin, P. R., Carmona, P. E., & McQuaid, J. R. (2004). The effects of mindfulness

meditation on cognitive processes and affect in patients with past depression. Cognitive

Therapy and Research, 38, 433-455.




Sarnot, H. B., & Menkes, J. H. (2000). Neuroembrylogy, Genetic Programming and

Malformations of the Nervous System. In J. H. Menkes, H. B. Sarnot & B. L. Maria

(Eds). Child Neurology. Hagerstown, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Schwartz, J., & Allen, S. (2007). Lead Your Brain Instead of Letting It Lead You. The Complete

Lawyer, 3(3), 1-6.

Schwartz, J., & Begley, S. (2002). The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of

Mental Force. New York: HarperCollins.

Siegel, D. (2007). The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of

Well-Being. New York: W. W. Norton.

Taylor. J. B. (2006). My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey. New York:

Plume.

Tomasello, M. (1993). On the interpersonal origins of self-concept. In U. Neisser (Ed), The

perceived self: Ecological and interpersonal sources of self-knowledge. Emorysymposia in cognition, 5 (pp. 174–184). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Trevarthen, C. (1993). The self born in intersubjectivity: An infant communicating. In U. Neisser

(Ed.), The Perceived Self: Ecological and Interpersonal Sources of Self-Knowledge, (pp.

121–173). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Waller, M. (2007). Awakening: Exposing the Voice of the Mosaic Mind . Livermore, CA:

WingSpan.

Wilber, K. (2000). Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy. Boston:

Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2007). Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and

Postmodern World . Boston: Shambhala.

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