Friday, April 25, 2008

Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation

Google Tech Talks.

More on meditation and cognitive science.

ABSTRACT

Mindfulness meditation, one type of meditation technique, has been shown to enhance emotional awareness and psychological flexibility as well as induce well-being and emotional balance. Scientists have also begun to examine how meditation may influence brain functions. This talk will examine the effect of mindfulness meditation practice on the brain systems in which psychological functions such as attention, emotional reactivity, emotion regulation, and self-view are instantiated. We will also discuss how different forms of meditation practices are being studied using neuroscientific technologies and are being integrated into clinical practice to address symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress.

Speaker: Philippe Goldin
Philippe is a research scientist and heads the Clinically Applied Affective Neuroscience group in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University.

He spent 6 years in India and Nepal studying various languages, Buddhist philosophy and debate at Namgyal Monastery and the Dialectic Monastic Institute, and serving as an interpreter for various Tibetan Buddhist lamas. He then returned to the U.S. to complete a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University. His NIH-funded clinical research focuses on (a) functional neuroimaging investigations of cognitive-affective mechanisms in adults with anxiety disorders, (b) comparing the effects of mindfulness meditation and cognitive-behavioral therapy on brain-behavior correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation, and (c) training children in family and elementary school settings in mindfulness skills to reduce anxiety and enhance compassion, self-esteem and quality of family interactions.





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Will ... thanks for the blog ... and for your pespective ...

I saw the video some weeks ago ... through Numinous Nonsense and thought It was really thorough ... the analyisis of the different strands of attention remind of Francisco Varela´s concept of enaction ...

You can tell that Philippe Goldin knows what he is talking about ...

My only issue with all this brain research and correlations to mind states ... and alleviating any type of relative disfunction is that you can miss the real point of meditation or spiritual practice for that matter and use it like a machine or technique to solve a relative problem ...

I see that everyday in my Yoga class ... it is mostly used as a technique to :
Be Healthy
Look Good
Be Cool
Have some Peace of Mind
etc...

These not being bad in themselves, but the main point, Pattanjali´s point was Nirvana ... or something like that ...

Anyway,
Warm regards from Chile ... I´m one of your fans

alonso (from Zaadz)