Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
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Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
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Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#2The two areas highlighted in the article show prefrontal cortex (front of brain) and PCC (towards the back) shutting down. The prefrontal cortex is associated with executive attention and reasoning, while PCC appears to be differentially dialed up or down in conditions with altered states of consciousness (like people under anesthesia, in a coma, or apparently meditating.) Shameless plug: We're using these neuroscientific insights to design a meditation self-tracking tool at http://brainbot.me now.
Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#3Can anyone find a copy of the paper? I haven't been able to dig one up.
Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#4Can anyone find a copy of the paper? I haven't been able to dig one up.
I don't think it's out yet. PNAS publications come out every Tuesday so maybe it'll be out in tomorrow's issue.
Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#5The real question is whether it's a good thing to stop "mind wandering" when it hasn't reached the level of disorder. From the perspective of evolution, it almost certainly has a purpose. Paul Graham pointed out that its probably useful for problem solving:
http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html
I wonder if it would be good to have the ability to better focus one's self when one's mind is wandering into unproductive subjects (e.g. agonizing over an ex) without necessarily getting to the point where your default mode has been changed so much as to prevent insights in the shower (and instead being deeply aware of the hot water).
Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#6A bunch of the people FMRI'd in this study were pulled from the pragmatic dharma movement:
http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.com/2011/04/pragmatic-dha...
Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#7The two areas highlighted in the article show prefrontal cortex (front of brain) and PCC (towards the back) shutting down. The prefrontal cortex is associated with executive attention and reasoning, while PCC appears to be differentially dialed up or down in conditions with altered states of consciousness (like people under anesthesia, in a coma, or apparently meditating.) Shameless plug: We're using these neuroscien…
You should add an about page. A meditation self-tracking tool sounds interesting (I've just started sitting zazen), but I'm going to need some details before I hand over my email.
Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#8The two areas highlighted in the article show prefrontal cortex (front of brain) and PCC (towards the back) shutting down. The prefrontal cortex is associated with executive attention and reasoning, while PCC appears to be differentially dialed up or down in conditions with altered states of consciousness (like people under anesthesia, in a coma, or apparently meditating.) Shameless plug: We're using these neuroscien…
Of course, the very idea of tracking and working on "improving" via meditation goes against the core idea of zen meditation itself.
But I'm interested in your startup anyway. :)
edit: in fairness, there are many types of meditation beyond zen.
Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#9The two areas highlighted in the article show prefrontal cortex (front of brain) and PCC (towards the back) shutting down. The prefrontal cortex is associated with executive attention and reasoning, while PCC appears to be differentially dialed up or down in conditions with altered states of consciousness (like people under anesthesia, in a coma, or apparently meditating.) Shameless plug: We're using these neuroscien…
You should add an about page. A meditation self-tracking tool sounds interesting (I've just started sitting zazen), but I'm going to need some details before I hand over my email.
We do need to get a little more info on the teaser page, we've been pretty heads down on the actual app for the RockHealth.org incubator. We just finished last week so I'll throw something together soon. My background is actually neuroscience; before this I was doing neuroimaging of meditation research at the Harvard-MIT-MGH Martinos Center in Boston. The whole project kind of started with this crazy trip to India to find monks to put EEG equipment on in 2009.
Re: Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
#10The two areas highlighted in the article show prefrontal cortex (front of brain) and PCC (towards the back) shutting down. The prefrontal cortex is associated with executive attention and reasoning, while PCC appears to be differentially dialed up or down in conditions with altered states of consciousness (like people under anesthesia, in a coma, or apparently meditating.) Shameless plug: We're using these neuroscien…
Of course, the very idea of tracking and working on "improving" via meditation goes against the core idea of zen meditation itself. But I'm interested in your startup anyway. :) edit: in fairness, there are many types of meditation beyond zen.
Yes, we have started building a database of many different styles of meditation, but the work is just beginning. There's so much we don't know yet! Thank you for the feedback