Contemplative neuroscience

Last updated

Contemplative neuroscience (or contemplative science) is the field in which neuroscience tools, like fMRI, are used to study the effects of meditation. Founders of the field include Richard Davidson, Francisco Varela and B. Alan Wallace, among others. It often emphasizes Buddhist approaches to contemplation and meditation, and conflates meditation with various contemplative practices. [1]

One of the field's first high-profile public gatherings was the Mind and Life Institute’s public dialogue, held at MIT in 2003, entitled 'Investigating the Mind'. [2] Participants included the 14th Dalai Lama, Nobel Laureate scientist Daniel Kahneman and Eric Lander, Director of the MIT Centre for Genomic Research. This conference, attended by 1,200 scientists and contemplatives, marked the public birth of contemplative neuroscience in the USA. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Cognitive neuroscience Scientific field

Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental processes. It addresses the questions of how cognitive activities are affected or controlled by neural circuits in the brain. Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both neuroscience and psychology, overlapping with disciplines such as behavioral neuroscience, cognitive psychology, physiological psychology and affective neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience relies upon theories in cognitive science coupled with evidence from neurobiology, and computational modeling.

Francisco Varela Chilean scientist and philosopher

Francisco Javier Varela García was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, cybernetician, and neuroscientist who, together with his mentor Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopoiesis to biology, and for co-founding the Mind and Life Institute to promote dialog between science and Buddhism.

The relationship between Buddhism and science is a subject of contemporary discussion and debate among Buddhists, scientists and scholars of Buddhism. Historically, Buddhism encompasses many types of beliefs, traditions and practices, so it is difficult to assert any single "Buddhism" in relation to science. Similarly, the issue of what "science" refers to remains a subject of debate, and there is no single view on this issue. Those who compare science with Buddhism may use "science" to refer to "a method of sober and rational investigation" or may refer to specific scientific theories, methods or technologies.

The neuroscience of religion, also known as neurotheology and as spiritual neuroscience, attempts to explain religious experience and behaviour in neuroscientific terms. It is the study of correlations of neural phenomena with subjective experiences of spirituality and hypotheses to explain these phenomena. This contrasts with the psychology of religion which studies mental, rather than neural, states.

Eleanor Rosch Professor of psychology

Eleanor Rosch is an American psychologist. She is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in cognitive psychology and primarily known for her work on categorization, in particular her prototype theory, which has profoundly influenced the field of cognitive psychology.

Jon Kabat-Zinn American professor emeritus of medicine

Jon Kabat-Zinn is an American professor emeritus of medicine and the creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn was a student of Zen Buddhist teachers such as Philip Kapleau, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Seung Sahn, and a founding member of Cambridge Zen Center. His practice of yoga and studies with Buddhist teachers led him to integrate their teachings with scientific findings. He teaches mindfulness, which he says can help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness. The stress reduction program created by Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), is offered by medical centers, hospitals, and health maintenance organizations, and is described in his book Full Catastrophe Living.

Matthieu Ricard

Matthieu Ricard is a French writer, photographer, translator and Buddhist monk who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal.

Richard Davidson American psychologist

Richard J. Davidson is professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as well as founder and chair of the Center for Healthy Minds and the affiliated non-profit Healthy Minds Innovations.

B. Alan Wallace

Bruce Alan Wallace is an American author and expert on Tibetan Buddhism. His books discuss Eastern and Western scientific, philosophical, and contemplative modes of inquiry, often focusing on the relationships between science and Buddhism. He is founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.

Nora Volkow American physician

Nora Volkow is a Mexican-American psychiatrist. She is currently the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Tenzin Priyadarshi Tibetan Buddhist teacher

Tenzin Priyadarshi is the president and CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

14th Dalai Lama Current foremost spiritual leader of Tibet

The 14th Dalai Lama, known as Gyalwa Rinpoche to the Tibetan people, is the current Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and former head of state of Tibet. Born on 6 July 1935, or in the Tibetan calendar, in the Wood-Pig Year, 5th month, 5th day, he is considered a living Bodhisattva; specifically, an emanation of Guanyin Bodhisattva (Avalokiteśvara). He is also the leader of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa. The central government of Tibet, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties until his exile in 1959. On 29 April 1959, the Dalai Lama established the independent Tibetan government in exile in the north Indian hill station of Mussoorie, which then moved in May 1960 to Dharamshala, where he resides. He retired as political head in 2011 to make way for a democratic government, the Central Tibetan Administration.

Arthur Guy Zajonc is a physicist and the author of several books related to science, mind, and spirit; one of these is based on dialogues about quantum mechanics with the Dalai Lama. Zajonc, professor emeritus at Amherst College as of 2012, has been teaching there since 1978. He has served as the General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America. From January 2012 to June 2015 he was president of the Mind and Life Institute.

Tania Singer German neuroscientist

Tania Singer is a German psychologist and social neuroscientist and the scientific director of the Max Planck Society's Social Neuroscience Lab in Berlin, Germany. Between 2007 and 2010, she became the inaugural chair of social neuroscience and neuroeconomics at the University of Zurich and was the co-director of the Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research in Zürich. Her research focuses on the developmental, neuronal, and hormonal mechanisms underlying human social behavior and social emotions such as compassion and empathy. She is founder and principal investigator of the ReSource project, one of the largest longitudinal studies on the effects of mental training on brain plasticity as well as mental and physical health, co-funded by the European Research Council. She also collaborates with the macro-economist Dennis Snower on research on caring economics. Singer's Caring Economics: Conversations on Altruism and Compassion, Between Scientists, Economists, and the Dalai Lama was published in 2015. She is the daughter of the neuroscientist Wolf Singer.

Mind and Life Institute American nonprofit organization

The Mind & Life Institute is a US-registered, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1991 to establish the field of contemplative sciences. Based in Charlottesville, Va., the institute “brings science and contemplative wisdom together to better understand the mind and create positive change in the world." Over three decades, Mind & Life has played a key role in the mindfulness meditation movement by funding research projects and think tanks, and by convening conferences and dialogues with the Dalai Lama. Since 2020, Mind & Life's grant-making, events, and digital programs have sought to nurture personal wellbeing, build more compassionate communities, and strengthen the human-earth connection.

Amishi Jha American neuroscientist

Amishi Jha is a professor of psychology at the University of Miami.

Han Frederik de Wit Research psychologist at the University of Amsterdam in 1974. He moved to expanded outside the formal psychology field in search for guidance in his spirituality. De Wit became internationally acknowledged as one of the founders of Contemplative Psychology. Today he teaches meditation at the Shambhala centers in the Netherlands and instructs seminars in the psychology of Buddhism.

Barry Kerzin American physician and Buddhist monk (born 1947)

Barry Michael Kerzin(born November 1, 1947) is an American physician and Buddhist monk. He has lived in Dharamshala since 1988, and serves as a personal physician to the 14th Dalai Lama, along with treating people in the local community. Following his ordination as a monk by Dalai Lama in January 2003, he has travelled, teaching and offering workshops in which he blends Buddhist teaching and his medical training. He has served as a research participant in neuroscience research into the effects of meditation on the brain.

Catherine Kerr was an Assistant Professor of medicine, Assistant Professor of family medicine, and the Director of Translational Neuroscience in the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown University at her untimely death in November, 2016. Kerr received her bachelor's from Amherst College before completing her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University. Following this she was a post doctoral fellow and Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and it was here that she received a career development award from the NIH to conduct research into the cognitive neuroscience of meditation. She joined Brown's Department of Family Medicine and Contemplative Studies Initiative in 2011.

R. Adam Engle

R. Adam Engle is an American social entrepreneur who initiated and developed the Mind and Life Dialogues between the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and panels of prominent scientists in the 1980s. Over the 22 years of his subsequent tenure as chief executive of the Mind and Life Institute, which he co-founded in 1990, his work contributed significantly to the establishment of contemplative science as a new field of research.

References

  1. Komjathy, Louis (2015). Contemplative Literature: A Comparative Sourcebook on Meditation and Contemplative Prayer. SUNY Press. p. 740. ISBN   9781438457079.
  2. Barinaga, Marcia (October 3, 2003). "Buddhism and Science: Studying the Well-trained Mind". Science Magazine. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Highwire Press. 302 (5642): 44–46. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  3. Harrington, Zajonc, ed. (2003). The Dalai Lama at MIT. USA: Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0674023192. Records of Conference "Investigating the Mind" at MIT