Understanding the Neurobiological Mechanisms of Mindfulness
Achieving
mindfulness through meditation has helped people maintain a healthy mind by
quelling negative emotions and thoughts, such as desire, anger and anxiety, and
encouraging more positive dispositions such as compassion, empathy and forgiveness.
Those who have reaped the benefits of mindfulness know that it works. But how
exactly does it work?
Researchers
at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have proposed a new model that shifts how
we think about mindfulness. Rather than
describing mindfulness as a single dimension of cognition, the researchers
demonstrate that mindfulness actually involves a broad framework of complex
mechanisms in the brain.
In
essence, they have laid out the science behind mindfulness.
The
researchers identified several cognitive functions that are active in the brain
during mindfulness practice. These cognitive functions help a person develop
self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART) which make up
the transformative framework for the mindfulness process.
The
S-ART framework explains the underlying neurobiological mechanisms by which
mindfulness can facilitate self-awareness; reduce biases and negative thoughts;
enhance the ability to regulate one's behavior; and increase positive,
pro-social relationships with oneself and others-all-in-all creating a
sustainable healthy mind.
The
researchers highlight six neuropsychological processes that are active
mechanisms in the brain during mindfulness and which support S-ART. These
processes include 1) intention and motivation, 2) attention regulation, 3)
emotion regulation, 4) extinction and reconsolidation, 5) pro-social behavior,
and 6) non-attachment and de-centering.
In
other words, these processes begin with an intention and motivation to want to
attain mindfulness, followed by an awareness of one's bad habits. Once these
are set, a person can begin taming him or herself to be less emotionally
reactive and to recover faster from upsetting emotions.
"Through
continued practice, the person can develop a psychological distance from any
negative thoughts and can inhibit natural impulses that constantly fuel bad
habits," said David Vago, PhD, BWH Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory,
Department of Psychiatry, and lead study author.
Vago
also states that continued practice can also increase empathy and eliminate our
attachments to things we like and aversions to things we don't like.
"The
result of practice is a new You with a new multidimensional skill set for
reducing biases in one's internal and external experience and sustaining a
healthy mind," said Vago.
The
S-ART framework and neurobiological model proposed by the researchers differs
from current popular descriptions of mindfulness as a way of paying attention,
in the present moment, non-judgmentally. With the help of functional MRI, Vago
and his team are currently testing the model in humans.
This
research was supported by the Mind and Life Institute, Impact Foundation, and
the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National
Institutes of Health (5-R21AT002209-02).
The above story is based on the October 29, 2012 press release by Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The
research was published online 25 October 2012 in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience:
Vago DR, Silbersweig.
DA Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a
framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness. Front
Hum Neurosci, 2012; 6 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00296
FULL TEXT
PDF
No comments:
Post a Comment