Antoine Lutz

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The Relation between Mental Training/ Inner
Transformation in the Contemplative Traditions
and Neuroplasticity
Antoine Lutz University of Wisconsin- Madison, USA
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Background
Investigating the Mind MIT- Cambridge, MA (2003)
The Science and Clinical Application of
Meditation SFN-Washington, D.C. (2005)
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General issue How to study human consciousness
?
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Why neuroscientists should acknowledge and
developed the first-person dimension?

• Ontological irreductibility of experience (e.g.
  Chalmers, Searle)
• Generate new data !
• for the experimentalist new intuition ( dual
  expertise)
• for the participants new first-person
  experiental categories (e.g. in wine tasting)
• To explicitly identify the 3nd person data (
  need of meta-awareness/ introspection skill)

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Neuroscience and spirituality
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Examples of contemplative traditions

• The Philokalia tradition of Heart-praying
• The Jewish Kabala
• Sufi tradition, (Naqshbandi lineage)
• Buddhist traditions Theravadin, Chinese
  Mahayana, Japanese Zen, or Tibetan Buddhism
• Vedanta tradition

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Why does spirituality matter for neuroscience of
consciousness?
1) spiritual practice is a disciplined
subjective examination of human experience and
its meanings. Hypothesis 1 participants
trained in the same contemplative tradition
should be capable of generating original and
reproducible first-person data correlating with
similar third-person data.
2) spiritual practice is a transformative
process Hypothesis 2 spiritual practices can
have a long-term impact of on brain function and
structures a process known as neuroplasticity
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Example 1 of mutual contraints 1st / 3nd person
data
Lutz et al. 2002, PNAS
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Example 2 of mutual contraints 1st / 3nd person
data
Neural counterpart of subjectivity
First-person expertise
clarity of the mind (gsal cha) states
phenomenal or subjective intensity during
meditation
First-person report
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Neural counterpart of subjectivity
First-person expertise
First-person report
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Neural counterpart of subjectivity
First-person expertise
First-person report
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Neural counterpart of subjectivity
First-person expertise
First-person report
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Neural counterpart of subjectivity
First-person expertise
First-person report
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Neural counterpart of subjectivity
First-person expertise
First-person report
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Neural counterpart of subjectivity
First-person expertise
First-person report
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Correlation gamma activity and first-person
report
Example Adept 1
µV2
300250200150100500
Corr 0.69
Beginning meditation
End meditation
Time
Verbal report (rating 1-9)
Gamma activity (25-45Hz)
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Neuroplasticity and meditation training
2) spiritual practice is a transformative
process Hypothesis 2 spiritual practices can
have a long-term impact of on brain function and
structures a process known as neuroplasticity
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Meditation Expertise Neuroimaging Correlates
Richard Davison with Matthieu Ricard Brain
Imaging laboratory, University of
Wisconsin-Madison
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Study Design
Meditative states studied FA, OP, CO
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Neural effects of (FA) Expertise
Brefczynski-Lewis et al. 2007, PNAS
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Neural Effects of Compassion Expertise
Background

• Perception-action models of empathy observing
  anothers emotional state activates parts of the
  neuronal network involved in processing the same
  state in oneself (Preston and De Waal 2002)

• Insula and anterior cingulate cortices in the
  empathic response to anothers pain (T. Singer et
  al. 2004)

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Voxel-wise 3-way Interaction Group by State by
Emotional Valence (corrected, plt 0.05)
15 expert meditators, 15 aged-matched controls
(Lutz et al. submitted)
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Summary
Expertise in CO meditation alters the activation
of circuitries previously linked to empathy and
theory of mind in response to emotional stimuli.
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Study 2 Impact of 3 months of intensive
meditation on attention
Insight Meditation Society, Barry, MA
Insight Meditation Society
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Attentional Blink Task
T2
T1
T1-T2 Interval short (336 ms) or long (672 ms)
Participants were not actively engaged in
meditation while performing the task
(Slagter et al. 2007)
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Predictions
In this common style of meditation training
(Vipassana), one starts by focusing, or
stabilizing, concentration on an object such as
the breath (FA). Then one broadens ones focus,
cultivating a non-reactive form of sensory
awareness or bare attention (OM). This form
of attention is non-reactive in the sense that,
ideally one does not become caught up in
judgments and affective responses about sensory
or mental stimuli. We predicted that after
3-months of meditative training
- Attention would be captured less by T1,
resulting in a smaller blink
- This reduction in T1 capture would be
associated with a smaller T1-elicited P3b, a
brain potential index of resource allocation
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Training Effects on T2 Accuracy
Interval x Time x Group F(1,34)4.3, p.045
(Slagter et al. 2007)
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(Slagter et al. 2007)
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T1-P3b Reduction gtgt AB Reduction
Critical evidence for the idea that AB results
from suboptimal resource sharing
(Slagter et al. 2007)
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Which potential mechanism for mind transformation?
Neurodynamical Correlates of meditation expertise
(gt 10, 000 hrs. formal practice in life)
Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude
gamma synchrony during mental practice (Lutz et
al., PNAS, 2004)
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Assumptions
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R
CO
Ongoing EEG (25-42Hz)
Spectral power (25-42Hz) through time
Long-distance phase-synchrony (25-42Hz)
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Relative gamma power (25-42Hz) compared to slow
rhythms (4-13Hz)




Practitioners
Controls

100 45 0
100 45 0








1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Controls
Practitioners
(Lutz et al., PNAS, 2004)
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Summary
1) Compassion meditation induces short-term and,
possibly, long-term changes in integrative neural
mechanisms
2) Because sustained synchronous neural activity
can induce synaptic plasticity (Hebbian
learning), these finding are compatible with the
idea that training in these meditative techniques
will induce changes in mental function over time.
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Conclusion
Spiritual practices affect brain processes
critical in concentration, attention regulation
and empathy. These mental functions play an
important role in mind transformation as
practices in many contemplative
traditions. Future works should explore
long-term effects of these practices on more
complex mental functions such as self-related
processes or introspection More longitudinal
studies are necessary to study meditation training
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Acknowledgements(past and current collaborators)

• Dr. Richard Davidson, Heleen Slagter, Donal
  MacCoon, Melissa Rosenkranz, Helen Weng, David
  Perlman, Andy Francis, Nancy Rawlings, Larry
  Greischar, Jenna Scheftel, Daniel Levinson, Tom
  Johnstone, Shanan Harkness, Rahul Grag, Brianna
  Schuyler, Matthieu Ricard and John Dunne

This research was supported by

• NCCAM, U01AT002114-01A, for Antoine Lutz, by NIMH
  Mind-Body Center P50-MH61083, for Richard Davidson

• By gifts from Adrianne and Edwin Cook-Ryder ,
  Bryant Wangard and Ralph Robinson, Keith and
  Arlene Bronstein and the John W. Kluge Foundation.

• Thanks also to the Mind Life Institute for help
  in securing funding and for the involvement of
  the experts.

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Voxel-wise 3-way Interaction Group by State by
Emotional Valence (corrected, plt 0.05)
15 expert meditators, 15 aged-matched controls
(Lutz et al. submitted)
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