Mind & Life XIII - Session Two - Possible Biological Substrates of Meditation

Filmed during Mind & Life Institute's "Mind & Life XIII: Investigating the Mind: The Science and Clinical Applications of Meditation" on November 8, 2005.

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SPEAKERS
Robert M. Sapolsky, Ph.D.
Wolf Singer, M.D., Ph.D.

MODERATOR
Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.

PANELISTS
The Dalai Lama
Robert M. Sapolsky, Ph.D.
Wolf Singer, M.D., Ph.D.
Matthieu Ricard, Ph.D.
Esther M. Sternberg, M.D.
B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D.

INTERPRETERS
Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D.
B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D.

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Modern scientific knowledge of how stress affects the brain and body and how the brain can become re-organized to produce states of focused attention that promote learning and change has burgeoned over the past decade.

This session will showcase some of the latest scientific research on these topics to provide a foundation for the likely substrates upon which med­itation might operate. In addition, a detailed understanding of the bio­logical substrates of stress and plasticity will provide a framework for the design of new research that is based upon this recent understanding.

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SPEAKERS

Robert Sapolsky: The neurobiology of the adaptive and the deleteri­ous features of stress

Few of us will succumb to cholera, smallpox or scarlet fever. Instead, we die from diseases of Westernized lifestyle, which are often dis­eases worsened by stress. When the stress-response is mobilized by the body because of a typical mammalian stressor (e.g., a sprint from a predator), it is highly adaptive. However, when activated in the classic manner of Westernized humans (i.e., chronic psychoso­cial stress), it is pathogenic. The presentation will consider this dichotomy, as well as new directions of research needed for under­standing the neurobiology of stress and stress management.

Wolf Singer: Synchronization of brain rhythms as a possible mecha­nism for the unification of distributed mental processes

The brain is organized in a highly distributed way and lacks a con­vergence center for the coherent interpretation of the numerous parallel processes that occur simultaneously within functionally specialized regions. This raises the question how subsystems are integrated so that their computational results can give rise to uni­fied percepts. It is proposed that this integration is achieved at least in part by the synchronization of oscillatory activity in the beta- and gamma frequency range. This interpretation is in accor­dance with neuronal activation patterns recorded during states of focused attention and meditation, since attentional processes serve binding functions, heighten awareness, and lead to the uni­fication of distributed processes.

Видео Mind & Life XIII - Session Two - Possible Biological Substrates of Meditation канала Mind & Life Institute