Choose a topic from Tuesday's readings that you were particularly interested in. Your job is to do some more indepth research on that topic. That may mean looking up some of the original research cited in the chapter and finding and reading the original research article. It also could mean searching the internet for other content and information out there on this topic (ranging from videos, news releases, summaries of research findings, others' blog posts, etc).
One you have completed your search and explorations I would like you to clearly state what your topic is, discuss how it relates to the readings, and thoroughly discuss what you learned about this topic from your additional resources.
It is possible to do this assignment with one source (an original research article). I encourage you to use this approach for at least half of these types of assignments. The other method, is to find suitable internet content that helps you learn more about your topic. If you choose this method, I'd like you to provide 3 sources of information (in the form of internet links). Do not be tempted to just discuss each of the links separately. You must synthesize the information, and discuss the topic as a whole.
At the bottom of your post, please include several key terms that reflect your topic, as well as your sources (either the citation for the 1 research article, and link if it is available on line, or 3 links to the internet content you discussed).
Please be prepared to discuss your topic, as a portion of each in-class day will be devoted to hearing from all of you about what you learned.
This chapter was hard to keep focus on while reading. I randomly decided I would chose a topic by flipping though the chapter and looking up the first article I saw cited. Oddly enough I chose to look further into dissociations between experience and meta-consciousness. sporadically attention is focused on explicitly assessing aspects of experience. Meta-consciousness results this sporadic attention and from this while also involving an explicit re-representation of consciousness that is believed to explain or interpret the individuals state of mind. The article explains meta-consciousness as consciousness as turning itself on. Following the belief that meta-consciousness involves re-representations of specific aspects of consciousness comes two forms of dissociations. The first is temporal dissociations, this happens when Meta-consciousness is focused on an experience that had once before took place in the absence of explicit awareness. The second, when meta-consciousness is generated, translation dissociations may happen if the re-representation process misinterprets the original experience. Mind-wandering and the lack of intention is not a lack of awareness. Studies in this article have proven that when we are mind-wandering or “zoning-out”, we are unaware of its happening until we catch ourselves while in the process and correct our focus. We do this because we forget the intended goal. While in such a state of zoning-out it concludes that we often lack meta-consciousness. Emotional awareness also plays part in meta-consciousness. If we lack meta-consciousness that are apart of affective states then our experience of our own emotions could be changed. That is why we are usually unaware of our emotional states until it has been noticed by another and then brought to our attention. Nocturnal cognition is referred to as dreaming. Though it is extremely rare that one can become meta-conscious while dreaming (sometimes referred to as lucid dreaming), the experiences of the dreams are altered dramatically. As we have previously learned, the article states that automatic nervous system and its behaviors are believed to be unconscious. An exception to this is experience or memorization yet still lacking meta-consciousness. Other miscellaneous dissociations of meta-consciousness include things such as drugs, alcohol, hypnosis,..etc. The next section of this article is, “the effects of verbal reflection”. The article has a good view point on this. If you are shown a picture of a specific individual. Then after the picture of this person is removed you are supposed to try and describe into words the mental picture you have provided for yourself within your mind. When trying to pair their descriptions words with an array of pictures they were asked to describe, the participants failed miserably. This is known as “verbal overshadowing”. In relation to this, another form of reflection is thinking while solving a problem. Thinking aloud disrupts our decisions. The next section was named “Ambiguous experiences”. It began by explain that a lot of our experiences are hedonically unambiguous. This can be thought of as an individual putting on a “front” to make others believe they are happy when they are not. Having the ability to con our own feelings could be a reflection of our meta-consciousness deteriorating ability to associate the contents of experience.
Article: Schooler, J. W. (2002.) Re-representing consciousness: dissociations between experience and meta-consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 6(8), 339.
Terms: meta-consciousness, zoning-out, explicit re-representation, temporal dissociations, explicit awareness, emotional awareness, . nocturnal cognition, lucid dreaming, verbal overshadowing, thinking aloud, ambiguous experiences, hedonically unambiguous
For this week's exploration blog I decided to look into a study that was discussed in this chapter regarding telomerase activity. The book discussed how the study investigated connections between meditation and mindfulness, feelings of purpose in life, and emotional processing. The part that interested me though, was that it mentioned the biological marker, telomerase. The book mentioned that previous research found decreased levels of the enzyme to be associated with shorter telomere sequences, which are linked to faster aging and proneness to disease. As I had trusted this book slightly less after reading the chapter, I wanted to look at the study for myself. Sixty men and women were recruited for this study, 30 of which were randomly assigned to the experimental group, and 30 to the control group. Those in the experimental group underwent a 3 month meditation retreat, led by well-known Buddhist practitioner, Alan Wallace. While at the retreat, participants were to meditate on loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. These are the four healthy emotions identified by the book, assuming that empathetic joy is objectively the same as rejoicing. The meditation group met with Dr. Wallace in the mornings and evenings for guided meditations and engaged in individual meditation sessions for the remainder of the day. Participants meditated for an average of 6.3 hours a day. Psychological assessments were made before and after the study, and telomerase measures were taken at the end of the study for both groups. A number of participants didn't meet the criteria for assessing telomerase activity, due to inadequate number of PBMCs (peripheral blood mononuclear cells), or too high of a BMI. The reduced sample sizes were 17 for the retreat group and 25 for the control group. Mindfulness was assessed based on a 37-item Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. Purpose in life and perceived control was measured on a the Purpose in Life and Environmental Mastery sub-scales of Ryff's Well-Being Scale. Neuroticism was assessed on the 8-item scale of the Big Five Inventory. Retreat participants reported significantly greater increases in mindfulness, purpose in life, and perceived control, as well as a significantly greater decrease in neuroticism as compared with the control group. The group effect accounted for 7.7% of the variance in telomerase activity, being a rather small effect size. This effect was significantly mediated by changes in perceived control, neuroticism, and purpose in life. Telomerase values for the retreat group were greater than the control group by an average of 1.56 raw units of telomerase. As telomerase is necessary to prevent early telomere shortening, and therefore important to decreasing the risk of earlier than necessary mortality, this is an important study. Telomerase activity is inversely associated to perceived stress, which is a factor that can be affected by the practice of meditation. This was an interesting study which showed the importance of meditation on overall well-being.
Key Words: meditation, telomerase activity, loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity, mindfulness, purpose in life, neuroticism, stress
Jacobs, T.L., et al., Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Psychoneuroendocrinology (2010), doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.09.010
For this exploration blog I picked one of the citations the author mentioned in the section where she talked about quantum physics. I previously researched that topic so I thought reading that article would be interesting and maybe provide new information about the debate between mind and body. The paper was very long so I'll focus on the two more interesting sections for this blog. I read two sections about conscious experience and free will. The first section talked about consciousness. According to the author, a conscious experience must be in terms of things that can be recalled or remembered. The feel cannot be the feel of microscopic, or quantum, neural activities because they are fleeting and vanish without an adequate record. It is only the macroscopic symbols that are recorded and recalled. Essentially, consciousness doesn’t follow the laws that govern quantum theory.
The next section talked about free will. The author said that organisms are able to make high-level choices seemingly of their own free will. When we make decisions, we have a sense of autonomy and feel that the decisions we are making weren’t predestined. According to quantum theory, this would not be possible because the theory says everything is governed by blind chance. The author then mentioned that our choices aren’t blind to begin with and this is where the paper got a bit confusing and abstract. If the quantum events in the brain occurred at the level of the neurons then the choices would be blind because the consequences of each individual choice would be hidden by the outcomes of billions of similar independent random choices. The choices an organism makes are choices between actions that have clear consequences for the organism as a whole in terms of its future behavior. The author argued that an organism makes decisions based on what it needs to survive. Its actions aren’t governed just by chance because there is purpose to them and that purpose is to survive. The author then mentioned more abstract ideas about “quantum soup” and the interplay of chance and determinism. The section about free will concluded by saying that we may not always be in control of the situations we are placed in but we can choose how we react to them through a process of microscopically controlled deterministic evolution scattered with our own meaningful choices.
Overall this article was difficult to follow because of its lofty vocabulary and philosophical ideas that I’m not very familiar with. If I interpreted in correctly, the author thinks consciousness and the human experience aren’t governed by quantum mechanics; they are separate entities. The author never bluntly said the mind and brain are different or mentioned what the mind and consciousness are if they aren’t controlled by physics. It made me wonder more about a soul and if there really is something metaphysical in humans that is greater than the forces that govern all of the physical things in our world.
Terms: consciousness, quantum theory, destiny, fate, free will, neurons
Stapp, H. (1995). The hard problem: A quantum approach. Journal of Consciousness Studies 3,3: 194-210.
For this week’s blog I decided research acupuncture and its effects on the mind as well as meditation. I decided to research this topic as the chapter was very boring and acupuncture is a form of medical/therapeutic treatment that no one has yet touched on. Acupuncture according to Webster Dictionary, is an originally Chinese practice of inserting fine needles through the skin at specific points especially to cure disease or relieve pain. Acupuncture has been found to be very relaxing and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. When this occurs, breathing becomes deeper and more regular. Capillaries dilate and carry blood to tissues that get less fresh blood when we are under stress. The diaphragm relaxes, allowing us to take deeper breaths and bringing more oxygen into the system. The heart can pump blood with more oxygen under less pressure, allowing more efficient blood flow throughout the body and in our brains (Ingegno, 2010).
With this relaxed state, many meditators who have loss meditative focus or hit a wall may try acupuncture to get back on track. I have used acupuncture a few times when I was younger. The needles generally do not hurt, but cause an almost paralysis. With this paralysis you are stuck in a room with candles and soothing music thus you relax and may even fall asleep. I have not used acupuncture in awhile however I may consider using it again, especially if I am having difficulties meditating.
Acupuncture from a medical stand point is difficult to fully research (can’t have a placebo) however acupuncture has shown medical improvement. In a study provided by NYtimes Magizine, acupuncture was found to help reduce symptoms of allergies. Unfortunately the reduction lasted only a week but continuous use of acupuncture was found to be helpful. In another study conducted on acupuncture and chronic pain, researchers found that acupuncture outperformed sham treatments and standard care when used by people suffering from osteoarthritis, migraines and chronic back, neck and shoulder pain (O'Connor, 2012). Finally a team of scientists from around the world conducted a meta-analysis that included studies which compared acupuncture with usual care, like over-the-counter pain relievers and other standard medicines. It also included studies that used sham acupuncture treatments, in which needles were inserted only superficially, for example, or in which patients in control groups were treated with needles that covertly retracted into handles. Ultimately, these scientists found that at the end of treatment, about half of the patients treated with true acupuncture reported improvements, compared with about 30 percent of patients who did not undergo it (O’Connor, 2012).
Overall acupuncture is seen as a controversial form of medical treatment but can prove helpful for individuals. I generally enjoyed acupuncture however whenever I was finished I felt extremely tired and wanted to sleep. I think acupuncture could prove very useful for those having difficulties meditating and possibly those with medical problems.
Terms: acupuncture, meditation, parasympathetic system, therapy, placebo, meta-analysis, paralysis
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/acupuncture-provides-true-pain-relief-in-study/?ref=acupuncture
http://www.deepermeditation.net/stressadviceblog/getting-deeper-with-acupuncture-for-stress-relief-and-meditation-173
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acupuncture
From this week’s reading, I was really intrigued by how Buddhism was brought to Tibet and especially the social changes that happened as a result of the change. However, the book didn’t go into detail about what “concrete examples of positive changes” were, so I decided to research to find out. After skimming through the Powers book that Dorjee cited and other historical overviews, I couldn’t find anything that went into detail about how their society changed. What I did find was interesting in it’s own respect.
It’s a study from 1990 looking at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa between 1982-1985. The aim of the study was to look at how the presence of group meditation and their growing numbers affected the rates of violent acts. For this study, violent acts included motor vehicle fatalities, suicide, and homicide (which included capital punishment). An interesting thing about the background offered in the article was how even by the 90’s, much was already known about how meditation is beneficial for “cognitive, affective, and physiological functioning”. For some reason, I assumed that this research was much more recent, since during class we’ve heard of countless studies on this subject. It makes me wonder why meditation is still not a prevalent thing in the United States if for 30 years it’s had empirical support.
An interesting philosophy that Maharishi has to explain why meditation can benefit all of society has similarities to ideas in physics. He connects the idea from physics that “each of the fundamental fields described by physics is associated with the apparent propagation of influences at a distance” with meditation by saying that meditation similarly spreads through a society to make positive change by decreasing social stress through pure consciousness. Others have called this the spillover effect. Maharishi believes that there needs to be a sufficient amount of people to make this effect come about and the researchers of the study statistically predicted that there only needs to be 1% of the population meditating separately and the square root of 1% meditating as a group in order to perceive change.
The results of the study did clearly show that there is a correlation between meditation and the reduction of violent death. In Iowa, during the years 1979-1985 the number of meditators increased from around 0-1,550. From other analyses of dropped violence rates due to influence of meditation, the researchers statistically predicted that the crime in Iowa should have decreased by 106.3 deaths, when in reality, it decreased by 168.4 deaths. The prediction only made up 63.1% of the actual amount of decreased deaths. This relationship because of the research done at this time is now labeled the Maharishi Effect. I think this topic of the benefits that meditation can offer society as a whole is fascinating and is understudied.
Terms: spillover effect, Buddhism, Tibet, meditation, Maharishi, physics, pure consciousness, Maharishi Effect
http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0303-8300(1990)22%3a4%3C399%3aSocial%20Indicators%20Research%3E2.0.TX%3b2-2&origin=EBSCO
For today’s exploration blog, I decided to look at one of the studies cited in the chapter. The study discussed the relationship between stress and telomerase levels. Now, I am currently taking a genetics class so seeing something that I had learned about in that class being discussed in this book kind of jumped at me so I wanted to look more into the study.
Quick backstory about telomerase. Telomerase is an enzyme in the body that constructs telomeres. The telomeres are the tips of your chromosomes where homologous pairs join up during mitosis. When your homologous chromosomes, for one reason or another, don’t hook up, problems can occur during mitosis, which can lead to cells that have an incorrect number of chromosomes. Incorrect chromosome number in cells that survive it can cause a whole slew of problems, things like Down syndrome, infertility, or birth defects. Another thing about incorrect chromosome number is that a cell with one set of damaged genes is more likely to have more problems in the genes. The more damaged a chromosome becomes, the more likely it is for a cell to become cancerous. So long story short, the telomeres are very important for cells to be able to grow and divide correctly. The longer the telomere is, the healthier the cell is likely to be. Our telomeres shorten naturally as we age because older cells are less efficient. The shortening of telomeres leads to more cell death, which we see on the macroscopic level as aging since there aren’t as many new cells to take the place of the old, dead cells. There are a lot of other important functions of the telomeres, but it would take the whole blog post to tell you about them so you can Google it later, if you’re interested.
Now that the genetics lesson is over, I can tell you more about the study. The researchers examined 62 healthy women ages 20-50, all mothers interestingly enough, and assessed their mood, life stress, and their reactions to acute mental stress testing in the lab. They also took a urine sample to measure stress hormone levels and had previously measured their telomere length (in the number of base pairs) and telomerase activity. They also took measures related to heart health to assess the effect of stress.
They found that low telomerase activity was correlated with high stress, measured by the increased amount of the stress hormones nocturnal epinephrine and norepinephrine. Shorter telomere length also correlated with increases in these stress hormones as well as cortisol. The researchers also found that low telomerase levels were associated with several risk factors for cardiovascular disease. One thing I found rather interesting was the fact that the researchers found that lowered telomerase activity was found prior to any other onset of cardiovascular disease and telomere shortening, meaning that decreased telomerase activity (brought by higher levels of stress) at a young age increases your chances of having cardiovascular disease.
When relating this study back to meditation, it shows that if we implicate meditation, which has been shown time and again to be an excellent stress reducer, in people at a young age, we could greatly improve their health and possibly prevent diseases like cardiovascular disease or even cancer. Hell, we might be able to put of the physical appearance of aging. It’s an interesting thing to think about.
Terms: Telomerase, telomeres, chromosomes, mitosis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, stress levels, norepinephrine, nocturnal epinephrine, cortisol
Link to article: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3128692/Mendes_CellAgingRElation.pdf?..
I looked at a research article called “The Sisters of Mindfulness.” It discussed different cases where a therapist was able to utilize mindfulness techniques in addition to the therapy that she was already giving. The sisters of mindfulness are: acceptance, forgiveness, loving-kindness, and compassion. These are all concepts that we have explored throughout the semester, so I was not surprised that they were included.
The therapist utilized these concepts to challenge her patient’s preconceived notions and judgments. One example that she gave was a man who assumed his partner was maliciously ignoring his emails. She pushed the patient to accept the fact that sometimes unpleasant things would happen and that would be okay as well as forgive his partner for not completing a behavior that he wanted him to. I found this part very interesting because to me it sounds like basic cognitive behavioral or psychodynamic therapy that is regularly given to patients with certain mental illnesses. This leads to me to believe that while we don’t explicitly state that we are teaching mindfulness techniques, we are using some very similar concepts in Western psychology. Another example of this could be how we often tell children to stop and think before they act. This is classic mindfulness to me.
Reading through this article, I had the same reservations that I often have with the texts that we read for class. While it often makes logical sense, there is not a whole lot of evidence to back it up. Specifically in this case, the paper relied solely on case studies. Case studies to create a great starting point for research but I was sorely disappointed to see that the paper ended before getting into experiments. I think that is indicative of how I feel towards a lot of the research on mindfulness. I just want researchers to take it one step further. After reading the last chapter, I think it is very possible that researchers will soon be doing that. It gives me hope for the field and I expect to see some good results.
Terms: Mindfulness, acceptance, forgiveness, loving-kindness, compassion, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy, Western Psychology
I chose to do my topic today on neural plasticity and meditation. I wanted to get a better understanding of what neural plasticity is and how meditation can affect it. I felt like this chapter didn’t have very much to choose from and this subject was the one I knew the least about so I chose it.
Meditation techniques can be separated into two different categories. The first is focused attention which involves being able to direct and then sustain attention on one thing. One example of this is being able to focus solely on your breathing. The other is open monitoring. This means that you aren’t focusing on any objects but instead involves contemplation and observation about your experience. During meditation, sensory input stops and meditation requires that you sustain your concentration in order to achieve a heightened awareness. There are many types of meditation that can help you do this including focusing on your breathing rhythm, an event, or a mantra. This involves a change in your neuroelectrical activity which is shown by alpha, gamma, and theta waves. While meditating it has been found that in the frontal cortex there is an increase in the amplitude of alpha waves. A study was done on a practitioner that was highly experienced and when in the deepest meditative stage there was an increase in both the theta power and the alpha band at all locations in the brain but most noticeably in the left parietal cortex. However, there was an obvious reduction in the right hemisphere of beta-activity.
Research has shown that meditation tends to change the brain activity in our sensory, emotional processing, and cognitive areas. Even in the earliest stages of meditation we can see a difference in our cingulate gyrus and bilateral prefrontal cortex. Focused attention is a very important part of meditation and it requires neural activations in the intraparietal sulcus, frontal eye-fields, ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex and the temporal-parietal junction. In long-term meditators there was much less activity in the amygdala than with short-term meditators. Studies have also shown that in long-term meditators their prefrontal cortex is much thicker in experienced subjects as well as the density of their grey matter.
Because meditation is such a broad term and it can take many different forms, there are many differences in how the brain functions and changes in association with the meditation. This makes studying neural plasticity in meditators more challenging because you have to take into account how experienced they are at meditating. This source was really good at pointing out the differences in brain structure between novice and experienced meditators and really shows the difference in awareness and attentiveness between the two.
Terminology: neural plasticity, meditation, focused attention, open monitoring, contemplation, observation, sensory input, neuroelectrical activity, apha, gamma, theta waves, frontal cortex, left parietal cortex, cingulate gyrus, bilateral prefrontal cortex, intraparietal sulcus, frontal eye-fields, ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex, temporal-parietal junction, amygdala, grey matter
Halsband, U., Mueller, S., Hinterberger, T., & Strickner, S. (2009). Plasticity changes in the brain in hypnosis and meditation. Contemporary Hypnosis (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), 26(4), 194-215. doi:10.1002/ch.386
This chapter talked a lot about the limitations of our current scientific method. Although we can study many things in the field of meditation, our form of science doesn’t allow for introspection studies because they cannot be systematically and empirically tested. Introspection is a very personal way to looking over things and cannot always be shared with others, which is partly why I think it can be so powerful. Introspection allows us to look at our own experiences and basically think more about them. I want to say that you study your experiences, but technically they can’t be studied, so you just reflect on them. Some of the limitations of scientific theory are; science doesn’t answer moral questions, it doesn’t make moral judgments, doesn’t make aesthetic judgments, science doesn’t tell us how to use science (ironically), and science can’t make explanations for things that can’t be studied (i.e. god).
The previous flaws have all been accepted because of the systematic-ness of the scientific method. What we can study goes through much critiquing, making it more likely to be true than through introspection. Our way of science right now encourages people to retest and speculate on peoples theories. Once people are able to replicate a study or attempt to prove it wrong and fail, the theory becomes fairly permanent and accepted by many. HOWEVER, just because we can’t disprove a theory doesn’t make it “True” or “Fact”. Theories are theories, and therefore should be taken “with a grain of salt”. Theories can still be proven wrong and are not absolute fact, even those like the theory of gravity which have yet (to my knowledge) to be proven wrong.
Since there are these flaws in science, some people have tried to use other forms of thinking to come up with answers to questions that we would be otherwise unable to answer. This form of study that claims to be science without following the laws of science are known as “pseudoscience”. Pseudoscience produces information that doesn’t follow the laws of science and therefore can’t with hold the same standards and elite-ness as science.
There is a place for pseudoscience though. Many forms of thinking in the past have now been placed under the umbrella of pseudoscience. Mystic spells and thinking of sickness and demons used to be best explanation for seemingly random death. Many other theories were made to explain the world around us that have now just been discounted by newer and more accurate theories. Not only old, but new pseudoscientific theories exist. Since our form of science doesn’t allow us to systematically look at the afterlife or other supernatural existences, we have different explanations and theories that do what they can to provide answers. Pseudoscience provides explanations for how to make moral judgments, or even religion can provide those answers. Therefore, other forms of thinking shouldn’t be immediately discounted just because they don’t match the current rules of science. Sometimes we need to break the rules in order to understand our world.
This can all be related back to our study vs Tibetan monks’ study of meditation. The western world has attempted to do neuros-scientific research to find the benefits of meditation. Although we have discovered much, there are some claimed spiritual aspects of meditation that science will never be able to look at. This is where the Tibetan monks’ introspection is beneficial.
As a disclaimer, I’m not say that you should just jump on board with what anyone says. I follow empirical evidence because I can trust its reliability. This post doesn’t suggest either way of thinking, rather it is just looking at the two.
Terms: Tibetan monks, scientific theory, pseudoscience, meditation, introspection, empirical, theories.
http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/whatisscience_12
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/upm-data/40257_Chapter1.pdf
http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/whatisscience_11
Chapter 6 in Dorjee briefly discussed the effect meditation has on immune system responses (p. 114). I wanted to learn more about this effect and research behind it. I went on to look up Davidson et al, 2003 and found the article, “Alternations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation.” The findings in this study are the first to document significant changes in anterior activation asymmetry as a function of mediation training. The research focused on the more enduring changes detected in brain function as well as brain activity, especially emotion-related brain activity. Many studies have shown that mediation reduces anxiety and increases positive affect. Frontal regions in the brain display a specialization for positive and negative emotion.
Left-sided anterior activation is associated with enhanced immune function. Psychosocial influences affect immunity. Research shows that relaxation and stress management procedures increase T-cytotoxic/suppressor lymphocytes in HIV-infected men. In the Davidson et al.’s research, they vaccinated all subjects—both meditators and non-meditators—at the end of an 8-week meditation program. The meditators showed greater anti-body titers in response to vaccine than the non-meditators. Greater relative left-sided activation would be associated with a larger increase in anti-body titers in response to the vaccine. Overall, findings reveal that a short program in mindfulness meditation produces effects on brain and immune function.
Everyday behavior is altered by all forms of mediation. It is interesting to know that meditation not only affects the mind but also the body. How can an immaterial entity—the mind—influence and modify something material—our immune system? Further research needs to be implicated.
Key terms: mediation; immune system; mindfulness; anterior activation; positive affect; anti-body titers
Davidson R.J., Kabat-Zinn J., Schumacher J., Rosenkranz M., Muller D., Santorelli S.F., et al. (2003) ‘Alternations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation’, Psychosomatic Medicine 65: 564-570.
For this weeks blog I examined an article cited within the chapter. The article, “Prevention of Relapse/Recurrence in Major Depression by Mindful-Based Cognitive Therapy” by Teasdale and colleagues examines the practices of MBSR and its potential use in treating Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The study looked to supplement the care of those who have suffered from MDD with mindful based therapy to prevent relapse of depressive episodes.
The proposed study targeted adults currently in remission or recovery from major depression. The sample size was 145 patients to be treated at one of three different facilities. The subjects were divided into two groups, one continuing their normal TAU (control group) while the other group was supplemented with mindful-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). The study lasted for a total of 60 weeks, with the first 8 weeks as the treatment phase and the remaining 52 weeks as follow up. The participants for the study were recruited from community health care facilities. Once randomly selected into the control or experimental group they would begin their treatment.
MBCT was combined with the existing TAU treatments for the experimental group. MBCT consisted of 8 weekly two hour group training session led by an instructor. The aim of each session was to achieve decentered thought (selflessness) and to become mindful, or stay within the moment. This practice of mindfulness was intended to focus the subjects on the present moment and limit the negative or depressed thoughts surrounding their past and future.
The result of the study shows that MBCT can be effectively used to prevent relapse and reoccurrence of MDD. However, it was only effective in subject with three or more occurrences of MDD and not effective in those with less than three. MBCT was shown to have the greatest effect in the reduction of dysphoria-linked thinking. This form of thinking has been shown to be a link between a subjects depressed state and negative train of thought.
Terms: MBCT, MDD, TAU, selflessness, mindfulness, dysphoria
Teasdale, John D.; Segal, Zindel V.; Williams, J. Mark G.; Ridgeway, Valerie A.; Soulsby, Judith M.; Lau, Mark A.
Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 68(4), Aug 2000, 615-623. doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.68.4.615
For this exploration blog I recalled the text going over mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and how that has help with different research projects. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is typically an eight week program that combines mindfulness training with elements or cognitive behavioral therapy. Mindfulness cognitive therapy was originally created for the treatment of recurrent depression. So with that in mind I was able to find this research article called Prevention of Relapse/Recurrence in Major Depression by Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy.
This study was used to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. The subjects all have suffered from major depression and were currently going to group intervention therapy. The participants in this study totaled 146 and were divided in to two groups. One was the control group which they just continued with their normally scheduled therapy, and the second group also continued their therapy but added on the mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. They were then assessed over a 60 week time frame to see the results. What the research showed was that people that had several relapses of depression episodes, the mindfulness-based cognitive therapy helped to decrease there susceptibility to relapse again. For those that only had one or two depression episodes it did not show any significance. Overall this research showed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy would be a good, cheaper way to help control more depression episodes for those that have them reoccur many times. This was a very informational article and I enjoyed that they are focusing in on more cost efficient ways to help people that suffer from depression. It would be nice if doctors could recommend these kinds of programs to their patients that may come from a low income family or have bad insurance. This would in turn help those people get good quality help with their condition.
Terms: mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, depression
http://mbct.com/images/Teasdale%20et%20al.%202000.pdf
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=8426ee16-19cd-4129-927c-655ceb927d40%40sessionmgr110&hid=105
The article I read discussed cultivating greater mindfulness in higher education curriculum and the benefits of such a curriculum. However, the author maintained that while a specific course on mindfulness and meditation is beneficial; it is not enough. The real impact comes when mindfulness is integrated into the regular courses about psychology, sociology, arts, sciences, etcetera.
Most surprising, to me, was the stability of the movement. Apparently, there were university presidents who supported teaching mindfulness and meditation as far back as the late 1800s. According to William James, in his publication on the Principles of Psychology, mentioned how voluntarily bringing the wandering attention back to focus is the root of “judgment, character and will.” I actually tried to look up his original article, to no avail, because his claim is particularly profound. If, as he posits, bringing attention back to focus is the root of those traits, then society has an obligation to teach mindfulness in order to ensure good judgment, good character and strong will, as opposed to letting them develop however they do.
For example, the author discusses how mindfulness is particularly useful in teaching empathy. As learning empathy has been identified by both faculty and employers as one of the most essential components of a college education, but also one of the most difficult to teach, this hypothesis certainly merits further exploration. Some literature professors had their students meditate before reading the selected course material, so as to allow the students to empathize with the characters and the suffering they may be undergoing. One sociology had her students meditate so the student could connect with the more difficult issues the class discussed and do so on an individual, emotional level
Additionally, law professors used the course to build listening and self-awareness skills, which are incredibly valuable as a lawyer. One needs to listen to witnesses, judges, clients, etc. They also need to be aware of themselves and how their actions are influencing witnesses, jurors, judges, opposing counsel, etc. However, these traits are incredibly important to other individuals, too; traits that our society would be particularly beneficial at fostering in our students and citizens.
Critical thinking, however, is the learning gain most important identified in the article. Art professors, for example, had all their students meditate and then analyze various works of art. The meditation allowed the students to REALLY focus on the art and peel back layer after layer. With the meditation bringing a whole new level of attention and awareness, the level of critical thinking was exponentially higher. 99% of faculty and 100% of employers, in a study discussed in my idea of a university course, identified fostering critical thinking as the most important goal of higher education, so, if meditation can do this, it needs to be further implemented.
However, there are some faults with the article on an empirical level. While the instructors all said the meditation and increased mindfulness allowed for greater critical thinking, empathy, etc., we don’t really know that is the case or, if so, if the gains are substantial. Further empirical study is needed to determine exactly how meditation influences these gains in college students and if the instructors’ methods are doing so.
Terms: mindfulness, education, cognition, meditation,
For this exploration blog, I decided to find one of the research articles that were cited in the chapter. This article was cited in the book as: “Mindfulness training… modifies pathological responses of amygdala in anxiety conditions.” The article itself examines whether changes in cognitive reappraisal self-efficacy mediates the effects of the individuality administered cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder.
For this research, patients assigned to immediate assigned to individually administered cognitive behavioral therapy. Individually administered cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy in which negative patterns of thought about the self and the world are challenged in order to alter unwanted behavior patterns or treat mood disorders. If the patients were no part of the I-CBT group, they were part of the control group and were wait listed. Clinical psychologists interview the patients using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule. The treatment group was given treatment using “Managing Social Anxiety,” a client work book and a therapist’s guide and 16 1hour sessions administered over 4 month. The treatment covered psychoeducation and orientation, cognitive reconstructing skills, graduated exposure to feared social situations, examination of patient’s core beliefs and relapse prevention and termination. When the study was finished, the Individually administered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy reduced the symptoms for social anxiety disorder.
I don’t want to say the book took the information out of context. The book was not wrong how they used the citations but the article went into a different direction than what I expected. Also, I know that I shouldn’t expect every article cited in the book to have something to do with meditation but I do. I a little disappointed about how the article was used but it still is relevant and fits into the chapter.
Terms: Mindfulness training, individually administered cognitive behavior, social anxiety disorder
http://psycnet.apa.org.proxy.lib.uni.edu/journals/ccp/80/6/1034.pdf
For this week exploration blog, I found very intriguing article examined the relation between meditation training and telomerase activity (Jacobs et al., 2010). Jacobs et al., (2010) investigated weather meditative practice is associated with immune cell telomerase activity and whether this association is at least partly explained by changes in perceived control and neuroticism. Telomerase activity is a predictor of long-term cellular viability, which decreases with chronic psychological distress (Epel el at., 2004). Jacobs et al. (2010) investigated the effects of a 3-month meditation retreat in telomerase activity and two major contributors to the experience of stress: Perceived Control and Neuroticism. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples were collected post-retreat for telomerase activity. Telomerase activity was significantly greater in retreat participants than controls at the end of the retreat (p>0.05). Increases in Perceived Control, decreases in Neuroticism, and increases in both Mindfulness and Purpose in Life were greater in the retreat group (p
Telomere length has been proposed as a useful “psychobiomarker” linking stress and disease (Epel, 2009). Shortened length and reduced telomere predict a host of health risks and diseases, and findings suggest they may be regulated in part by psychological stress, stress appraisals, and well-being. Telomeres are protective DNA sequenced at the ends of chromosomes that ensure genomic stability during cellular replication, but they shorten with each cell division and additionally shorten under conditions of oxidative stress unless counteracted by telomerase action (Blackburn, 1991). During human aging, as cells divide, telomere length decreases on average and hence is one indicator of a cell’s biological age (Frenck and Blackburn, 1998), predicting physical health and longevity. Immune cell telomerase may play a role in mediating the relation between psychological stress and disease. Greater perceived stress, greater negative affect, and a number of stress-related cardiovascular risk factors (e.g. higher resting heart rate, elevated levels of stress hormones) are associated with lower telomerase activity.
Sixty men and women, ages 21-69, were matched on demographic variables and meditation experience and randomly assigned to either an on-site, three-month meditation retreat or a wait-list control group. All participants were assessed before and after the retreat with self-report measures, and telomerase activity was assessed in both groups in peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained at the end of the retreat. Self-report measures were collected at the site of the retreat. The meditation retreat took place within an isolated retreat setting (the Shambhala Mountain Center in northern Colorado), where retreat participants lived and practiced meditation techniques for 3 months. They were instructed in these practices by Alan Wallace, Ph.D., whom is a well-known Buddhist scholar and practitioner. The meditation training group met with Dr. Wallace in the mornings and evenings for short guided meditations and discussions. For the remainder of the day, participants engaged in solitary meditation sessions for an average of 6.3 hours. Participants recorded the type and duration of meditation practice in daily logs. At a follow-up assessment, participants also estimated the amount of time they had devoted to any type of Shamatha practice since the end of the retreat.
Jacobs, T. L., Epel, E. S., Lin, J., Blackburn, E. H., Wolkowitz, O. M., Bridwell, D. A., Zanesco, A.P., Aichele, S.R., Sahdra, B.K., MacLean, K.A., King, B.G., Shaver, P.R., Rosenberg, E.L., Ferrer, E., Wallace B.A., & Saron, C. D. (2011). Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Psychoneuroendocrinology,36(5), 664-681.
Terms: biomarkers, telomerase activity, perceived control, neuroticism, psychological distress, Peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples, Mindfulness, Purpose in Life, stress-related cardiovascular risk factors