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Mindful Disintegration and the Decomposition of Self in Healthy Populations: Conception and Preliminary Study

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Mindful Disintegration and the Decomposition of Self in Healthy Populations: Conception and Preliminary Study Psychol Stud DOI 10.1007/s12646-016-0374-6 RESEARCH IN PROGRESS Mindful Disintegration and the Decomposition of Self in Healthy Populations: Conception and Preliminary Study 1,2 2 Poppy L. A. Schoenberg • Henk P. Barendregt Received: 20 May 2016 / Accepted: 6 October 2016 Ó National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India 2016 Abstract The concept and quantification of ‘disintegra- Keywords Attention training Á Perceptual representation Á tion’ related to mindfulness were examined, i.e. attentional Visual binding Á Mooney-face Á Contextual meaning Á refinement to microscopic resolution wherein constituents N400 Á Beta Á Gamma Á Event-related (de-) synchronization of matter are decomposed into elemental units. Thus, per- (ERD/ERS) ceptual data are synthesized less coherently. To explore this hypothesis, neural substrates of perceptual disorgani- zation (high-frequency EEG event-related synchronization Introduction dynamics—ERD/ERS) and contextual meaning (N400 ERP) were investigated in healthy practitioners before and Mindfulness (Vipassana), a specific form of meditation, after a mindfulness retreat. N400 ERP amplitude attenu- involves the fine-tuning of attention so to (1) dismantle ated, as did gamma-ERD. Shift from beta-ERD to beta- experiences/perceptions/mental processes into their ele- ERS was observed. These findings suggest: (1) mediated mental constituents, (2) observe this decomposition with gamma-oscillations reflecting disrupted neural binding of ‘space’ from ego, or within a more flexible sense of self visual representation/cohesion, (2) reduced N400 ampli- (see ‘Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification’, Bud- tude reflecting diminished extraction of contextual mean- dhaghosa, 2010). This conflicts with how humans usually ing, and (3) modulations in beta-synchrony that may serve perceive reality, in that, perceptual data do not appear to ‘stabilize’ cortical functioning during the transformative discretely in its elemental form, rather as unified objects or disintegrative process related to mindfulness, akin to a events that are contextually translated, both consciously process of ‘non-reactivity’ at the cortical level. The latter and sub-consciously, to produce a perceptual mode of may provide a candidate neural index for the construct of gestalt coherence (for a review, see Uhlhaas & Mishara, ‘equanimity’ within the mindfulness purview. An overar- 2007). Ergo, via processes (1) and (2), the advanced ching interpretative framework of the results paralleling practitioner attains phenomenological ‘clarity’ (a general adaptive versus maladaptive disintegrative experience is translation of the Pali word ‘Vipassana’) into the under- further discussed. lying truth of the nature of all things, this being a tradi- tional definition of ‘insight’ (or pure ‘understanding’— Buddhaghosa, 2010), wherein the insightful appreciation of the delusional conditions of everyday experience ensues; & Poppy L. A. Schoenberg i.e. one sees things (including the nature of the self) as they [email protected]; [email protected] really are—chaotic, impersonal, transient. 1 This preliminary study proposes two principle premises, Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive & explored further empirically. Firstly, that the aforemen- Behavioral Medicine, Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 222 Maple Ave, tioned mindfulness process is likely underpinned by a pri- Shrewsbury MA 01545, USA mary decomposition in how perceptual data are synthesized 2 Faculty of Science, Intelligent Systems, Radboud University leading to a transformation in one’s world-view and inter- Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands action with ‘reality’. That is, within such an analytical 123 Psychol Stud perspective, the advanced practitioner is able to refine The core aim of this study set out to explore whether it is attention with such resolution wherein perceptual input is possible to observe and empirically measure this outlined isolated to the degree where one may perceive matter as conception of mindful disintegration. The complexity of being disintegrated and discrete. Analogous to a percep- such would not be possible to examine in its entirety within tual scalar shift from coarse- to fine-granularity, or in the one experiment. Thus, the focus was upon the decompo- highly initiated and advanced; even beyond, to that of a sition of events at the cortical functional level (neuro- dimension of vibratory wave. This process shall be referred physiology) during visual perception. If viewed from such to here as ‘mindful disintegration’. A second hypothesis a phenomenological spectrum, the pathological (psychotic- proposed and explored is whether the aforementioned dis- like) to mindful (insightful-like) dichotomies present integrative process can be posited within a phenomenolog- extremities of the same continuum that may likely be ical construct. Specifically, if components of the chaotic, underpinned by a unified neural mechanism. With regard to impersonal, and transient are maladaptively decomposed, the insightful dichotomy of the spectrum, evidence sug- that is without insight, then a process akin to a ‘psychotic gests mindfulness enhances neuropsychological cognitive world-view’ emerges. For example, in the Visuddhimagga, functioning including attention, memory, executive func- following the experience of (termed here) ‘disintegration’ tioning and inhibitory control in clinical and healthy pop- (where one gains access to the knowledge of the delusional ulations (for a comprehensive review, see Chiesa et al., nature of reality and self), if not accompanied by funda- 2011). mental understanding (insight), then suffering may exist in Extant empirical studies do not link directly to the various forms—described as experiences of ‘dissolution’, concept of mindful disintegration presented here. Thus, one ‘terror’, ‘danger’, ‘dispassion’. Parallels can thus be made empirical approach was to identify neurophysiological with the clinical symptoms of dissociation/depersonalization markers associated with the proposed pathological (psy- (dissolution), anxiety/panic (terror), paranoia/hallucination- chotic-like) scale of the continuum, whereby some point of delusion (danger), and depression/anhedonia (dispassion). axes is available. Namely, a central cortical deficit of All such phenomena can be present, to varying degrees, clinically diagnosed psychosis is the inability to coherently under the umbrella clinical construct of psychosis, and other integrate visual information, viably linked to the vulnera- psychological trauma. Phenomenological, clinical, and bility for illusory experiences (hallucinations, cognitive neurocognitive comparisons have also been drawn between biases) and delusions (facilitated by a lack of insight). spiritual suffering during mystical experiences and that of Furthermore, patients’ ability to organize perceptual data psychosis (Hunt, 2007), further to alterations in bodily/self- becomes more degraded with symptom severity (for a ownership/agency related to severe traumatic experience review see, Uhlhaas & Silverstein, 2005). Here, exploration (Ataria, 2015). of the concept of disintegration during mindfulness was From a clinical perspective, psychosis is characterized approached via examination of neurophysiological mea- by a fundamental disturbance and disintegration in con- sures plausibly associated with a comparable disintegrative scious experience and fragmentation in the sense of self, process during psychosis. Specifically, two central perpetuated and maintained by lack of insight (Bedford, impairments in psychosis pertaining to the processing of Surguladze, Giampietro, Brammer, & David, 2012). Con- incoming visual data; (a) visual representation and gestalt versely, the mindfulness process represents the adaptive coherence, and (b) the ability to extract meaning from decomposition of perceptual information, whereby insight incoming information. is enhanced. In both cases, the usual sense of self is ‘lost’. Albeit, mindful insight provides a compass by which the Decomposition into Elements: Visual Representation decomposition of things (including the self) is observed by and Coherence ‘a self as a vehicle of experience’, opposed to an ‘attached experiencer’. Thus, the sense of self is not fragmented as Neurophysiologically, research indicates psychosis can be with psychosis, rather it becomes fluidic. Following characterized by disrupted coordination of synchronous mindful disintegration, via insight, the ‘reintegration’ (or neural oscillations, particularly in beta (13–30 Hz), and re-composition) of the sense of self ensues as a funda- gamma (30–60 Hz) bandwidths (Friston, 1998; Uhlhaas mental and experiential understanding of the imperma- et al., 2006) associated with gestalt coherence of the visual nence of, and the futility of attachment to, a concrete and system. These fast-frequency oscillations have been further unfluctuating sense of being. Alternatively, one may posit associated with perceptual binding (Rodriguez, Lachaux, that this self-related reintegration is disrupted, or does not Martinerie, Renault, & Varela, 1999) and attention (Fries, take place at all, within the ‘psychotic world-view’. Thus, Reynolds, Rorie, & Desimone, 2001). Such research has the psychotic individual remains pathologically disinte- predominantly involved the use of ‘Mooney-face’ stimuli grated, ‘selfless’, and ultimately traumatized. (Mooney & Ferguson, 1951): two-tone arrangements of 123 Psychol Stud shapes into images of faces for
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