What is Going on & Why 1

Question 1

2 forms of waking consciousness. why does meditation elude this classification?

Answer 1

Two forms of awaking consciousnessProcessing sensory worldVolitional controlControl over action and anything leading up to actionMaking decisions, planning, allocating resources-So many different kinds if meditations that do different things, eludes this simple dichotomyE.g. Buying a cup of coffeeVery simple, but notYour brain pays attention to relevant stimuli, a few billion impulses every secondNeeds to attend to some things and not to othersWhat processes do I need to perform NOW? Which ones not? Executive controlExec control involves controlling a large number of processes and coordinating these processesPredominately controlled by pre frontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex

Question 2

neuroplasticitywhat levels does it happen at?experience dependent & damage-dependent?

Answer 2

-Levels, cell to brain. Reorganization at simple level and broad levelexperience-dependent: Hippocampal plasticity- taxi drivingdamage dependent: Surgically produced a stroke in monkey brains, losing the use of their fingers. Some monkeys got better, and some didn’t, but the ones who did get better spread the funciton of finger movement around the cortical lesion. This is known as reorganization.

Question 3

autonomic nervous system, how do its two parts work together?

Answer 3

-Rhythms of sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are coordinated for basically every moment.-e.g. Standing up and not feinting, your blood pressure changes and system responds to compensate immediately-Largely beyond conscious control -Not as simple as “fight/flight” vs. “rest/digest”

Question 4

Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) is?Closely connected to, which is responsible for?

Answer 4

Anything involved with MOTIVATION, it’s involvedClosely connected to prefrontal cortex, dorsal and lateral-Dorsal and Lateral PFC important for working memory and attending to momentary information- And to the supplementary motor areas, involved in planning complex motor movements-ACC densely connected to the amygdala.

Question 5

Amygdala

Answer 5

Amygdala- moment by moment it’s generating an emotional sensation and appraisal of the situation. Damage to recognize faces can become impaired, etc suggesting its connected in perception as well. Connected to hippocampus, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, and brain stem.

Question 6

Stress and anxiety and depression hurt. how?

Answer 6

-Approx 11/day, take their own life in Canada, First Nations 5-6x higher, Inuit youth have highest rates in the world!-Dysthymia, less severe but impair day to day functioning long term-depression also effects your brain, sometimes permanently. ‘10% decrease in the size of the hippocampus as a result of a depressive episode.’-Adrenaline is a short-term response to stress, but afterwards you can go through a crash afterwards, depressed people experience these crashes. Cortisol is a long-term response to stress -causing impaired cognition, -deteriorated muscle tissue, Norepinephrine -increase our heart rate, -trigger glucose release/blood sugar problems-significant amounts in depressed people

Question 7

Breathing, poor breathing, and how meditation helps us with it

Answer 7

Poor breathing = poor health-When you start to meditate, you engage in slower deeper breaths, supplying body with oxygen-Not breathing correctly, not getting rid of CO2 in the right way, too much or too little is toxic for body-chronic pain people usually have improper breathing, hold it for short periods of time, shallow disorganized, increases pain and worsens symptoms-Using top third of our lungs-Deep full breathing, increase oxygen consumption without getting rid of too much CO2-Deep controlled breathing can increase levels of nitric oxide which opens up blood vessels, which decreases blood pressure

Question 8

Wang et al, CBF changes assoc. with diff meditation practices and perceived depth of meditation-what are the four predictions they make?

Answer 8

-Cerebral blood flow increases-Subjective depth of meditation correlate with increase of cerebral blood flow-Increased activity in frontal regions and limbic structure-Stress relief mediated by CBF response (CBF is cerebral blood flow)

Question 9

Wang et al, CBF changes assoc. with diff meditation practices and perceived depth of meditation-what was control condition?

Answer 9

They were their own control group.Control group, moved their hands in a certain way, self control groupCounted 4 while touching thumb and fingers but not in sequence

Question 10

Wang et al, CBF changes assoc. with diff meditation practices and perceived depth of meditation-briefly explain methods

Answer 10

Subjective measures and 5 fMRI scans? -Self reports of stress,-depth of meditation and -subjective feeling of connectedness were the subjective measures.-Methods, focus and breath based meditation, followed baseline 1, meditation 1, meditation 2, baseline 2-and they did it this way for ALL to avoid carry over effects, meaning the sequence was not randomized.

Question 11

Wang et al, CBF changes assoc. with diff meditation practices and perceived depth of meditation-Why wasn’t the order of focused-based & breath-based meditations counterbalanced?

Answer 11

Why didn’t they counterbalance? To stave off carry over effectsOne meditation presupposes the othersNeed some ability to focus to begin with, you begin with mindfulness meditation always, like in lovingkindnessCan’t counterbalance because they always involve each other usually a bit, often start diff kinds of meditation

Question 12

Wang et al, CBF changes assoc. with diff meditation practices and perceived depth of meditation-what did they find?

Answer 12

Meditation reduced CBF, and increased feelings of connectedness, decreasing stress in self-reports and each type of meditation activated different brain areas. 1st type activated Medial prefrontal, and 2nd activated limbic, forebrain structures and also sustained benefits after study.

Question 13

Neural synchronization

Answer 13

-Coordinate firing, fire togetherOscillations, when neurons fire repeatedly together-Burst of activity all at same time, then quiet at same time-Oscillate together, then synchronized. Don’t oscillate together, aren’t synchronized-Take this synchronization together as a measure of functional coordination, sometimes want different processes to meditate together-So understanding the timing of neural firing and impulses important-Left hemisphere is logical, serial-Right hemisphere much more bigger picture, gestalt, more emotional and impulsive-One study found greater synchrony in autistic individuals than control, greater synchrony in low IQs, so it’s not just that synchrony is simply good, but where it’s happening and what’s involved

Question 14

brain waves basics

Answer 14

Gamma waves, (25-100 Hz), hi freq lo amplitudeAssociated with conscious attentionRelate somehow to neural consciousness?Beta waves, alert awake, or agitate or tenseAlpha waves relaxedTheta waves 1st phase sleepDelta waves stage 3 sleepFor some reason we don’t understand, emerge in meditationdespite being found in lower sleep stagesPossible an index of focused attention

Question 15

gamma waves

Answer 15

Gamma Waves start in thalamus, of synchronous activity that sweeps the brain, happens about 40 times per secondIf you damage the brain in thalamus, these waves stop and clip into comaBinding problem, how does our specialized brain areas bind all information together into the thing we actually see.Separate parts focus on motion, color, shapeMaybe this synchronous firing is how it does it!! Just an idea right nowBut what if this gamma wave is just from EOG which is eye movements?If you use MEG though, it allows you to ignore this!

Question 16

Lutz et al., long term meditators self-induce high amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice-briefly describe methods

Answer 16

-Took 8 longterm (10’s of thousands of hours of practice) practicioners and 10 healthy student volunteers with 1 week of training. -Setup a baseline that was resting, open eyes, close them, open eyes close them. 3-0 seconds of rest followed by 60 seconds of meditation and then did that again, and again. (3 times) -They did loving kindness compassion meditation.

Question 17

Lutz et al., long term meditators self-induce high amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice-what did they find?

Answer 17

-Highest ever recorded gamma synchrony oscillations in the literature-Much higher compared to baseline in same group, and then compared to control groups-Looked at synchrony at both single electrodes and and globally across electrodes-Naturally the long-term meditations before practice began were producing more gamma oscillations then the control group.

Question 18

Lutz et al., long term meditators self-induce high amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice-what was the control condition?

Answer 18

-10 healthy controls htat practiced for an hour a day a week ahead of the study. Age was a big difference between the groups.-Average age in experimental group was 49 years, average age in control group was 21, so not the best control group

Question 19

Lutz et al., long term meditators self-induce high amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practiceWere the 2 groups the same before the experiment began?

Answer 19

Had different activation profile during resting stateThey were looking at the ratio of gamma waves to normal alpha waves and beta wavesThat ratio was higher to begin with in long term meditatorsThey argue this is probably a long term effect of meditation… But these are two very different groups

Question 20

Long term changes - cortical thickness

Answer 20

-A general index of a healthy brain is a thick cortex, but as you age it begins to shrink.-Every year we age after the age of 20, the cortex reduces by 0.023 mm. -Reduced cortical thickness between frontal and temporal cortices. The amount of cognitive thinning the worse the deficits tend to be in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.-Also thinness associated with cognitive difficulties

Question 21

Lazar et al., meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness-briefly describe methods-who was the control group?

Answer 21

20 subjects with extensive practice in insight meditateNot monks, just laypeople like usAvg of 9 years practice, plus or minus 7 years-2-16 years of practice-looked at thickness?CONTROL-15 subjects who never practiced matched for age, gender,

Question 22

Lazar et al., meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness-why was the finding no different in overall thickness important

Answer 22

-Older people who usually have thinner cortex had same thickness as younger?-Want to find their brains are essentially the same except for the parts that meditation has an effect on, they found this-They were comparing the cortical thickness of 2 different age groups, and were different before study, but if their overall cortex is substantially different it’s difficult to compare. Look for similar brain thicknesses except for the parts of the brain that meditation seems to effect.

Question 23

Lazar et al., meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness-did they find any differences in the CTH?

Answer 23

-Differences in the right middle superior frontal sulci and right anterior insula compared to controls. —Both involved in introspection -Also looked at drop in respiration rate, they counted the drop in this rate between groups.-Looked at how quickly or rapidly people were breathing before meditation and 6 minutes after, and if you are more experienced it drops more substantially. This drop was associated with thickness in the occipital-temporal cortex.

Question 24

Lazar et al., meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness-how was age a confound in this study?

Answer 24

As we age, the cortex gets thinner and is confounded with meditation experience. You may not find a difference in the difference in cortex between groups but that difference is a masked effect of meditation. The effects of age may obscure the modest effects of meditation practice.Cortex gets thinner with age, confounded with meditation experienceWe want people with meditation experience, but that takes time and aging, so experience with meditation and age are confounded this wayMight mean not find a diff in thickness of cortex between controls and experienced meditators, but that is because of this relationshipEffects of age may obscure the more modest effects of meditation practice

Question 25

Davidson et al., Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation

Answer 25

LOOK IT THE FUCK UP8-week MBSRRandomized 41 subjectsBefore > After > 4-months afterEEG in left anterior & antibody tiers

Question 26

Model: A) Prefrontal cortex & cingulate cortex

Answer 26

-When engage in willful acts that require attention, these originate in prefrontal cortex, the right one particularly-The cingulate cortex seems to be involved in focusing attention, probably in conjunction with the prefrontal cortex-Appears to begin with activating the PFC and associated with the intention to begin practice, clear your mind, etc. -Some studies have found increase in activity in prefrontal cortex or cingulate cortex when meditating, others found nothing. Mixed results.–Key may be found outside of meditation in a study–Flashed words on screen, when subjects responded to words by saying out loud, did not activate prefrontal cortex.–When had to think about it in their head, it activated it.-Flashed words on screen, when subjects responded to words by saying out loud, did not activate prefrontal cortex. When had to think about it in their head, it activated it.

Question 27

Model: A Cont’d) Orbitofrontal Cortex

Answer 27

right behind your eyesInvolved in incentives, helps us make decisions, helps integrate information in working memoryIf damage this area, become indecisive, and lack initiative-you want the reverse of that in meditation suggesting that part of your brain should be activated.

Question 28

Model: B) Thalamus

Answer 28

-Thalamus is a major relay station for sensory information from the eyes, ears, somatosensory, etc. -Make intention to meditate, incentivized, this is thought to activate the thalamus is activated-Thalamus governs flow of sensory information to different cortices, receives raw sensory info-Also sense pathways up to parietal cortex, where you have a map of your body in space-Increases in specific parts of thalamus activity, which results in decrease in sensory info going to parietal lobes, in particular an increase in GABA which is inhibitory-This doesn’t shut off your senses, it sharpens them. Fewer distractions, things become clearer-Like a natural neurological highlighter

Question 29

Model: C) Parietal lobe

Answer 29

-Important in higher order sensorySense of our bodies in space,contains a map of our body in space-Helps distinguish our sense of our bodies from our external world-Where we are in relation to other things-Increase GABA, we start to lose this separateness, decrease in the Posterior superior parietal lobule (PSPL)-This separateness from external world, start to feel a merging of of ourself with external surroundings

Question 30

Model: D) Hippocampus & Amygdala

Answer 30

-What’s interesting about the hippocampus is it transmits information back to the frontal cortex. -It modulates activity in the frontal lobes in 2 ways: if the HIP is underactive it increases frontal activity through glutamate, or if it’s too high then GABA can decrease activity. -A circuit between the PFC–>HIP–> AMY

Question 31

Model: E) Hypothalamus & ANS

Answer 31

-Another circuit HYP–>LIMB–> Parasympathetic nervous system (if activated create relaxed states, profound states of peacefulness)-Activated PANS, Decrease in heart rate and respiration, more stable-When breathing slows: medulla tells pons to release less norepinephrine-HPA Axis: Hypothalamus produces less corticotropic hormone —>causing the pituitary to release less adrenocorticotropic hormone —> causes adrenal cortex to finally release less coritsol

Question 32

Model: F) Continued activity in PFC

Answer 32

Produce more glutamate, which causes more beta endorphins released in hypothalamus, creating deeply euphoric states-BUT heroine causes this release as well but does not cause you to become more present or focused. More endorphins, less pain, more pleasure!-orme johnson study, more beta endorphins less pain

Question 33

Model: G) ANS & Cortex

Answer 33

-Not as simple as parasympathetic or sympathetic system, it’s both working together. -You want BOTH calmness (PARA) and alertness (SYMP). -When probably used you reach a point of ecstacy. -But para is important, causes decreases heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and 02 metabolism

Question 34

Model: H) Ecstasy & Seretonin

Answer 34

-ANS activates the HYP and medial forebrain bundle (MFB)-MFB increases serotonin release, and drugs like LSD elicit this release as well, into places like the visual centers for hallucinations and places that mediate positive affect. -Increases in serotonin in the pee of meditators! -Serotonin also affects acetylcholine release impacting/modulating attention (parietal lobes primarily)-Serotonin also helps increase melatonin production in the body, which decreases CNS activity and lessens feeling of pain. Some preliminary studies may have found increases of melatonin in meditators.