Cognitive Neuroscience Presentation
2
Terms
This practice involves holding the focus of attention on an internally generated image of a deity surrounded by his or her entourage. The content of DY is rich and multimodal, requiring generation of a colorful three-dimensional image (e.g., the deity’s body, ornaments, and environment), as well as a representation of sensorimotor body schema, feelings, and emotions of the deity (3).
An OP meditator aspires to achieve awareness devoid
of conceptualization. OP involves evenly distributed attention
that is not directed toward any particular objects or experiences.
Although various aspects of experience (e.g., thoughts, feelings,
or images) may arise spontaneously, one is instructed to let them
subside on their own accord, without letting the mind dwell on or
analyze them (Goleman, 1977; Wangyal, 1993).
The participants were administered two computerized tasks assessing different aspects of visuospatial processing: a mental rotation task (MRT; Shepard & Metzler, 1971) that assessed their ability to dynamically transform and compare two spatial objects and a visual memory task (VMT) that assessed their ability to maintain images of complex static objects in visuo-spatial working memory.
MRT
On each trial of the MRT, participants viewed a pair of two-dimensional pictures of three-dimensional forms. The forms in each pair were rotated relative to each other around the x-, y-, or z-axis. Across trials, the amount of rotation ranged from 40°to 180°, in 20° increments. Participants judged whether the forms in the pair were the same or mirror-reversed. There were 36 test trials.
VMT
The VMT (MMVirtual Design, 2004) consisted of two parts.
There were six test trials in the fifirst part of the VMT. On each trial, participants were exposed to a single image that appeared for 5 s. This display was replaced by an array of six images: fifive distractors and the previously shown image. Participants were asked to determine which image in the array was the previously shown image.
There were 18 test trials in the second part of the VMT. On each trial, participants viewed an array of seven images that appeared for 8 s. This array was replaced by another array of seven images: six of the previously studied images and one novel image. Participants were asked to judge which image in the second array was not present in the firest.
Intervening Imagery Tasks
The participants in both imagery control groups completed the Embedded Picture Test (EPT; Kozhevnikov, Kosslyn, & Shephard, 2005) and the Perspective Taking Test (PTT; Kozhevnikov, Motes, Rasch, & Blajenkova, 2006).
In the EPT, participants viewed line drawings of common objects (e.g., a piano) for 4 s. After each drawing was presented, participants were given a 4-s period during which to imagine the drawing and then had to decide whether an orally presented property (e.g., ‘‘symmetry,’’ ‘‘arrow junction’’) was present in that drawing. There were 16 test trials.
On each trial of the PTT, participants viewed a map on a computer screen. The map showed a starting location (a character’s head or an arrow) and five other locations (university, airport, etc.). Participants were to imagine transforming their actual perspective to that of the character and then click on a button indicating a target location from the on-screen character’s perspective. There were 58 test trials.
Topic
Importance
Hypothesis
Methods
Accomplished Buddhist meditation practioners were recruited in: the Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal ; the extended communities of the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries Karma Triyana Dharmachakra and Padma Samye Ling in upstate New York ; and the Nyingma Institute and Rigpa Fellowship in San Francisco, California. Ultimately, seventy-one participants completed the study between meditators and nonmeditators.
Results
Long-Term Effect of
DY Versus OP on Imagery
The interaction between the length of DY experience and the length of OP experience was not signicant for VMT or MRT accuracy or RT.
Short-Term Effect of
DY Versus OP on Imagery
Summarize
"DY combines the engagement of selective visual attention with active maintenance of an image of a deity; thus, we hypothesized that DY would lead to enhancement of visuospatial working memory, resulting in improved performance on imagery tasks" (4).
The results of this study indicate that there is no baseline difference in imagery skills between meditators and non-meditators, or between long-term practitioners of different styles of meditation. However, DY practitioners demonstrated a dramatic increase in performance on both image-maintenance and spatial tasks in the posttest (after they had meditated), in contrast to the other four groups. Therefore, DY specifically trains one’s capacity to access heightened visuospatial memory resources via meditation, rather than generally improving long-lasting imagery abilities.
Returning back to the "lively exchange," the monks do appear to have access to states of heightened imagery capacity; but, as the scientists had stated, these states are not sustained constantly. According to the reports of the meditators in this study, these states can last no longer than several hours and the meditators had to engage in a preparatory period of meditation before these states could be accessed.
• Many believe that Tibetan Buddhist meditative practices may improve overall mental functioning, specifically in cognitive processes related to attention, perception, or mental imagery. (Goleman, 1977; Wangyal, 1993).
Background
Many believe that Tibetan Buddhist meditative practices may improve overall mental functioning, specifically in cognitive processes related to attention, perception, or mental imagery (Goleman, 1977; Wangyal, 1993).
At the "Investigating the Mind Conference" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003, Buddhist monks and Western scientists engaged in lively exchanges concerning the credibility of such claims.
The main goal of this study was to investigate the effects of different styles of Buddhist meditation on such imagery abilities as dynamic manipulation of spatial information and maintenance of a complex image in visuospatial working memory (1).
Deity Yoga - DY
Claims made by Buddhist monks regarding their exceptional capacity for visuospatial memory, if true, would radically change current theories of mental imagery and have profound practical implications.
Research suggests that those types of meditation that involve evenly distributed attention, such as OP, might rely on brain regions involved in monitoring, vigilance, and disengagement of attention from stimuli. In contrast, meditations such as DY, which require voluntary focus of attention on a chosen object, engage brain regions involved in selective attention to induce and maintain the meditative state (see Lutz et al., 2008, for a review).
The finding that DY meditators have access to a state of heightened visuospatial resources has many implications for therapy, treatment of memory loss, and mental training. It points out that latent resources of the brain can be accessed and consciously activated. It also raises questions regarding the mechanisms involved in achieving this state.
Materials
Participants
5 (group: DY, OP, and three control groups) X 2 (pretest vs. posttest) between-subjects experimental design.
There were five groups of participants: two meditation groups (DY and OP) and three control groups (one group of meditators and two groups of nonmeditators).
Meditators assigned to the DY, OP, and meditators control groups had to meet the following criteria:
- First, they had to identify themselves as accomplished meditators in at least one of the target types of meditation.
- Second, they had to have practiced their preferred style of meditation for at least 10 years and to have completed meditation retreats of various lengths for a cumulative total of at least 1 year.
- Finally, they had to be nominated by their meditation communities and their teachers as accomplished meditation practitioners.
All the participants were tested individually, in a testing session lasting 1.5 to 2 hrs.
First, the participants completed the MRT and VMT pretests, the order of which was counterbalanced across participants. After completing the pretest, the participants from the DY group were asked to perform DY and the participants from the OP group practiced OP meditation. Both groups meditated for 20 min, this time period was chosen because most meditators indicated that this should be enough time to reach an appropriate meditative state.
The two imagery control groups completed the EPT and PTT during the intervening period. An imagery control was also included to account for any effects of general (non-meditation) imagery processing, and the two imagery control groups were chosen to account for any cultural differences between meditators and nonmeditators. The third control group rested during the intervening period, serving as a comparison for any test-retest effects.
Immediately after the intervening period, the subjects completed the MRT and VMT posttests.
Open Presence - OP
Processing effeciency on the VMT and MRT pre- and postests as a function of group. Error bars show +/- SEM
DY
OP
The DY group showed a highly significant increase in efficiency (the value almost doubled) between the pretest and the posttest for both the VMT and MRT.
The OP group, however, showed a slight but signicant increase in the VMT and no increase in the MRT.
On the MRT, a marginally signicant increase for the non-meditators imagery control group was observed. The meditators imagery control group however and the resting control group did not significantly change. On the VMT, there was no signicant increase for either imagery control group or for the resting control group.