The neural correlates of the self in altered states of consciousness.

Informazioni relative al progetto

NeuCoSe

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 749582

DOI 10.3030/749582

Progetto concluso

Data della firma CE 20 Marzo 2017

Data di avvio 21 Giugno 2017

Data di completamento 20 Giugno 2019

Finanziato da

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Costo totale € 185 076,00

Contributo UE € 185 076,00

Coordinato da

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NeuCoSe (The neural correlates of the self in altered states of consciousness.)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2017-06-21 al 2019-06-20

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

Do you ever wonder how you know that you are here? How you are aware of yourself, probably sitting at a desk, reading these lines? Meta-awareness, the awareness of our own consciousness and the fact that we can report it is one of the key features that makes us human. The level of our meta-awareness fluctuates constantly. Distorted relations between the self and the conscious experience are linked to mental health problems: absorption in negative thoughts is seen in anxiety and depression. A distance between the self and the conscious experience can occur in trauma and dissociation. Mindfulness meditation and hypnosis are increasingly used to improve mental health. The hypnotic state is characterised by absorption, suggestibility and lack of self-consciousness. Mindfulness meditation, a secular form of meditation that draws on Buddhist meditation, aims at strengthening meta-awareness.
Despite the increasing popularity of mindfulness and hypnosis in healthcare and in the general community the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are unclear. The change in the relationship between the self and the conscious experience that they bring about may be crucial. This study aims to identify the neural correlates of self-consciousness in meta-awareness and absorption - using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in healthy participants and intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) recordings in people who have electrodes implanted for clinical monitoring. Both will be combined with detailed first-person experiential accounts and behavioural tasks. This study will provide important clues about the widely reported effects of mindfulness meditation and hypnosis and shed light on the neural correlates of the conscious experience of self.

The aim of this project was to 1) investigate the neural correlates of the consciousness of self in meditation and hypnosis with iEEG and fMRI; 2) link the iEEG and fMRI correlates to behavioural measures and first-person experiences. 3) directly compare the neural correlates of mindfulness meditation and hypnosis states. This will help uncover the neural correlates of self-consciousness, and how hypnosis and meditation may help in anxiety, depression and trauma.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

September 2017: Ethics approval for the research protocol

October 2017: start recruitment of participants & inclusion of the first participant

March 2018: Behavioural paradigm validated in 100 healthy participants.

November 2018: fMRI data collected from 40 healthy participants.

September 2018-June 2019: data collected from 5 patients with intracranial electrodes.

Data-analysis is ongoing and in its final stages.


Dissemination:

conference talks:
PR Bauer. Phenomenological states and traits of mindfulness meditation and hypnosis. European Neurophenomenology, Contemplative, and Embodied Cognition Network, June 2019, Bad Hersfeld, Germany

PR Bauer. Neuronal and phenomenological correlates of mindfulness meditation and hypnosis. First-person Science of Consciousness, May 2019, Witten, Germany

2018 Participation in Pint of Science Festival
2018 Participation in Brain Awareness Week
2017 Participation Lyon European Researcher night
2017 Participation in Brain Awareness Week

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

This is one of the first studies that directly compared states of mindfulness meditation and hypnosis in healthy, naive participants.
Preliminary results show important phenomenological features of these states. Brain imaging analyses will show whether these features have neural correlates.
The results of this study will help to understand the mechanisms of short mindfulness meditation and hypnosis states, and to improve the use of these techniques in clinical settings.

Preliminary brain imaging result from the study