The Neuroscience of Attention, Emotion, & Meditation: Implications for Education

Alfred W. Kaszniak Department of Psychology University of Arizona

Goal-Directed vs. Stimulus-Driven Attention & The Brain

ACC

One system (bilateral intraparietal & superior frontal cortices) - preparing & applying goal-directed (top-down) selection for stimuli & responses Other (temporoparietal & inferior frontal cortices, right lateralized) - detection of behaviorally-relevant stimuli (particularly salient or unexpected) Anterior cingulate cortex (& adjacent VMPFC)- conflict detection, error monitoring & attention switching

Corbetta, M., & Shulman, G.L. (2002). Control of goal-directed and stimulusdriven attention in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3, 201-215. Wager, T.D., Jonides, J., Smith, E.E., & Nichols, T.E. (2005). Toward a taxonomy of attention shifting: Individual differences in fMRI during multiple shift types. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 5, 122-143.

Stress Disrupts Attention Control and Prefrontal Cortical Processing

In young adults, 1mo. of the stress of preparation for a major exam reversibly disrupted prefrontal cortex functional connectivity and performance while performing an attentionshifting task.

Liston, C., McEwen, B.S., & Casey, B.J. (2009). Psychosocial stress reversibly disrupts prefrontal processing and attentional control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 106, 912-917.

Childrens Stress
National

Kids Poll surveyed 875 children, ages 9

13: Top 3 sources of stress: School & homework (36%); Family (32%); Friends, peers, gossip, & teasing (21%) Top 3 coping strategies: Play or do something active (52%); Listen to music (44%); Watch TV or play video game (42%)
Cited in Lantieri, L. (2008). Building emotional intelligence. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, p.12.

Kaiser Family Foundation Study (2005)

On

average, a sample of 700 young persons, age 8 - 18, stated that 26 % of the time while using one medium they were also doing something else media-related at the same time. 30% either talk on the phone, instant message, watch TV, listen to music, or surf the web for fun most of the time they are doing homework; Another 31% say they do so some of the time.
Rideout, V., Roberts, D.F., & Foehr, V.G. (2005). Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds. Kaiser Family Foundation. <http://www.kff.org/entmedia/7251.cfm>

Attention in a Multitasking World

Our attention capacity is limited, and multitasking demands rapid task switching. The rapid switching between multiple tasks is costly in time and accuracy. Switch cost increases with task complexity and unfamiliarity. In switching from one task to another, the two complementary executive control stages of goal shifting and rule activation each take time.

Rubinstein, J. S., Meyer, D. E., & Evans, J. E. (2001). Executive control of cognitive processes in task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27, 763-797.

Cognitive Control in Task Switching Has a long Developmental Curve

Davidson, M.C., Amso, D., Anderson, L.., & Diamond, A.(2006). Development of cognitive control and executive funtions from 4 to 13 years: Evidence from manipulations of memory, inhibition, and task switching. Neuropsychologia, 44, 2037-2078.

The Myth of Multitasking Expertise

Examined differences in information processing styles between heavy and light media multitaskers Results from standard cognitive control tasks showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and irrelevant representations in memory, and also performed worse on a test of task-switching (likely due to reduced ability to filter interference from the irrelevant task set)

Ophir, E., Nass, C, & Wagner, A.D. (2009). Cognitive control in media multitaskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0903620106.

Cognitive-Affective Nature of Executive Control

Executive control circuit contains traditional control areas, such as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), in addition to other areas commonly linked to affect (amygdala) and motivation (nucleus accumbens). Diffuse, modulatory effects are shown in green and originate from dopamine-rich neurons from the ventral tegmental area (VTA).

Pessoa, L. (2008). On the relationship between emotion and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9, 148-158.

Emotion Regulation
Reappraising the meaning & personal relevance of emotional images reduces facial expressive autonomic physiological, & brain (amygdala) responses Such emotion regulation has been shown to be dependent upon regions in the medial frontal cortex.

Gross, J.J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 224-237. Menchola, M., Kaszniak, A.W., & Burton, K.W. (2008). Interaction between habitual and voluntary emotion regulation and the chronometry of affective responses. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research.

0.3 Corrugator EMG(zscores) 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 1s 2s 3s Time Reappraise Suppress Watch 4s 5s 6s

Adolescence, Limbic & PFC Development, and Risky Behavior

Casey, B.J., Jones, R.M., & Hare, T.A. (2008). The adolescent brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124, 111-126

The Voluntary Control of Attention

The

faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. No one is compos sui if he have it not. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal than to give practical directions for bringing it about.
James, W. (1890/1981). The principles of psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 401.

Does Meditation Provide Such Education?

What is Meditation?
Two

modes of attention:

Focused

Attention Meditation Open Monitoring Meditation

Lutz, A., Dunne, J. & Davidson, R. (2007). Meditation and the neuroscience of consciousness. In P. Zelazo, M. Moscovitch & E. Thompson, eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness, Cambridge University Press. Lutz, A., Slagter, H.A., Dunne, J.D., & Davidson, R.J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 163-169.

Attention & Meditation Practice

Jha, et al. (2007) studied 17 participants in 8-week MBSR training, 17 FAmeditation-experienced participants on monthlong retreat, & 17 nonmeditating controls. Administered Attention Network Test (ANT) pre& post training/retreat.

Fan, J., McCandliss, B., Sommer, T., Raz, A., & Posner, M. (2002). Testing the efficiency and independence of attentional networks. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 143, 340-347.

Jha, A., Krimpinger, J., & Baime, M.J. (2007). Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience 7, 109-119,

Attention & Meditation Practice

Participants in MBSR course improved ability to endogenously orient attention Retreat participation facilitated receptive attention skills, which improved exogenous alertingrelated process.

Jha, A., Krimpinger, J., & Baime, M.J. (2007). Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience 7, 109-119.

Studied 17 participants at beginning & end of 3-mo. Vipassana (FA & OM) meditation retreat, & 23 novices who meditated 20 min. daily for 1 wk prior to each experimental session Administered the attentional blink task

Intensive Meditation Training & Attentional Blink

Slagter, H.A., Lutz, A.,, Greischar, L.L., Francis, A. Nieuwenhuis,, S., Davis, J.M., & Davidson, R.J. (2007). Mental training affects distribution of limited brain resources. PLoS Biology, 5 (6), e138. Doi:10.1317/journal.pbio.0050138.

Attentional Blink & ERP Results

Intensive retreat practitioners showed smaller attentional blink for T2 (2nd session, after retreat) This was associated with ERP evidence for reduction in brainresource allocation to T1 Consistent with reduced distracter (T1) interference in meditation practitioners

Slagter, H.A., Lutz, A.,, Greischar, L.L., Francis, A. Nieuwenhuis,, S., Davis, J.M., & Davidson, R.J. (2007). Mental training affects distribution of limited brain resources. PLoS Biology, 5 (6), e138. Doi:10.1317/journal.pbio.005013

Zen & Concept Proliferation

Compared participants with 3+ yrs daily Zazen practice to meditation nave persons All did simple breath attention meditation while words & nonwords were flashed Zen meditators showed faster return to baseline in brain default network activity associated with conceptual thought & sense of self

Pagnoni, G., Cekic, M., & Guo, Y. (2008). Thinking about not-thinking: Neural correlates of conceptual processing during Zen meditation. PLoS ONE 3 (9): e3083. Doc10.1371/journal_pone.00-3083

EEG Phase Synchrony

More widespread gamma frequency (2080 Hz) EEG synchrony is found for upright than inverted or scrambled Mooney (ambiguous) faces. Interpreted as reflecting integration of the computations of different, spatially distributed feature processing regions in the brain (conscious perceptual binding).

Rodriguez E, George N, Lachaux JP, Martinerie J, Renault B, Varela FJ. (1999). Perceptions shadow: long-distance synchronization of human brain activity. Nature, 397,430433. Trujillo, L.T., Peterson, M.A., Kaszniak, A.W., & Allen, J.A. (2005). EEG phase synchrony differences across visual perception conditions may depend on recording and analysis

Brain Electrical Synchrony & Nonreferential Compassion Meditation

128-channel EEG recorded in 8 long-term Tibetan Buddhist practitioners & 10 student volunteers.

Increased synchronous gamma activity over lateral fronto-parietal areas during non-referential compassion meditation. Suggests precise temporal synchronization of massive distributed neural assemblies.

Lutz, A., Greischer, L.L., Rawlings, N.B., Ricard, M., & Davidson, R.J. (2004). Long-term meditators self-induce high amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 101, 16369-16373.

Phenomenal Clarity & Gamma Oscillations During Meditation

High-amplitude gamma oscillations emerge over a time-course of several dozens of seconds and correlate with the clarity (phenomenal intensity and vividness) of meditative experience as verbally reported
Lutz, A. et al. (2006). Changes in the tonic high-amplitude gamma oscillations during meditation correlate with long-term practitioners verbal reports. Poster presented at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness Annual Meeting,.

clarity of the mind = phenomenal intensity and vividness during meditation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

V2
300 250 200 150 100 50 0

Example: Adept 1

Self-report (rating 1-9);

Gamma activity

Emotion in Long-Term Zen & Vipassana Meditators

Long-term Meditators (>10 years) Report higher emotional clarity Those reporting higher clarity show lower physiological & experienced arousal, & greater subtle positive facial expression in response to masked emotional pictures, consistent with regulation of emotion early in the emotion process.

Clarity
4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2

Controls

StMeds

LtMeds

Nielsen, L., & Kaszniak, A.W. (2006). Awareness of subtle emotional feelings: A comparison of long-term meditators and nonmeditators. Emotion, 6, 392-405.

Brief Meditation Training, Emotion, & Immune Response

Studied 25 work environment participants in 8-week MBSR training & 16 wait-list controls Following training, meditators showed decreased trait anxiety, left anterior brain activation (associated with positive affect), & increases in antibody titers to influenza vaccine (correlated with left brain activation)

Davidson, R. et al. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564-570.

Empathy for Pain

Brain Areas Activated by both Experiencing & Observing Pain

Observing

facial expression of another in pain activates areas involved in ones own affective response to pain (anterior insula, anterior medial cingulate)

Lamm, C., Batson, C.D., & Decety, J. (2007). The neural substrate of human empathy: Effects of perspective-taking and cognitive appraisal. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 42-58.

Compassion Meditation in Expert Meditators Alters Activity in Empathy-Related Brain Areas

Expert Vajrayana Buddhist meditators, compared to novices, showed greater activation to emotional distress vocalizations in insula cortex during nonrerential compassion meditation. Strength of insula activation was correlated with selfreported intensity of the meditation

Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R.J. (2008). Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: Effects of meditative expertise. PLoS ONE, 3(3), e1897. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.00011897.

Contemplative Education
Although

feasibility studies and initial evaluative data have been reported, empirical studies on contemplative practice with children in educational settings are few in number and often have methodological limitations. Many questions remain, and claims of effectiveness are presently premature.
Roeser, R.W., & Peck, S.C. (2009). An education in awareness: Self, motivation, and self-regulated learning in contemplative perspective. Educational Psychologist, 44, 119-136.

Thank You