TY - JOUR
T1 - Meditation-Induced Self-Boundary Flexibility and Prosociality
T2 - A MEG and Behavioral Measures Study
AU - Schweitzer, Yoav
AU - Trautwein, Fynn Mathis
AU - Dor-Ziderman, Yair
AU - Nave, Ohad
AU - David, Jonathan
AU - Fulder, Stephen
AU - Berkovich-Ohana, Aviva
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.
PY - 2024/11/26
Y1 - 2024/11/26
N2 - Background: In the last decade, empirical studies on the beneficial effects of meditation on prosocial capacities have accumulated, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Buddhist sources state that liberating oneself from a fixed view of the self by gaining access to its transitory and malleable nature leads to increased compassion and other prosocial traits. These, however, have not yet been empirically tested. Methods: The current study aims at filling this gap by first examining whether 44 long term meditators differ from 53 controls in prosocial capacities on different levels of the socio-cognitive hierarchy, and second by examining whether these are associated with meditation-induced ‘selfless’ states, operationalized here as the sense of boundary (SB) flexibility. We capitalize on our previous work on the neurophenomenology of mindfulness-induced SB dissolution, which yielded a neural index of SB-flexibility, solely for the meditators, and examine its correlations with a battery of validated behavioral prosociality tasks. Results: Our findings reveal enhanced low-level prosocial processes in meditators, including enhanced emotion recognition and reduced outgroup bias. We show the stability of SB flexibility over a year, demonstrating consistent high beta deactivation. The neural index of SB flexibility negatively correlates with recognizing negative emotions, suggesting a link to reduced social threat perception. Conclusions: These results connect the neural correlates of SB flexibility to prosociality, supported by stable high beta deactivations. We expect the results to raise awareness regarding the prosocial potential of flexing one’s self-boundaries through meditation.
AB - Background: In the last decade, empirical studies on the beneficial effects of meditation on prosocial capacities have accumulated, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Buddhist sources state that liberating oneself from a fixed view of the self by gaining access to its transitory and malleable nature leads to increased compassion and other prosocial traits. These, however, have not yet been empirically tested. Methods: The current study aims at filling this gap by first examining whether 44 long term meditators differ from 53 controls in prosocial capacities on different levels of the socio-cognitive hierarchy, and second by examining whether these are associated with meditation-induced ‘selfless’ states, operationalized here as the sense of boundary (SB) flexibility. We capitalize on our previous work on the neurophenomenology of mindfulness-induced SB dissolution, which yielded a neural index of SB-flexibility, solely for the meditators, and examine its correlations with a battery of validated behavioral prosociality tasks. Results: Our findings reveal enhanced low-level prosocial processes in meditators, including enhanced emotion recognition and reduced outgroup bias. We show the stability of SB flexibility over a year, demonstrating consistent high beta deactivation. The neural index of SB flexibility negatively correlates with recognizing negative emotions, suggesting a link to reduced social threat perception. Conclusions: These results connect the neural correlates of SB flexibility to prosociality, supported by stable high beta deactivations. We expect the results to raise awareness regarding the prosocial potential of flexing one’s self-boundaries through meditation.
KW - meditation
KW - prosociality
KW - self-boundary (SB) flexibility
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85213466578&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/brainsci14121181
DO - 10.3390/brainsci14121181
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85213466578
SN - 2076-3425
VL - 14
JO - Brain Sciences
JF - Brain Sciences
IS - 12
M1 - 1181
ER -