The neuromagnetic brain activation patterns of induced compassion in advanced Zen meditation practitioners

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Title The neuromagnetic brain activation patterns of induced compassion in advanced Zen meditation practitioners
Publication Type dissertation
School or College College of Education
Department Educational Psychology
Author Johnson, Michael Byron
Date 2011-08
Description The concept of compassion is complex, where religious and philosophical writings are abundant but scientific publications remain sparse. The surge in neuroscientific publications related to prosocial behaviors, spirituality, and Buddhist-based meditation practices has sparked a growing interest in issues once considered foreign to the scientific arena. There is currently a strong need to develop neuroscientific methods that incorporate subjective trait and state measures. In addition, the use of powerful new technologies such as high density whole head magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides novel methods for mapping brain states over time in a way never before thought possible. The current proposal will attempt to use MEG in combination with both state and trait scales to better understand how mind and brain are related to the production of induced compassion. The sample for investigation will include high level Zen Buddhist practitioners with many years of intensive religious practice within a Buddhist framework that requires the cultivation of compassion. The hope is that these findings may one day shed light on an array of psychiatric disorders where certain forms of social impairments could benefit from practices traditionally sequestered within only religious context;s.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Brain; Compassion; Meditation; MEG; Neuroimaging; Zen
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name Doctor of Philosophy
Language eng
Rights Management Copyright © Michael Byron Johnson 2011
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 999,930 bytes
Identifier us-etd3,43033
Source original in Marriott Library Special Collections; BL27.5 2011 .J64
ARK ark:/87278/s6q24f0m
Setname ir_etd
ID 194722
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6q24f0m
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