Search results for "Meditation"

Nature Inspired Scenes for Guided Mindfulness Training: Presence, Perceived Restorativeness and Meditation Depth

2019

Practicing mindfulness-based stress reeducation and other contemplative practices generates a number of health and human performance benefits. However, limited access to qualified training and practice support, as well as poor practice environments, makes it difficult to sustain the habits necessary to develop the attentional regulation skills needed to benefit from mindfulness. In this paper, we report on our research, which focuses on developing immersive environments to support mindfulness-based stress reduction practices. We specifically look at how the design of a virtual environment can foster a restorative experience, if that restorative experience is associated with the depth of the…

Feasibility of the Internet Attachment-Based Compassion Therapy in the General Population: Protocol for an Open-Label Uncontrolled Pilot Trial

2020

Background Compassion-based interventions delivered over the internet are showing promising results for the promotion of psychological health and well-being. Several studies have highlighted their feasibility, acceptance, and preliminary efficacy. However, this is an incipient field of research, and to the best of our knowledge, there are no data available from Spanish-speaking countries. Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility, acceptance, and preliminary efficacy of the Internet Attachment–Based Compassion Therapy (iABCT), a web-based version of the Attachment-Based Compassion Therapy, in Spanish speakers from the general population. Methods This feasibility stu…

Emotional Responses During Music Listening

2014

The aim of this chapter is to summarize and present the current knowledge about music and emotion from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Existing emotional models and their adequacy in describing emotional responses to music are described and discussed in different applications. The underlying emotion induction mechanisms beside cognitive appraisal are presented, and their implications on the field are analyzed. Musical characteristics such as tempo, mode, loudness, and so on are inherent properties of the musical structure and have been shown to influence the emotional states during music listening. The role of each individual parameter on emotional responses as well as their interactions …

Comparison of cerebral cortex activation induced by tactile stimulation between natural teeth and implants

2020

Background The purpose of this study was to assess the cortical-level sensory differences between natural teeth with a periodontal membrane and dental implants. Material and methods We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activity in the cerebral cortex of 12 patients who had both natural teeth and dental implants in the lower molar region. Painless vibratory tactile stimulation was performed on both the natural teeth and the dental implants. Results Activation was seen in the somatosensory cortex during stimulation of both natural teeth and dental implants. A comparison of cortical activation showed no significant differences between natural teeth and dental …

Pre- and post-ictal brain activity characterization using combined source decomposition and connectivity estimation in epileptic children

2019

In this research, the study of functional connectivity between sources of electroencephalogram (EEG) activity assessed for different classes (well before seizure, preictal and post-ictal) was performed. EEG recordings were acquired from 12 subjects with focal epilepsy. Then, ten common spatial patterns (CSP) were obtained for EEG segments describing 95% of Riemannian distance between pairs of classes, followed by estimation of multivariate autoregressive (MVAR) models’ coefficients. The MVAR models were further used to extract coherence as a functional connectivity measures. Our results show that the coherence between CSP sources differs between baseline and pre-ictal segments: it has the l…

2013

Neurovascular coupling (NVC) in the adult central nervous system (CNS) is a mechanism that provides regions of the brain with more oxygen and glucose upon increased levels of neural activation. Hemodynamic changes that go along with neural activation evoke a blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that can be used to study brain activity non-invasively. A correct correlation of the BOLD signal to neural activity is pivotal to understand this signal in neuronal development, health and disease. However, the function of NVC during development is largely unknown. The rodent whisker-to-barrel cortex is an experimentally well established model to…

Necessary Transformation or Safe Permanence? A Philosophical Approach to the Desire for Change

2011

What is proposed is a meditation on the phrase ‘transformation of the educational system’, paying attention to the sense of the words, and showing what the desire for educational change can reveal. After explaining to what extent ‘educational system’ is a quasi-oxymoron, the meaning of ‘transformation’ has to be compared to those of revolution and utopia. The claim to be transforming the educational system is an attempt to adapt education to social and political situations and constraints. The case of the Langevin-Wallon project in France, which was never applied, helps when wondering what has to be adapted to what. What sort of reciprocity is there between school and society? The organisa…

Mapping Brain Response to Social Stress in Rodents With c-fos Expression: A Review

2002

Social defeat is an important event in the life of many animals, and forms part of the process of social control. Adapting to social defeat is thus an intrinsic part of social "homeostasis", and mal-adaptation may have pathological sequelae. Experimental models of social defeat (e.g. inter-male aggression) have existed for many years. However, very few studies have investigated the changes in brain activity in male animals exposed to the social stress of being defeated by another conspecific male, and in all these studies the expression of the immediate-early gene c-fos has been used as the marker of neuronal activity. In general, the results obtained inform that many areas of the brain, es…

Online Closed-Loop Real-Time tES-fMRI for Brain Modulation: Feasibility, Noise/Safety and Pilot Study

2021

AbstractRecent studies suggest that transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) can be performed during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The novel approach of using concurrent tES-fMRI to modulate and measure targeted brain activity/connectivity may provide unique insights into the causal interactions between the brain neural responses and psychiatric/neurologic signs and symptoms, and importantly, guide the development of new treatments. However, tES stimulation parameters to optimally influence the underlying brain activity in health and disorder may vary with respect to phase, frequency, intensity and electrode’s montage. Here, we delineate how a closed-loop tES-fMRI study of …

Psicología positiva contemplativa: integrando mindfulness en la psicología positiva

2017

A pesar de que mindfulness está integrado en muchos manuales de psicología positiva como una técnica “positiva”, apenas se han desarrollado las implicaciones que tiene su uso ni se ha investigado la relación entre mindfulness y bienestar humano. Analizar las principales potencialidades de los dos ámbitos, las posibilidades de integración, así como las posibles contradicciones entre sus mensajes, es fundamental de cara a establecer puentes. Mindfulness es más que una técnica de meditación, lleva implícitos una serie de valores y condicionantes éticos que se adecuan en buena medida con los presupuestos que se proponen desde la psicología positiva, como el desarrollo de la amabilidad, la compa…