Neural mechanisms, state effects and trait correlates of meditation induced alterations in the sense of self

人类主观经验的一个普遍特征是存在着一个感知、思考、感觉和行动的主体，它与个人身份和过去的记忆联系在一起。目前对这种多种现象的概念化集中在双重分化上：最小自我指的是经验的直接主体，被认为是身体的所有者和思想和行动的代理人。与之相反，叙事性自我涉及到被认为是“我”的知识的反映。虽然在各种精神障碍中都描述了自我意识的扰动，但自我的变化也被认为是正念冥想对健康和社会能力影响的核心机制。为了促进对相关过程的综合机制理解，本项目旨在通过两项研究调查冥想引起的自我改变，重点是1)与叙事自我有关的过程的持久特质效应和2)减弱的最小自我体验的短暂冥想状态。这两项研究都将依赖于一种多方法的方法，即三角测量自我报告、行为任务和神经测量。研究1将利用脑电图（EEG）检验叙事自我加工减弱与特质正念之间的假设关系。研究2将通过从冥想专家那里获得的脑磁图数据的功能连接建模，评估正常与减弱最小自我体验中最小自我的候选机制。

An ubiquitous feature of subjective human experience is the presence of a perceiving, thinking, feeling and acting subject, which is tied to a personal identity and to past memories. Current conceptualizations of this manifold phenomenon converge on a dual differentiation: The minimal self refers to the immediate subject of experience, perceived as the owner of a body and agent in thought and action. In contrast, the narrative self involves reflected knowledge of what is considered “me”. While perturbations in the sense of self have been described in various mental disorders, a change in the self is also assumed to be a central mechanism of mindfulness meditation effects on wellbeing and social abilities. To contribute to an integrated mechanistic understanding of the involved processes, this project aims to investigate alterations in the self induced by meditation in two studies focusing on 1) lasting trait effects on processes pertaining to the narrative self and 2) short meditation states of attenuated minimal self experience. Both studies will rely on a multi-method approach that triangulates self-reports, behavioral tasks and neural measures. Using EEG, study 1 will test for hypothesized relationships between attenuated narrative self processing and trait mindfulness. Study 2 will assess candidate mechanisms of the minimal self in normal vs. attenuated minimal self experience through functional connectivity modeling of MEG data obtained from expert meditation practitioners.