Publication

The neural mediators of kindness-based meditation: a theoretical model

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Last modified
  • 02/20/2025
Type of Material
Authors
    Jennifer Mascaro, Emory UniversityAlana Darcher, Emory UniversitySatya Negi, Emory UniversityCharles Raison, Emory University
Language
  • English
Date
  • 2015-02-12
Publisher
  • Frontiers Media
Publication Version
Copyright Statement
  • © 2015 Mascaro, Darcher, Negi and Raison.
License
Final Published Version (URL)
Title of Journal or Parent Work
ISSN
  • 1664-1078
Volume
  • 6
Issue
  • FEB
Start Page
  • 109
End Page
  • 109
Abstract
  • Although kindness-based contemplative practices are increasingly employed by clinicians and cognitive researchers to enhance prosocial emotions, social cognitive skills, and well-being, and as a tool to understand the basic workings of the social mind, we lack a coherent theoretical model with which to test the mechanisms by which kindness-based meditation may alter the brain and body. Here, we link contemplative accounts of compassion and loving-kindness practices with research from social cognitive neuroscience and social psychology to generate predictions about how diverse practices may alter brain structure and function and related aspects of social cognition. Contingent on the nuances of the practice, kindness-based meditation may enhance the neural systems related to faster and more basic perceptual or motor simulation processes, simulation of another's affective body state, slower and higher-level perspective-taking, modulatory processes such as emotion regulation and self/other discrimination, and combinations thereof. This theoretical model will be discussed alongside best practices for testing such a model and potential implications and applications of future work.
Author Notes
  • Correspondence: Jennifer S. Mascaro, Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 207 Anthropology Building, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA e-mail: jmascar@emory.edu
Keywords
Research Categories
  • Biology, Neuroscience
  • Anthropology, Medical and Forensic

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