422
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Target Article

Meditation-induced bliss viewed as release from conditioned neural (thought) patterns that block reward signals in the brain pleasure center

References

  • Alexander, G.E., & Crutcher, M.D. (1990). Functional architecture of basal ganglia circuits: Neural substrates of parallel processing. Trends in Neuroscience, 13, 266–271. doi:10.1016/0166-2236(90)90107-L
  • Austin, H. (2006). Zen-brain reflections. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
  • Benson, H., Lehman J.W., Malhotra, M.S., Goldman R.F., Hopkins, J., & Epstein, M.D. (1982). Body temperature changes during the practice of g Tum-mo yoga. Nature, 295, 234–236. doi:10.1038/295234a0
  • Berridge, K.C. (2007). The debate over dopamine's role in reward: The case for incentive salience. Psychopharmacology, 191, 391–431. doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0578-x
  • Berridge, K.C., & Robinson, T.E. (1998). What is the role of dopamine in reward: Hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Research Reviews, 28, 309–369. doi:10.1016/S0165-0173(98)00019-8
  • Bigelsen, J., & Schupak, C. (2011). Compulsive fantasy: Proposed evidence of an under-reported syndrome through a systematic study of 90 self-identified non-normative fantasizers. Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1634–1648. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2011.08.013
  • Brewer, J.A., Worhunsky, P.D., Gray, J.R., Tang, Y.Y., Weber, J., & Kober, H. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 108, 20254–20259. doi:10.1073/pnas.1112029108
  • Buckner, R.L., Andrews-Hanna, J.R., & Schacter, D.L. (2008). The brain's default network: Anatomy, function, and relevance to disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124, 1–38. doi:10.1196/annals.1440.011
  • Buzsáki, G. (2006). Rhythms of the brain. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301069.001.0001
  • Cahn, B.R., & Polich, J. (2006). Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 180–211. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.180
  • Carroll, J. (1987). The basketball diaries. London: Penguin Books.
  • Chalmers, D.J. (1995). Facing up to the problem of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2, 200–219.
  • Chalmers, D.J. (1996). The conscious mind: In search of a fundamental theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Chodron, P. (2010). The three commitments: Working with the path of liberation. Disc two: Shamatha meditation instruction. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.
  • Compton, W.C., & Hoffman, E. (2013). Positive psychology: The science of happiness and flourishing. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
  • Crick, F., & Koch, C. (1990). Towards a neurobiological theory of consciousness. Seminars in Neurosciences, 2, 263–275.
  • David-Neel, A. (1932). Magic and mystery in Tibet. New York: Dover Publications.
  • Engel, A.K., Fries, P., König, P., Brecht, M., & Singer, W. (1999). Temporal binding, binocular rivalry, and consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 8, 128–151. doi:10.1006/ccog.1999.0389
  • Fiorino, D.F., Coury, A., & Phillips, A.G. (1997). Dynamic changes in nucleus accumbens dopamine efflux during the Coolidge effect in male rats. Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 4849–4855.
  • Gerfen, C.R. (1992). The neostriatal mosaic: Multiple levels of compartmental organization. Trends in Neurosciences, 15, 133–139. doi:10.1016/0166-2236(92)90355-C
  • Giocomo, L.M., & Hasselmo, M.E. (2007). Neuromodulation by glutamate and acetylcholine can change circuit dynamics by regulating the relative influence of afferent input and excitatory feedback. Molecular Neurobiology, 36, 184–200. doi:10.1007/s12035-007-0032-z
  • Graybiel, A.M. (2008). Habits, rituals, and the evaluative brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 31, 359–387. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.29.051605.112851
  • Hasselmo, M.E., & McGaughy, J. (2004). High acetylcholine levels set circuit dynamics for attention and encoding and low acetylcholine levels set dynamics for consolidation. Progress in Brain Research, 145, 207–231. doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(03)45015-2
  • Hazy, T.E., Frank, M.J., & O'Reilly, R.C. (2010). Neural mechanisms of acquired phasic dopamine responses in learning. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 34, 701–720. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.11.019
  • Heimer, L., Switzer, R.D., & Van Hoesen, G.W. (1982). Ventral striatum and ventral pallidum: Components of the motor system? Trends in Neurosciences, 5, 83–87. doi:10.1016/0166-2236(82)90037-6
  • Herkenham, M. (1992). Cannabinoid receptor localization in brain: Relationship to motor and reward systems. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 654, 19–32. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1992.tb25953.x
  • Holstege, G., Georgiadis, J.R., Paans, A.M.J., Meiners, L.C., van der Graaf, F.H.C.E., & Reinders, A.A.T.S. (2003). Brain activation during human male ejaculation. Journal of Neuroscience, 23, 9185–9193.
  • Hyman, S.E., Malenka, R.C., & Nestler, E.J. (2006). Neural mechanisms of addiction: The role of reward-related learning and memory. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 29, 565–598. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.29.051605.113009
  • Hyman, S.E., & Nestler, E.J. (1996). Initiation and adaptation: A paradigm for understanding psychotropic drug action. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 151–162.
  • Joel, D., & Weiner, I. (2000). The connections of the dopaminergic system within the striatum in rats and primates: An analysis with respect to the functional and compartmental organization of the striatum. Neuroscience, 96, 451–474. doi:10.1016/S0306-4522(99)00575-8
  • Johnson, S.W., & North, R.A. (1992). Opioids excite dopamine neurons by hyperpolarization of local interneurons. Journal of Neuroscience, 12, 483–488.
  • Kamin, L.J. (1968). Attention-like processes in classical conditioning. In M.R. Jones (Ed.), Miami symposium on the prediction of behavior: Aversive stimulation (pp. 9–31). Miami, FL: University of Miami Press.
  • Killingsworth, M.A., & Gilbert, D.T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330, 932. doi:10.1126/science.1192439
  • Kjaer, T.W., Bertelsen, C., Piccini, P., Brooks, D.R., Alving, J., & Lou, H.C. (2002). Increased dopamine tone during meditation-induced change of consciousness. Cognitive Brain Research, 13, 255–259. doi:10.1016/S0926-6410(01)00106-9
  • Klinger, E. (2009). Daydreaming and fantasizing: Thought flow and motivation. In K.D. Markman, W.M.P. Klein, & J.A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of imagination and mental simulation (pp. 225–239). New York: Psychology Press.
  • Koob, G.F., & LeMoal, M. (2008). Neurobiological mechanisms for opponent motivational processes in addiction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 363, 3113–3123. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0094
  • Koob, G.F., & Volkow, N.D. (2010). Neurocircuitry of addiction. Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, 35, 217–238. doi:10.1038/npp.2009.110
  • Lambert, K.G., & Kinsley, C.H. (2011). Clinical neuroscience: Psychopathology and the brain. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • LeGault, M., & Wise, R.A. (2001). Novelty-evoked elevations of nucleus accumbens dopamine: Dependence on impulse flow from the ventral subiculum and glutamatergic neurotransmission in the ventral tegmental area. European Journal of Neuroscience, 13, 819–828. doi:10.1046/j.0953-816x.2000.01448.x
  • Lim, M.M., & Young, L.J. (2006). Neuropeptidergic regulation of affiliative behavior and social bonding in animals. Hormones and Behavior, 50, 506–517. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2006.06.028
  • Linden, D.J. (2011). The compass of pleasure. New York: Viking Press.
  • Llorens-Cortes, C., Zini, S., Gros, C., & Schwartz, J.-C. (1991). Dopaminergic regulation of enkephalin release. Journal of Neurochemistry, 56, 1368–1375. doi:10.1111/j.1471-4159.1991.tb11434.x
  • Lutz, A., Greischar, L.L., Rawlings, N.B., Ricard, M., & Davidson, R.J. (2004). Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 101, 16369–16373. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407401101
  • McClelland, J.L., McNaughton, B.L., & O'Reilly, R.C. (1995). Why there are complementary learning systems in the hippocampus and neocortex: Insights from the successes and failures of connectionist models of learning and memory. Psychological Review, 102, 419–457. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.102.3.419
  • Mailleux, P., & Vanderhaeghen, J.-J. (1992). Distribution of neuronal cannabinoid receptor in the adult rat brain: A comparative receptor binding radioautography and in situ hybridization histochemistry. Neuroscience, 48, 655–668. doi:10.1016/0306-4522(92)90409-U
  • Mason, M.F., Norton, M.I., Van Horn, J.D., Wegner, D.M., Grafton, S.T., & Macrae, C.N. (2007). Wandering minds: The default network and stimulus-independent thought. Science, 315, 393–395. doi:10.1126/science.1131295
  • Mirenowicz, J., & Schultz, W. (1996). Preferential activation of midbrain dopamine neurons by appetitive rather than aversive stimuli. Nature, 379, 449–451. doi:10.1038/379449a0
  • Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat? The Philosophical Review, 83, 435–450. doi:10.2307/2183914
  • Nestler, E.J., & Carlezon, W.A. (2006). The mesolimbic dopamine reward circuit in depression. Biological Psychiatry, 59, 1151–1159. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.09.018
  • O'Reilly, R.C., & Frank, M.J. (2006). Making working memory work: A computational model of learning in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. Neural Computation, 18, 283–328. doi:10.1002/syn.890200402
  • Packard, M.G., & McGaugh, J.L. (1996). Inactivation of hippocampus or caudate nucleus with lidocaine differentially affects expression of place and response learning. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 65, 65–72. doi:10.1006/nlme.1996.0007
  • Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Parent, A. (1990). Extrinsic connections of the basal ganglia. Trends in Neurosciences, 13, 254–258. doi:10.1016/0166-2236(90)90105-J
  • Parent, A., & Hazrati, L.-N. (1995). Functional anatomy of the basal ganglia. I. The cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop. Brain Research Reviews, 20, 91–127. doi:10.1016/0165-0173(94)00007-C
  • Pennartz, C.M.A., Groenewegen, H.J., & Lopes da Silva, F.H. (1994). The nucleus accumbens as a complex of functionally distinct neuronal ensembles: An integration of behavioural, electrophysiological and anatomical data. Progress in Neurobiology, 42, 719–761. doi:10.1016/0301-0082(94)90025-6
  • Rebec, G.V., Christensen, J.R.C., Guerra, C., & Bardo, M. T. (1997). Regional and temporal differences in real-time dopamine efflux in the nucleus accumbens during free-choice novelty. Brain Research, 776, 61–67. doi:10.1016/S0006-8993(97)01004-4
  • Rescorla, R.A., & Wagner, A.R. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variation in the effectiveness of reinforcement and non-reinforcement. In A.H. Black & W.F. Prokasy (Eds.), Classical conditioning II: Theory and research (pp. 64–69). New York: Appleton-Century-Croft.
  • Saigusa, T., Tuinstra, T., Koshikawa, N., & Cools, A.R. (1999). High and low responders to novelty: Effects of a catecholamine synthesis inhibitor on novelty-induced changes in behaviour and release of accumbal dopamine. Neuroscience, 88, 1153–1163. doi:10.1016/S0306-4522(98)00275-9
  • Schacter, D.L., & Addis, D.R. (2009). On the nature of medial temporal lobe contributions to the constructive simulation of future events. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 1245–1253. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0308
  • Schoenbaum, G., Stalnaker, T.A., & Shaham, Y. (2007). A role for BDNF in cocaine reward and relapse. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 935–936.
  • Schultz, W. (1998). Predictive reward signal of dopamine neurons. Journal of Neurophysiology, 80, 1–27.
  • Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, R.R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward. Science, 275, 1593–1599.
  • Sesack, S.R., & Grace, A.A. (2010). Cortico-basal ganglia reward network: Microcircuitry. Neuropsychopharmacology, 35, 27–47. doi:10.1038/npp.2009.93
  • Shankman, R. (2008). The experience of Samadhi: An in-depth exploration of Buddhist meditation. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications.
  • Sharp, P.E. (2011). Buddhist enlightenment and the destruction of attractor networks: A neuroscientific speculation on the Buddhist path from everyday consciousness to Buddha-awakening. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 18, 137–169.
  • Siegel, S., Baptista, M.A.S., Kim, J.A., McDonald, R.V., & Weise-Kelly, L. (2000). Pavlovian psychopmarmacology: The associative basis of tolerance. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 8, 276–293. doi:10.1037/1064-1297.8.3.276
  • Singer, W. (1998). Consciousness and the structure of neuronal representations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 353, 1829–1840.
  • Singer, W., & Gray, C.M. (1995). Visual feature integration and the temporal correlation hypothesis. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 18, 555–586.
  • Spivey, M.J., & Dale, R. (2004). On the continuity of mind: Toward a dynamical account of cognition. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 45, 87–142. doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(03)45003-2
  • Sutton, R.S., & Barto, A.G. (1998). Reinforcement learning: An introduction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
  • Thorndike, E.L. (1911). Animal intelligence: Experimental studies. New York: MacMillan Press. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.55072
  • Trungpa, C. (1973). Cutting through spiritual materialism. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications.
  • Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and consciousness. Canadian Psychologist, 25, 1–12.
  • Vanhaudenhuyse, A., Demertzi, A., Schabus, M., Noirhomme, Q., Bredart, S., Boly, M., … & Laureys S. (2010). Two distinct neuronal networks mediate the awareness of environment and self. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 570–578.
  • Voorn, P., Gerfen, C.R., & Groenewegen, H. J. (1989). Compartmental organization of the ventral striatum of the rat: Immunohistochemical distribution of enkephalin, substance P, dopamine, and calcium-binding protein. The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 289, 189–201. doi:10.1002/cne.902890202
  • Voorn, P., Vanderschuren, L.J.M.J., Groenewegen, H.J., Robbins, T.W., & Pennartz, C.M.A. (2004). Putting a spin on the dorsal-ventral divide of the striatum. Trends in Neurosciences, 27, 468–474. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2004.06.006
  • Wallace, B.A. (2007). Contemplative science: Where Buddhism and neuroscience converge. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Wallace, B.A. (2009). Mind in the balance. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Wise, R.A. (2004). Dopamine, learning and motivation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5, 1–12.
  • Wise, R.A. (2008). Dopamine and reward: The Anhedonia Hypothesis 30 years on. Neurotoxicity Research, 14, 169–183. doi:10.1007/BF03033808
  • Yeshe, L.T. (1998). The bliss of inner fire: Heart practices of the six yogas of Naropa. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.