Attending to the Body in Meditation: Cortical Dynamics in a Trial of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
Thursday October 15 @ 5:30p, in Smith Buonnano 201
Dr. Catherine Kerr, Director of the Program in the Neuroscience of Meditation, Healing, and the Sense of Touch of the Osher Research Center of the Harvard Medical School
Dr. Kerr is a neuroscientist who investigates the effects of meditation and the placebo effect on millisecond-by-millisecond changes in cortical dynamic regulation. More broadly, she is interested in understanding how changes in brain states (especially in cortical areas related to body feeling perception [S1, S2 and insula]) seen in meditation and other mind-body practices relate to the phenomenology of everyday life and may be relevant for understanding chronic pain, mood, health and well-being. Her original training as a historian (PhD, Johns Hopkins University) motivates her conviction that humanists and social scientists must become more involved in discussions of brain, mind and self that have emerged from recent neuroscientific research.
Supported by a Grant from the Frederick Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism
When Empirical Science Trumps Popular Assumptions: The Case of Meditation and Sleep
Thursday October 29 @ 5:30pm, in BioMed Building Room 202 (The BioMed Building is at the corner of Brown and Meeting Sts.
Dr. Willoughby Britton, Research Associate in Psychiatry and Human Behavior Brown University Department of Bio Med Psychiatry & Human Behavior
Dr. Britton received a B.A. in Neuroscience from Colgate University, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona, and completed her clinical internship at Brown Medical School. She received sleep/EEG technician training at Harvard Medical School and was a Research Fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA/NIH) and at Andrew Weil's Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. She spent several years in Asia studying meditative techniques and received her mindfulness instructor certification training at the Center for Mindfulness at the UMASS Medical School. Dr. Britton's research includes sleep, emotional disturbances, and new treatment/prevention strategies. She recently completed a 3-year NIH-funded clinical trial on the neurophysiological effects of mindfulness meditation in depression, and continues to examine the link between sleep, affective disturbance and emotional regulation strategies. Two current research projects aim to examine the effects of meditation practices in 6th graders and college students.
*The Neurobiology of Meditation
Tuesday November 10 @5:30p, in BioMed Building, "Purple Palace"
Dr. Sara Lazar, Assistant in Psychology, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
Sara W. Lazar, PhD is a neuroscientist in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School. The focus of her research is to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying meditation, both in clinical settings and to promote and preserve health and well-being in healthy individuals.
One main focus of her work is determining how yoga and meditation influence brain structure, and how these changes influence behavior. She has been practicing yoga and mindfulness meditation since 1994, and is a Board member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy.
A Faculty Seminar on Some Theory and Praxis of Contemplative Pedagogy
Wednesday, November 11 @12:00p-1:30p, Sheridan Center, 96 Waterman St.
Victoria Smith (Hispanic Studies)
Willoughby Britton (Psychiatry)
The Contemplative Studies Initiative has profound potential for improving how teaching can reach a diverse audience of students and colleagues across the disciplines. Psychiatry Research Fellow, Willoughby Britton, and long-time faculty member in Hispanic Studies, Victoria Smith, will speak about the pedagogy of their work in Contemplative Studies. Willoughby will discuss the neuropsychological effects of contemplative practices that have been incorporated into required school curricula at the middle school and university levels. Tori will talk about her use of contemplative practices in the foreign language classroom.
Please come prepared to discuss your own classroom practices and how contemplative studies may enrich the learning experience for you and your students.
*Bring a brown bag lunch, dessert & coffee will be provided.
Tentativel Titled: Selfless Insight: Contemplative Practice and its Neurophysiological Basis
Monday November 16 @ 5:30p, in Wilson 102
Dr. James Austin (Brown '47), Clinical Professor of Neurology, University of Missouri Health Science Center, and Emeritus Professor of Neurology, University of Colorado Health Science Center.
He is the author of Zen and the Brain, Zen-Brain Reflections, Selfless Insight, copies of which he will be signing after the lecture.
Extending Wakefulness into Daily Life: A Benefit Weekend - WB
December 4-6, 2009
Everyday experiences are opportunities for wakefulness. This non-traditional weekend will engage contemporary and classical methods and perspectives that can deepen the integration of meditation practice into daily life. Several dimensions of awakening will be explored, from transforming emotional habits and raising ecological awareness to drawing inspiration from the meditative arts and from findings in contemplative neuroscience.
To register and read more about this, click here.
This retreat is offered as a benefit to support IMS's mission.
Special cancellation fees apply for this benefit retreat: up to November 7, $250; afterwards, the full payment of $500 is forfeited.
Teachers
Sharon Salzberg, a co-founder of IMS and BCBS, has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1971 and has been teaching worldwide since 1974. She is an IMS guiding teacher and author of The Kindness Handbook, Faith and Lovingkindness.
Guy Armstrong has practiced insight meditation for over 30 years, including training as a Buddhist monk in Thailand with Ajahn Buddhadasa. He began teaching in 1984 and has led retreats worldwide. He is an IMS guiding teacher and a governing teacher at Spirit Rock.
Sally Clough Armstrong began practicing vipassana meditation in India in 1981. She moved to the Bay Area in 1988, and worked at Spirit Rock until 1994 in a number of roles, including executive director. She began teaching in 1996, and is one of the guiding teachers of Spirit Rock's Dedicated Practitioner Program.
Mark Coleman has taught retreats since 1997, following extensive training in several Buddhist traditions. He leads Wilderness Meditation courses, has a private practice in counseling and coaching, and is the author of Awake in the Wild.
Title: TBA
December 7, 2009 @ TBA, in TBA
Amishi Jha is Assistant Professor Of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania Her work primarily focuses on mechanisms and modes of attention and cognition.
Jha earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, in 1993 and a doctoral degree in psychology with a focus on Even Related Potentials and attention at University of California, Davis in 1998. In 2002 she joined the Psychology Department at the University of Pennsylvania and since has received many prestigious honors. In 2004 she won the Women in Science Trustees Summer Research Award. More recently, in 2007 she received the Charles Ludwig Award for Distinguished Teaching [and in 2009 received the Dean’s Award for Innovation in Teaching.
Her current teaching and research interests include: the neural components of attention, environmental manipulations of attention, the effects of meditation and mindfulness training, and attentional disorders. In support of mindfulness research, Dr. Jha co-organized the first meeting of the Mindfulness Research Network in 2008. As part of her investigation of manipulating attention, Dr. Jha co-authored a paper on training the mind to improve operational effectiveness in combat that was accepted in Joint Force Quarterly,[3] a service journal for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In further support of her work, Dr. Jha was awarded two grants in 2009 from the Military Operational Medicine Research Program to investigate the impact of mindfulness-based training in military cohorts, mood, self-focus, and creativity).
The Jha Lab in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience investigates the functional neuroanatomy of working memory and attention using various cognitive neuroscience techniques. In addition, it investigates how working memory and attention may be modified with training (including mindfulness-based training techniques) and mental mode manipulations (including mood, self-focus, and creativity).
Metta (Lovingkindness) Retreat for Scientists & Educators - MSE
January 8-15, 2010
This meditation retreat is an opportunity to advance the study of the human mind, in the company of researchers, educators, therapists and others involved in the broad areas of the mind and social sciences.
Recent studies have demonstrated the positive influence that love and compassion can have on our lives and in our society. These qualities form a foundation for empathy and emotional intelligence to arise, allowing humanity – in all its diversity – to live and work together in greater harmony.
Participants will receive an in-depth training in metta (lovingkindness) meditation. Metta is the term for friendship or lovingkindness in Pali, an ancient Indian language. Conforming to the spirit of empirical science, it is simply a means of training our minds to become more keenly concentrated and aware while cultivating our innate capacity for an open and loving heart. Traditionally, it is taught along with other meditations that enrich compassion, joy and equanimity. Although drawn from the Buddhist meditative tradition, these practices do not in any way require an adherence to Buddhism or a rejection of personal faith.
To read more and register, click here.