‘Default mode network’ is suppressed by meditation practice | Roland Griffiths
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2024
- Similar in molecular structure to insulin, IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) has been implicated in the aging process. Protein intake increases IGF-1 levels in humans, independent of total caloric consumption. IGF-1 participates in a complex pathway known as the growth hormone/IGF-1 axis, where it exerts its role to accelerate aging. In this clip, Dr. Valter Longo explains how certain macronutrients influence the insulin/IGF-1/growth hormone axis to modulate aging in many cell types.
This clip was taken from the FoundMyFitness interview with Dr. Roland Griffiths found at • Roland Griffiths, Ph.D...
Original episode published on Jan 19, 2017 🧠 #brain #psychedelics #depression 😞
About FoundMyFitness: Rhonda Patrick has a Ph.D. in biomedical science from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She also has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in biochemistry/chemistry from the University of California. She has done extensive research on aging, cancer, and nutrition.
It is Dr. Patrick’s goal to challenge the status quo and encourage the wider public to think about health and longevity using a proactive, preventative approach.
Learn more about Dr. Rhonda Patrick and her mission for FoundMyFitness at www.foundmyfitness.com
Watch the full episode:
th-cam.com/video/rkBq33KWFmY/w-d-xo.html
FoundMyFitness episode page:
www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/roland-griffiths
More clips from this guest:
th-cam.com/play/PLrGxo-5Uw8gKoL1OaFQ8qnoNOUBSJte6i.html
This has been my experience with Psilocybin as well. 6-8 months post doses I'd feel grounded, less anxiety, less negative self talk, less rumination, higher self compassion and love. More at peace with everything and life always opened up to a more rich experience. More detailed and refined. More textures. Accompany that with 1h of meditation pr day and life changed drastically. It's been over 11 years and if I didn't have histamine issues I'd be all over doing yearly rounds to maintaining that effect. Fascinating finally getting all the science regarding this. Great talk :) Will watch the entire episode.
EXCELLENT clip. I love how simply it describes the default mode network and two entry points of deactivation: meditation and psilocybin. From the man at the epicenter of profound research - Roland G. A four minute clip but densely packed with epiphanies that will knock a person over, if they listen closely. Will check out the rest of the interview but great job on showcasing this gem for all of us.
It's like trying to describe sounds. Adjectives used in description of visual or physical things are used for sounds; Things sound 'flat', 'bright' or 'dark'. Same with tastes; Lemon tastes 'sharp'. We just don't have the vocabulary for describing it. Metaphor has to be used to bring it into the range our vocabulary covers.
i should have never stopped with meditation…. i was doing so well and i stopped where i fucked up my life
Come back to it
u know he ate some psylocybin mushroom or had some major experience
He's one of the worlds leading researchers on magic mushrooms. But I wonder how you came to that assumption lol.
@@RyanHellyer mushrooms i suppose
as a clinical researcher in psychology, for the sake of one's reputation i think you would never admit publicly to doing those things yourself (even if you have done them). now i can't say i haven't wondered this about him as well, but i have enough admiration and respect for him and his work that i don't even bother to question it any more :-)
Well, i don't personally know what appears to be a very nice man. However, the thought crossed my mind that what he describes as concepts "beyond appropriate words, to describe", therefore necessitating metaphors, is merely his personal limitation in grabbing & knitting together available & coherent words to share an understanding. No harm intended & offered in due respect... (I am "older" myself, & can relate...)
A Note on Resting States, Resting Brains, and Meditative States
A resting state, or ‘somatic rest’, would seem to correspond with a brain at rest or ‘neurologic’ rest, but by definition, somatic and neurologic rest are entirely different things. A resting ‘state’ or somatic rest represents the inactivity of the striatal musculature that results from the application of resting protocols (continual avoidance of perseverative thought represented by rumination, worry, and distraction.). Resting states also are affective states, as they elicit opioid activity in the brain. Resting states in turn may occur in tandem with all levels of non-perseverative thought that are passive or active, from just passively ‘being in the moment’ or being mindful, to actively engaging in complex and meaningful cognitive behavior. The latter cognitive behavior is also additionally affective in nature due to its elicitation of dopaminergic activity, and resulting opioid-dopamine interaction results in a perceived state of ‘bliss’ or ‘flow’. On the other hand, a resting ‘brain’, neurologic rest, or the so-called ‘default mode network’ is a specific type of neural processing that occurs when the mind is in a ‘passive’ state, or in other words, is presented with no or very limited cognitive demands. This results in ‘mind wandering’ that can entail non-perseverative (creative thought) or perseverative thought (rumination, worry). As such a resting brain may or may not correlate with somatic rest, and is correlated with a level of demand, not a kind of demand, as in somatic rest.
Like the broad color palate that emerges from the intermix of three primary colors, it may be argued that meditative states are simply emergent properties of two very distinctive neuro-physiological resting states that have separate and easily definable causes. It is remarkable that in the literature of meditation, the neuro-physiology of rest both in body and mind is not defined, with a similar neglect to how neuro-muscular activity is actively shaped by experience or learning. The importance of meditation is very real, and the meditative community is understandably averse to equating it with rest since it makes meditation less ‘special’ or less marketable. But that is my argument nonetheless, which in the end provides a better advocacy of meditation by denying that meditation elicits a unique physiological process or state, which like the concept of ‘phlogiston’, or the imaginary element that enabled fire, impedes rather than furthers scientific inquiry.
www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing
www.scribd.com/doc/121345732/Relaxation-and-Muscular-Tension-A-bio-behavioristic-explanation
www.scribd.com/document/291558160/Holmes-Meditation-and-Rest-The-American-Psychologist
I'm trying hard to tease out the point you are making in relation to this clip. Are you essentially saying that meditation is simply a form of resting? I think that is what you mean by the first line in your second paragraph. If that's right, I don't contest that at all, but it doesn't seem to relate to the main point of this video - that deactivation of the DMN (whether via meditation, resting, or psychedelics) - can lessen the tendency to ruminate and lead toward a feeling of presence.
Why unique meditative states do not exist
As a rule, simple and effective procedures are justified by simple and comprehensible explanations, which also affirm what you are doing and the limitations of what you can do. This is why we have confidence in our modern technologies from vaccinations to jet travel. Yet, for psychotherapeutic procedures, and in particular meditative procedures, this is not the case, as explanations for their efficacy are convoluted, complex, and most often untestable. Presented here is a simple argument that the presupposition of a unique meditative state must be abandoned, and in its place a neurologically updated definition of resting states, and a simple procedure that can confirm or falsify it.
It must be emphasized that this does not in the slightest invalidate the importance of meditative practices, but ironically confirms and extends them. Indeed, shorn of its religious, new age, and neurological metaphors and grounded to simple processes, meditative procedures can gain far greater acceptance and prominence in our everyday lives.
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In a 1984 article in the flagship journal of the APA, ‘The American Psychologist’, the psychologist David Holmes reviewed the literature on meditation and concluded that meditative states are no different from resting states. The article (linked below) was roundly criticized because resting was presumably a dormant and non-affective state, quite at odds with the fact that meditation has affective and cognitive entailments that go beyond mere resting. However, from the perspective of affective neuroscience, resting states are not simple non-affective states but are dynamic affective states that are continually modulated by information derived from inner thoughts to outward perceptions. This position is not difficult to understand, and can be summarized below and easily confirmed or falsified through simple procedure.
The ideal for any scientist with a great idea is to be able to explain it in a minute, and to confirm or falsify it as quickly. The world record for this arguably goes to the English philosopher Samuel Johnson, who rejected Archbishop Berkeley’s argument that material things only exist in one’s mind by striking his foot against a large stone while proclaiming, “I refute it thusly!” So here is a novel procedure demonstrating the continuity of rest from mindful to ‘flow’ states, quickly refutable with a good swift kick!
Summary
Endogenous opioids are induced when we eat, drink, have sex, and relax, and are responsible for our pleasures. Opioid activity however is not static, but labile, or changeable. When elicited, opioid release is always modulated by concurrently perceived novel act-outcome expectancies which may range from negative to positive. If they are negative (e.g. a spate of bad news or bad implications of our behavior), opioid activity is suppressed and our pleasures are reduced (anhedonia), but if they are positive, then opioid activity is enhanced and our pleasures are accentuated as well (peak experience, ‘flow’). This is due to dopamine-opioid interactions, or the fact that act-outcome discrepancy, or positive or negative surprises, can induce or suppress dopaminergic activity, which in turn can enhance or suppress opioid release. This can be demonstrated procedurally, and if correct, can provide a therapeutic tool to increase arousal and pleasure, or positive wellbeing, and mitigate stress.
Basic Facts:
Endogenous opioids are induced when we eat, drink, have sex, and relax. Their affective correlate, or how it ‘feels’, is a sense of pleasure. The neuro-modulator dopamine is released upon the anticipation or perception of positive act-outcome discrepancy or novelty, and is felt a sense of arousal or ‘energy’, but not pleasure.
Fun Fact:
When we are concurrently perceiving some activity that has a variable and unexpected rate of reward while consuming something pleasurable, opioid activity increases and with it a higher sense of pleasure. In other words, popcorn tastes better when we are watching an exciting movie than when we are watching paint dry. The same effect occurs when we are performing highly variable rewarding or meaningful activity (creating art, doing good deeds, doing productive work) while in a pleasurable relaxed state. (Meaning would be defined as behavior that has branching novel positive implications). This is commonly referred to as ‘flow’ or ‘peak’ experience. The same phenomenon underscores the placebo effect, which describes how expectancies can increase dopamine and opioid activity, such as when a meal is tastier or a sugar pill reduces pain when we anticipate they will.
So why does this occur?
Dopamine-Opioid interactions: or the fact that dopamine activity (elicited by positive novel events, and responsible for a state of arousal, but not pleasure) interacts with our pleasures (as reflected by mid brain opioid systems), and can actually stimulate opioid release, which is reflected in self-reports of greater pleasure.
Proof (or kicking the stone):
Just get relaxed using a relaxation protocol such as progressive muscle relaxation, eyes closed rest, or mindfulness, and then follow it by exclusively attending to or performing meaningful activity, and avoiding all meaningless activity or ‘distraction’. Keep it up and you will not only stay relaxed, but continue so with a greater sense of wellbeing or pleasure. (In other words, this is a procedural bridge between mindful and ‘flow’ experiences that are not unique psychological ‘states’, but merely represent special aspects of resting states.) The attribution of affective value to meaningful behavior makes the latter seem ‘autotelic’, or reinforcing in itself, and the resultant persistent and the resultant persistent attention to meaning crowds out the occasions we might have spent dwelling on other unmeaningful worries and concerns.
A Likely Explanation, as if you need one!
A more formal explanation from a neurologically based learning theory of this technique is provided on pp. 44-51 in a little open-source book on the psychology of rest linked below. (The flow experience discussed on pp. 81-86.) The book is based on the work of the distinguished affective neuroscientist Kent Berridge, who was kind to review for accuracy and endorse the work.
From meditation to flow
Affect in rest is labile, or changeable, and rest (i.e. the general deactivation of the covert musculature) is not an inert and non-affective state, but modulates affective systems in the brain. In addition, the degree of the modulation of pleasurable affect induced by rest is not dependent upon a species of attention (focal meditation, mindfulness meditation), but is ‘schedule dependent’, and correlates with the variability of schedules or contingencies of reward and the discriminative aspects of incentives (i.e. their cognitive implications). In other words, sustained meaningful activity or the anticipation of acting meaningfully during resting states increases the affective ‘tone’ or value of that behavior, thus making productive work ‘autotelic’, or rewarding in itself, and providing a consistent feeling of arousal and pleasure, or shall we say, ‘happiness’.
References:
Rauwolf, P., et al. (2021) Reward uncertainty - as a 'psychological salt'- can alter the sensory experience and consumption of high-value rewards in young healthy adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (prepub)
doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001029
Benedetti, F., et al(2011). How placebos change the patient's brain. Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 36(1), 339-354.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3055515/
The Psychology of Rest
www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing
The Psychology of Incentive Motivation and Affect
www.scribd.com/document/495438436/A-Mouse-s-Tale-a-practical-explanation-and-handbook-of-motivation-from-the-perspective-of-a-humble-creature
Meditation and Rest- The American Psychologist
www.scribd.com/document/291558160/Holmes-Meditation-and-Rest-The-American-Psychologist
The Psychology of Rest, from International Journal of Stress Management, by this author
www.scribd.com/doc/121345732/Relaxation-and-Muscular-Tension-A-bio-behavioristic-explanation
History and Development of Motivation Theory - Berridge
lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/publications/Berridge2001Rewardlearningchapter.pdf
Berridge Lab, University of Michigan sites.lsa.umich.edu/berridge-lab/
Thanks for posting this
RIP
Great interview. Thank you.
My belief?
Christ _is_ the Self. Symbolised. Once having been manifested completely.
...But this is a bit off-topic, to be fair. ;) I just wanted to laud this great talk.
Roland Griffiths, may he rest in peace, and amongst his loved once. After reading into [proven] NDE I cannot believe in death anymore.