Toward a functional contextualist neuroscience – s ome considerations

1. Toward a functionalcontextualist neuroscience –someconsiderations ACBS WC8 Reno June 22nd 2010 Benjamin Schoendorff MScbenjamin.schoendorff@gmail.com

2. Aim of talk Look at some cool studies Propose a possible way forward for neuroscience that could help better integration with a functional contextualistperspective Hide my vast ignorance of the subject

3. Goal of a functional contextualist neuroscience Prediction and influence of behavior Precision, depth and scope Give non-reductive accounts across levels (psychological/neurobiological) Criteria: • Consistency across levels • Clinical utility • Process-based (Fletcher, Hayes, Schoendorff 2010)

4. Words of caution for funkycons… Neuroscientists tend to look for : • The neural basis of [social] cognition. • brain areas that are responsible for [empathy] • representations [of others’ pain] I like to think of the brain as a muscle

5. ACT processes Acceptance Defusion Present moment Self-as-context Values Committed action • Mid-level terms • Mapping onto clinically relevant processes • Contextually defined • Largely interacting • As yet no neuroscience studies of ACT processes • But interesting studies nonetheless…

6. Mindfulness and neuroscience Lots of studies… • But mindfulness topographically (meditation)rather than functionally defined • No point-to-point mapping of the four ACT mindfulness processes: Acceptance Defusion Present moment Self-as-context Values Committed action

7. Attentional effects 3 months meditation retreatAttentional blink paradigm E E G G G G Z Z Z Z A A N N 3 3 Q Q P P W G Q 2 W Q

8. Attention is plastic

9. More plasticity • Increased cortical thickness in Anterior Insula(Lazar 2005, Hölzel 2008) • Activation of insulaconsistent acrossstudies (eg: Farb et al.2007)

10. Main findings • Meditation activates and strengthens • Attentional networks and performance • Insula

11. Clinical relevance? Meditation is good? • Is that for neuroscience to validate? • What brain activations/plastic changes correlate with clinically relevant change? Perhaps insular habituationto interoceptive stimulireduces avoidance and anxiety? Contrast with exposure therapy?

12. Meditation on the brain… Are topographically different forms of meditation functionally similar ? Are topographically similarforms of meditationfunctionally different ? What are the clinicallyrelevant brain activations ?  More clinical relevance

13. Empathy in context Empathy (pain, disgust, taste, touch) Anterior Cingulate, Secondary somatosensory cortex, Anterior insula Perspective-taking : Medial prefrontal cortex, Temporal pole, Superior temporal sulcus, Temporal junction (Hein & Singer. 2008)

14. Empathy and social cognition • affective state (excludes perspective-taking) • isomorphic to another person’s state (excludes sympathy) • elicited by observation or imagination of another’s affective state (excludes self-observation) • one knows that the other person is the source of one’s own affective state (excludes contagion) (deVignemont & Singer 2005)

15. Empathy in context Automatic or contextual response? Empathy pathways activation modulated by : sex of observer, attention, intensity of painful stimulus, affective link between observer and sufferer, rationale for pain (de Vignemont & Singer 06) or even whether observer is vegetarian/omnivorous (Betti et al. 2009) What of RFT-designed experiments…

16. Empathy in context Omnivore Vegetarian Vegan Likelyplastic Values-sensitive (Fillippiet al. 2010)

17. Empathy in context - synchrony • ‘Empathic resonance’ in the shape of γ-band coherence in SI and MI cortices when observing painful stimulation of another’s hand (Betti et al 2009) • So role of networks rather than areas… • Wider brain context (Lutz et al. 2008)

18. Compassion and admiration • The first values-driven neuroscientific study?(Immordino-Yang et al. 2009) • Compassion for social pain • Admiration for moral virtue • Empathy for physical pain • Admiration for physical skill

19. A cool study for ACT • AV/CSP produced more activation in regions involved in homeostatic regulation : ACC, AI, HT • AS/CPP produced more activation in regions related to the musculoskeletal system : PI, LPC (inc SMG) SPL (Immordino-Yang et al. 2009)

20. Role of TPJ and mPFC • Central role in social cognition processes: Intentionality, ToM, • Integration of non-simultaneous perceptions (relational framing?) (Immordino-Yang et al. 2009) (Overwalle 2009)

21. RFT and neuroscience (Yoro et al. 2009) Work on equivalence classes Reflexivity vs Equivalence (arbitrarily derived from previous training) • Early component matching effect on reflexivity, late component equivalence matching effect P3 • Dn300 fronto-central • parieto occipital • dN400 fronto-parietal for equivalence Unrelated equivalence Unrelated reflexivity

22. Tentative conclusions Functions of contextual neuroscience ? Consistency across level eg: experiential avoidance and left hemishphere in avoiding unpleasant images (Cochrane et al 2008) Perhaps more interesting to look from point of view of RFT processes Clinical utility ?