His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet commenced his three-day visit to Toronto on October 22, beginning at the University of Toronto, where he participated in an exclusive four-speaker symposium on “Cognitive Science, Mindfulness and Consciousness.”
Among the 56 guests, some notable participants included Penpa Tsering, the speaker of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile and U of T Chancellor, David Peterson. Dr. Franco Vaccarino, Vice President and Prinicpal of UTSC, acted as the moderator for the symposium, which covered four areas of clinical and experimental research.
The biology of language
The first presenter, Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto, gave a talk on “Expanding the human brain’s processing capacity for thought and language: insights from neuro-imaging explorations of bilingual and monolingual brains.” Petitto is a professor in the Department of Psychology at UTSC, and director of the Genes, Brain and Mind Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory for Language, Bilingualism, and Child Development.
Petitto explained that biological mechanisms work in conjunction with environmental factors to allow humans to acquire and organize language in the brain. “Language is a signal in the form of neuro-chemical patterns,” she explained.
In her research, Petitto has tracked neural tissue as it develops in monolingual and bilingual speakers, and found that bilingual brains use a significant amount of extra tissue compared to monolingual brains. Petitto concluded that “the biology of language has evolved as a gorgeous adaptation to the infinite, expansive, and generative biology of human mind.”
Neural bases of the mindful self
Dr. Adam Anderson, a professor at U of T’s Department of Psychology and the Canada research chair in Affective Neuroscience, spoke about his research in mindfulness, the self, and its neural correlates.
He began by posing one of the most fundamental questions that has puzzled, intrigued, and garnered fruitful debate among scholars, scientists, and Buddhist practitioners: “What is the self?”
Through his own research, Anderson has been able to isolate multiple representations of the self: the mentalistic self, the judging self, and the mindful self. He explained that the mentalistic self is an amalgamation of all our physical and personality traits — for example, “I am male,” or “I am introverted.” The judging self is more critical of our self and our experience, and is associated with a part of the brain called the cortical midline structures. Anderson explained that the mindful self remains nonjudgmental, and experiences change from moment to moment.
In one study, participants practiced eight weeks of mindfulness based stress reduction, or MBSR, a therapeutic technique that includes meditation. After only eight weeks, participants demonstrated a higher attunement of the mindful self to body state, as well as relative reduction in the judging self, including reduced activation in cortical midline structures. Participants also showed neural decentring, meaning that there was more brain activity in the mid to right hemisphere.
Anderson concluded that when a negative mood is induced, the judging self — which is associated with depressive relapse — increases its activity. However, by developing the mindful self, individuals can disengage the judging self and greatly reduce their capacity for suffering while increasing their capacity for wellbeing.
Mindful awareness as therapy for mood disorders
Dr. Zindel Segal, the Cameron Wilson Chair in Depression Studies at U of T’s Department of Psychiatry spoke next about his work in mindfulness-based therapy for treating mood disorders. Segal acts as the head of the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Clinic within the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Segal presented on the clinical effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. MBCT is a therapeutic technique used to treat depression and prevent relapse which Segal developed with Dr. Mark Williams and Dr. John Teasdale, who also attended the symposium. Mindfulness involves the calm awareness and observation of one’s own body, feelings, and consciousness. Applied to therapy, it can be used to help patients become more aware of the kinds of thought patterns which often perpetuate depressive symptoms.
Segal explained that despite the development of effective treatments for depression, there still exists a high rate of depressive relapse. MBCT incorporates mindfulness techniques to help patients work with their own emotions and form a healthier relationship with them. This helps prevent emotion provocation from spiralling into relapse.
After evaluating the data collected from a six-year study with 160 participants, Segal and his colleagues found that in the post-treatment phase for depression, participants who continued preventative techniques using drugs like SSRIs, or therapy like MBCT, had a significantly lower rate of depressive relapse compared to patients who were assigned to a placebo condition. Segal concluded that using MBCT as a preventative therapeutic tool has powerful clinical outcomes to prevent depressive relapse.
What do meditators do when they meditate?
The final presenter, Dr. Tony Toneatto, is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry, and director of the Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health Program at U of T. He is a registered clinical psychologist and acts as director of the Toronto Institute for Mindfulness, Meditation, and Psychotherapy.
Toneatto’s presentation was titled, “What do mindfulness meditators say they do while they practice? A content analysis.” He explained that traditionally, detailed instruction from an expert teacher was vital and necessary to learn meditation and acquire its benefits, yet current research on mindfulness meditation does not usually include such guidance.
He asked if scientists could confidently attribute the positive benefits reported in mindfulness research to the practice of mindfulness itself, since the specifics of what meditators do while meditating is unknown. Thus, Toneatto sought to uncover what participants actually did while they meditated. Were they meditating, or were they fantasizing, or even sleeping? In a review of over 50 studies using mindfulness techniques as a main component of the methodology, not one reported what meditators were doing as they meditated.
When Toneatto introduced this line of questioning within his own research, he found that meditators reported feeling relaxed, observing mental activity without distraction, attended to the breath, and were aware of their thoughts. He also found that after a few weeks of meditation, participants reported lower depression and anxiety scores. These scores were associated with the cultivation of particular mindfulness skills such as being non-judgmental and having an accepting attitude.
Toneatto concluded that it is necessary to know what meditators actually do while they practice, in order to determine how well their mindfulness skills are being learned, and whether it is possible to draw a significant link between mindfulness and the benefits that we believe accompany its practice.
Buddhism and science
Following the four speakers’ presentations, His Holiness the Dalai Lama proceeded to comment on the symposium, mentioning how impressed he was with the wealth of information each presenter was able to generate. He stressed the importance of science and scientific inquiry, discussing that initially, science focused on studying what was external to human beings such as environmental phenomena and overt behaviours. Over time, however, this has changed dramatically, and scientists have turned their microscopic lenses inward to focus on themselves. Scientists have become the subject matter of their own inquiry.
His Holiness explained that by gathering knowledge on something, we learn how to manipulate it in such a way that that it becomes beneficial to us. Similarly, by studying our inner selves in depth, we wield the capacity to master our self, and harness our potential which may lead to the synthesis of a healthy body and a healthy mind. According to His Holiness, modern science is made more complete by combining both internal and external matters, and this amalgamation is creating a new field of scientific research that can benefit humanity.
In Dr. Franco Vaccarino’s closing comments, he noted the power of new tools and technology emerging within the field of mindfulness research. “We have developed new levels of reflection regarding the mind, consciousness, and what it means to be human,” said Vaccarino. “As a result, we are unravelling the complexity of the mind and brain to demystify it and create enough comfort for us to probe deep questions.”
He concluded, “Now we are bringing humanism and science together in a sophisticated way, developing a multidisciplinary nexus.”
