Download Marieke van Vught – From Mindfulness to

From mindfulness to
compassion – a
neuroscientific perspective
Marieke van Vugt
Dept of Artificial Intelligence & Cognitive
Engineering, University of Groningen
http://www.ai.rug.nl/~mkvanvugt @mvugt
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Take-away
Compassion changes the way we feel
 Compassion can be trained through
mindfulness
 Mindfulness works by increasing mental
clarity & flexibility

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What is compassion?

Klimecki & Singer (2014): compassion is
characterized by feelings of warmth,
concern and care for the other, as well as
a strong motivation to improve the other’s
well-being
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Compassion in the brain
• Compassion activates a unique set of brain
areas associated with reward, cognitive
control – and different from empathy (i.e.,
resonating with another’s feeling)
• Empathy activates the pain network
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Klimecki et al. (2013)
Compassion related to well-being
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Singer & Klimecki (2014)
Cultivating compassion
If compassion makes us feel good, then
how can we cultivate it?
 One way: mindfulness
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Mindfulness has compassion as side
effect
Condon et al. (2013)
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What is mindfulness?


Jon Kabat-Zinn: “paying attention, in a
particular way, non-judgmentally”
Sogyal Rinpoche: getting to know your
own mind, being non-distracted
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Let’s try it!
Make yourself comfortable
 Bring your attention gently to your
breath, and observe what occurs in your
mind
 When a thought arises, gently bring
your attention back to your breath
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What do you think?
Could mindfulness increase compassion?
 How would it do that?


Let’s consider some scientific studies on
how mindfulness changes your mind:
• Clarity of mind
• Mental flexibility

Both required to switch focus from self to
others
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Mindfulness increases mental
clarity
29 experienced meditators vs 29 inactive
controls
 One-month retreat at Shambhala
Mountain Centre, Colorado
 Task: remembering detailed face
pictures
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Mindfulness increases mental
clarity
Meditators showed increase in quality of
remembered information -> “clarity”
van Vugt & Jha (2011)
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Mindfulness increases mental
flexibility
Free recall with emotional words as a measure of
“being stuck”)
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van Vugt et al (2012)
Mindfulness increases mental
flexibility
MBCT associated with increased ability to continue
recalling positive memories, decrease in continuing
to recall negative memories
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van Vugt et al (2012)
Being stuck in self-related worry
decreases working memory
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Daamen, Taatgen & van Vugt (in prep)
Summary
Compassion associated with well-being
& specific brain activity patterns
 One way to train compassion:
mindfulness
 Mindfulness helps to take charge of
your mind

• Increased clarity
• Improved mental flexibility
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Acknowledgements
Mind & Life Institute
 Niels Taatgen
 Jérome Sackur & Mikaël Bastian
 Heleen Slagter
 Willoughby Britton
 Amishi Jha
 Henk Barendregt

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