Consciousness and Meditation: Two Partially Overlapping Networks

Consciousness is a phenomenon that puzzled many thinkers of the past in disparate fields, including theology, literature, art and philosophy, and continues to be a hot topic of debate at present. However, in the last few decades, the change of paradigm brought by cognitive psychology and the emergence of new techniques, which allowed the in vivo study of the human brain, have made the investigation of consciousness a respectable field of scientific research. In particular, the neuroscience of consciousness aims to find the biological roots of conscious states by identifying the brain mechanisms capable of supporting them. On the other hand, a complete different approach has been taken by the Eastern wisdom, which has always looked at the conscious mind as something essential for the human well-being, following the precept that having a healthy mind is necessary for having a healthy body. This tenet lies at the basis of all the different techniques aiming to train the mind, of which the most relevant is probably meditation. Although meditation has been practiced in the East for more than two millennia, Western scientific research and healthcare programs have only recently drawn their attention to it, especially to what is called “mindfulness meditation”. To date there is increasing evidence that meditative practices can influence cognitive and emotional processes with benefit to physical and mental health. In this chapter we consider both consciousness and mindfulness meditation within a neuroscientific framework, reviewing some of the most interesting theoretical models as well as scientific findings about the brain areas that are thought to underlie conscious and meditative states. In particular, the anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, insula and thalamus are supposed to be crucially involved in both processes. This suggests that these brain areas may be part of two partially overlapping networks, which, notably, appear to play an important role in social cognition as well.