Projects
Le Vinatier Psychiatric Hospital Lyon France: Postdoctoral Researcher
I am currently working with Dr Jacqueline Scholl in Lyon to apply a brain decoding map to fMRI data collected with people after a meditation intervention. This map of brain activity was developed by Chang et al (2015) to predict the subjective emotional experience of people. We aim to apply this to our data to compare two different types of meditation technique, and explore how they influcene emotional experiences. We will also be exploring the influence of meditation upon interoceptive awareness.
I will also work with Dr Elsa Fouragnan (University of Plymouth) to explore the influence of the same two meditation techniques upon decision making using a 'Go No Go' task. These two techniques differ in the amount of body focus they include, and in the aims associated with using each.
University of Plymouth: PhD Studentship
For my PhD I worked under the supervision of Dr Elsa Fouragnan. My aim was to to build a better understanding of the association of different types of meditation techniques with 'altered states of consciousness' including psychotic-like and mystical experiences. I applied a method for categorising meditation techniques according to the 'inteneded end meditative state' they aimed to achieve. I also used two other approaches to further anlayses the meditation techniques explored in the study. I employed online surveys using psychometric measures and questions gathering detailed information about meditation habits.
Another aim was to investigate if there were any differences in brain actvitity associated with two different meditation techniques. More specifically, whether this was the case during a task eliciting negative emotion and a decision making task after the practice of these two different meditation techniques. To achive this, I used fMRI to compare the two meditation techniques, which differed in the goals for the end meditative state associated with them, and in how 'body-focussed' each technique was.
I am continuing the analysis of the data obtained during my PhD, and aim to publish this work in the near future.