The Neuroscience of Mindfulness: Understanding the Default Mode Network (DMN)

that it was discovered that the brain really isn't at rest. It basically never rests. Patterns of neural activity during this default mode network. Default meaning when your brain is not doing anything else, any particular task or skill. Look, what does it actually look like? Hi, this is Tracy Tahomespinosa and this week we're going to be looking at two uh really important and very interesting and once upon a time intangible concepts. The first is mindfulness and the second is the default mode network. We begin with Ellen Langanger's work, a professor here at Harvard who's done she's done some very monumental work on mindfulness starting way back in the late 70s and 80s. And she begins with this premise that um everything that we do in our conscious life is either done mindfully or mindlessly. And she's encouraging us to try to move towards being much more mindful in the actions that we take in our interactions in the world around us. And she begins with this premise that we don't really know but we think we know. So she basically starts from this premise that we often times feel the need to be certain about things. We think we know but we really don't know things. So this idea of feeling certain or assured something is or isn't X or Y is actually a misleading way to run your life. It's not actually the most efficient way nor is it the most self-satisfying way to approach the world because you closed yourself off to new knowledge because you are already sure that you know everything that's around you. So as Voltier said, you know, doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is absurd. So basically accepting this idea that you don't want the either extreme, right? being being safe and certain is as mindless as being unsafe and uncertain. This is kind of in the reckless realm of things and this is kind of just hibernating. So, we're looking for this really very delicate balance in our life which is to be safe yet uncertain and that's okay. Lots of quotes related to this come from some of the the greatest leaders we've had around. You know, the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain. So while Langanger might not have been the very first person to talk about this, she is uh someone who sort of pushes us into this deeper reflection because she basically claims that for most of us we're frequently in error but rarely in doubt. So hopefully um we can get into this stage of appreciating the fact that being uncertain is actually not a bad thing. So her definition of mindlessness would be an inactive state of mind characterized by reliance on distinctions. So we're looking for black and white, right? So categories that are drawn from the past means that the past overdetermines the present. So we believe that anything based on our prior knowledge, which is the way the brain works, right? Anything that we've seen before in the past will be something that recurs in the future. So we don't allow for the possibility that one trigger could lead to a different result um from from what we've experienced in the past. Secondly, that we are trapped into a single perspective. That we view things only as a teacher might view things or only as a psychologist might view things or only as a neuroscientist might view things without entertaining multiple perspectives on different problems. Third, many people she claims are insensitive to context. Just because something happened one way in one context doesn't mean that in a new context that exact same action might not have a different reaction. So we have to be much more sensitive to our surroundings and to what's going on in the context of different activities or actions that occur and the distinct results that might come due to the context. So suggest that we're very rule and routined to governed. Becoming very mindless means that we we simply look at general patterns and we presume those patterns project into the future always. That's kind of a sign of intelligence, you know, to be able to predict your future outcomes. But the problem is that by being trapped into routine, we rarely will break out of that, delve into new things or new perspectives or new ways of envisioning the world. And finally, we confuse the stability of our mindsets with the stability of underlying phenomena. So we believe that just because we are certain of something um we've confused that with actually what's going on in the phenomena that exists around us. And all of this is basically pointing to the habituated mind frames that exist based on what is a truly human way of learning is that you look for patterns and you look for novelty and then you try to compare what you already know about the world and then project from there on out. There is a kind of safety in finding habituated actions. You actually do things in a habituated mind frame if you've done them over and over and over again. And she bases this on a very interesting idea that you know the brain is incredibly efficient and it will do anything to save energy. Right? So basically the the brain is looking to save effort. So what it will do is try to look first for all the patterns that fit its own predictions and then base the predictions based on the patterns that it already knows or things that are already around in the world or the things that it's already experienced. And as a consequence we fall into routines that we follow um without even thinking about them. certain things that we've done maybe mindlessly in education. For example, if you actually ask yourself things like um you know why do we start school so early in the morning or why do we have summer vacation? Um you'll find that many people have no good explanation except to say well that's the way we've always done it. Right? So we fall into habituated actions and we do them mindlessly. But if you actually look at the root reasons or causes that um we do have certain patterns in our daily life and for example in the school setting, why do we start school so early? Well, so parents can get to their work on time. And this um this is really problematic when you know that the brain would be better served if we started classes a little bit later in the day. Or why do we have summer vacations? Because we used to need everybody's hands on deck to help with the harvest. But you know, less than 2% of the American population works in in farming. So that doesn't really seem to fit the needs of today's society. So we fall into these mindless habits, routines that we create in our world um without really thinking about them. These become you know from individual habits to general collective habits and then they are mindless societal actions that occur. So one of the ideas is can we find a way to recognize where the routines are recognize the root causes or why we actually choose to do them and if they serve our purposes great and if they don't really make sense um then we actually have to rethink those things and become more mindful. Mindfulness then um as a definition is characterized by being an active state of mind characterized by novel distinction drawing. This means not only being stuck with the um the natural mindset of looking for the patterns that occur in the world. you know what do I already know about something? What already looks the same as what I already do? But also enjoying and appreciating the novelty that exists in our world. So this also means being situated in the present. It doesn't mean always thinking about oh what happened yesterday or projecting about what might happen this coming weekend but really being centered in time. What is going on right now? Right now is the most important moment. So what is going on right now is what where our attention should be. It also means being sensitive to context and perspective. So being mindful would be thinking about your reaction in this new context. Would that necessarily or should it necessarily be the same? Should you react the same in the context? It also means being aware of rules and the routines that guide us and to question them. You know, we fall into routines because habituated behavior is easier. It conserves energy. It's less difficult to do. But when is it that the rules that we follow or the routines that we engage in could actually not be as beneficial to us and when should we actually think about changing those rules or those routines. Mindfulness also is a phenomenological experience of engagement. It means really being in the moment and in contact and connected with the people or the things that you are doing in that very moment. So being very very conscious of your situation and all that surrounds you. And finally, mindfulness is noticing. Uh which is very interesting because by noticing we reveal uncertainty and through that uncertainty it leads to more noticing. So when you're able to identify not only what is similar, what are the patterns around but what are those things that are novel um by noticing that we can engage more in those differences and actually appreciate them more and through that use of mindfulness be much more present and as a consequence enjoy or find ourselves much more fulfilled. Mindfulness, right? be fulfilled uh within the context in which we live. So, a couple of fun cartoons have to do with being mindful or mindful and also the time aspect. You know, not just what happened yesterday or the problems I had or where I'm projecting I'm going to, but what is going on right now and in a way to think about this kind of in a zen perspective here. It's not just to look. You you should observe. And it's not just to swallow. You need to taste your food. You shouldn't just sleep. You know, you need to enjoy the dreams that actually occur during sleep stage. You shouldn't just think. You need to feel what's going on around you and you shouldn't just exist. You know, you shouldn't just make a living. You should actually live. So, by being mindful, you actually create a lot of possibilities. But this begins with things by such as reversing your presumptions about the world. For example, people might make a statement or presume horses don't eat meat, right? So, being mindful actually suggests that you should take a new stance and just presume that everything could possibly not be what you have presumed in the past. So you make an assumption about the world that there are no presumptions about the world and that rather than work from your own personal experience you should actually use research as your guide. So you should be looking at you know the possibility that something could be true or false and then actually determining absolutes. In the case of horses uh eating for example there are some documented cases of horses you know chasing and eating birds and things like that. So anyways you might presume something about the world. The idea is to suspend presumptions and that to assume that everything that we think we know is suspect and that if we actually ground our thinking more in research, looking beyond what we just presume and establishing what is known, not just ourselves and not our own unique perspectives on the world, but actually looking what multiple perspectives provide through shared research, then we might be able to become a little bit closer to suspending presumptions. And this creates a lot of different possibilities. And this is connected very very closely to the idea that um there you know there are no truths in science um the science of education neuroscience psychological science there are no truths right there's just evidence or lack of evidence um as Nichi said there's no eternal facts as there are no absolute truths and if you suspend these presumptions that you have about the world then it's natural for human beings to use inference we try to fill in the gaps that we have in our knowledge and then we can come up with some false beliefs so the idea is to uh use research then to fill in those gaps as opposed to just basing it on our own personal presumptions about the world. Once we realize that maybe much of what we've been taught isn't so it's easier to consider new ideas. I happen to share this perspective um very strongly um because there is a lot of research that shows that people who are open to new possibilities learn faster. People who suspend their presumptions about the world are actually people who learn much quicker than other people who are locked into a mindset in which they think they know everything already. She has some quotes from some some pretty important figures Schopenhau Gandhi Edison Einstein who all said very similar things you know that we have to be able to to suspend this initial judgment that we have. Schopenhauer said that all truth passes through three stages. First it's ridiculed. Second it's violently opposed. Third, it's accepted as being self-evident. And being mindful in this way is related to a type of mindset. While Ellen Langanger did not talk about Carol Dre's work, um I think it's important to maybe use her definition. A mindset is a set of beliefs or a way of thinking that determines one's behaviors, outlooks, and mental attitude. So if we said that if you can suspend your mindset or if you can allow for uncertainty to creep in where you have a tendency to want the world to be based on your own personal past experience uh then you're able to be more open to other types of possibilities. Langanger's work is very very close to Dwek's work in in that she says that if we remove our negative mindsets and presumed limits, we may create all sorts of possibilities for ourselves and the people we care about. We'll prosper from being mindful virtually all of the time. So being able to suspend these negative mindsets or mindsets that might inhibit openness to new ideas um due to our desire for certainty then we would be more able to uh to grow. And she basically divides these into two different mindsets uh the growth mindset or a fixed mindset. In a growth mindset you believe that you can learn anything. In a fixed mindset you presume that you're either good at something or you're not. In a growth mindset you believe that when you're frustrated well you just persevere. You just work through it. Um, but if you have a fixed mindset and you know you're frustrated, you just give up. In a growth mindset, you want to challenge yourself. In a fixed mindset, you don't like challenge. You sherk from challenge. When you fail, in a growth mindset, then you learn. But if you have a fixed mindset, you fail and you think you're just no good. In a growth mindset, you tell others and yourself to try hard. But in a fixed mindset, you just say, "Oh, you're smart or you're not smart." In a growth mindset, if you succeed, then you can be inspired by others, other successes. But in a fixed mindset, if others succeed, then you feel threatened. In a growth mindset, your effort and attitude determine everything. So it's an attitudinally based thing. But a fixed mindset believes that your abilities determine everything. So these would be people when we talk about the whole brain things, a fixed mindset would be people who would say, well, I just don't have the right kind of brain for this. Whereas a growth mindset might be someone like Barbara Eermith who we saw last week who uh a couple weeks ago who just basically decided she could change her brain. Right? So the summary of Dwek's ideas and this fixed mindset versus growth. Fixed is you know static. It doesn't move. Growth is always flexible and changing. A fixed mindset would be someone who avoids challenges. Whereas growth embraces challenges. Fixed are people who give up easily and growth mindset people have uh persist. in the face of obstacles. A fixed mindset sees effort as fruitless whereas a growth mindset sees effort as necessary and it's a basic element in learning. A fixed mindset ignores useful criticism whereas the growth mindset thinks that any kind of evaluation is only helping them grow and become better. A fixed mindset is threatened by other people whereas a growth mindset actually gets inspired by other people's achievements. So, one of the things that we're going to be asking you to consider in this course is do you suffer in any way from fixed mindset uh mentality or have you worked yourself into this place where you have a growth mindset and that you actually see uh yourself open to new possibilities. So the conclusions from Langanger's work about mindfulness is that with only subtle shifts in our thinking and our expectations, we can begin to change the ingrained behaviors, these habituated actions that we have that sap health, optimism and vitality from our lives. So what does this mean in practice? And hopefully you guys will join the section this week that we have on mindfulness as therapy. So um when we talk about mindfulness and we talk about how to reach mindfulness through meditation and the section this coming week uh it's not just thinking about how not to think about things right we already we have to realize and in a mindful way that the act of intentionally not doing anything actually takes a lot of effort. So she's going to work with you on that during the section this week and and what she will do is address some of the different formal and informal mindfulness practices. We now turn to the default mode network. This is a really interesting idea and it emerged sort of by accident. Basically, when looking at brain scans, it's nothing more than a subtraction problem, right? You look for a general baseline of uh neural activity, then you have somebody do something. So the idea is that you take what the person has done, you subtract it from what a resting state would be and then you can actually color in these images and say well it looks like this part of the brain is doing that or whatever. Right? So the idea derives from observations that consistent network of brain regions show high levels of activity when no explicit task is performed and participants are asked simply to rest. So it's in this resting state that it was discovered that the brain really isn't at rest. It basically never rests. Patterns of neural activity during this default mode network. Default meaning when your brain is not doing anything else any particular task or skill look what does it actually look like? So the basic definition if you look at the brain and you know let's look at it sideways here. Let's say it's looking off to the left here. Right? The default mood network is a network of brain regions that are active when the brain is at rest and it's characterized by um oscillations at rates that are less than 0.1 hertz. So this is actually the a very slow wave and the default mode network it includes these areas um the posterior singulate cortex which is located right in here and the adjacent precinius right above here right the default mode network also shows activity and the preffrontal cortex um so basically here the medial prefrontal cortex and in the medial lateral and inferior parietal cortex you're in the side here you know just above kind of if you look above your ear and again kind of strange sorry about this but this is for example this side of the brain is it's looking uh to your right and the other side is looking to your left this is just to highlight these areas so what was so special about these parts of the brain that remained so active during rest historically this was something that was discovered as we mentioned before a little bit by accident just sort of get a perspective on the history of science here back in the 20s you know burger already suspected that this was occurring um through EEGs. So, this was an electrical wave. Just looking at electricity in the brain, he had this uh suspicion that the brain was never completely at rest. But he really couldn't show or prove, you know, that this had any link to anything else aside from the fact that you just couldn't get uh perfect silence out of a out of a brain scan at that stage. And then in the 50s um Lewis Sakalof went beyond just measuring the electricity and showed that there were definite blood flow changes uh that were confirmed by Ingavar. So additional studies in the '90s using PET scans posatron emission tomography or PET scans um was really a huge breakthrough here and this was initiated by somebody who's very much associated with this field Marcus Reichley's work in uh the Washington University School of Medicine in in St. Lewis. He's basically uh the person who coined this term in 2001 in his article talking about a default mode of brain function. It's kind of the go-to place. What will happen when your brain when it's not focused on doing anything else in particular that sort of you perked up the ears of many scientists because when you see something that occurs not only electrically but also you can see changes in metabolism like with blood flow. And if you could measure this structurally, changes in physical structures in the brain, that was going to be the real tipping point. So there's a huge increase in new articles that really started to peak around this time as there was a confirmation not only using these EGs, not only look at metabolism studies and changes in in blood flow through PET scans, but then we could see changes in fMRI. And Gracius is also uh credited with labeling this task negative network. The default mode network is what is happening in your brain when it's not focused on a specific task. So this evolution in in looking at these different types of neuroiming the fMRIs led to an additional piece of information again based heavily on on metabolism changes. So blood oxygen level dependent signals or bold signals. um but using the diffusion tensor imaging in combination with MMRIS permitted really the analysis of structural changes in the brain in different volumes or in different white matter tracks. So this added a lot of information and confirmed uh without a doubt that the default mode definitely exists. Now many of us just sitting here you can think about what goes on in your head when you're not doing anything right it's clear to all of us is very obvious that your brain is not doing nothing. Uh it's your brain is always active and doing something and if you think about all of these types of things that your brain could be doing um we come up with kind of a interesting interesting list. You can see the default mode network basically in action which means this inactive state um when you are in wakeful rest uh daydreaming mind wandering self-reflection when you're thinking or projecting about others remembering the past or planning for the future uh when you're conducting mindfulness activities meditation uh when you're thinking of autobiographical memories or theory of mind there are multiple studies studies now in each of these areas related to the default mode network. Um, but what we also see is evidence that these that the typical default mode network that you might be this general go-to place for your brain is disturbed in people who have ADHD and psychopathology or traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, depression, amnesia, Alzheimer's, uh, post-traumatic stress u disorder, Parkinson's, all of these things change this natural default mode network as well. So, we know that there's evidence in the average person when you're just daydreaming, sitting there thinking of nothing, you're always thinking of something. Um, and we know that you can measure changes or disturbances, uh, when these different types of problems exist. Now, so this leads us to sort of ask, okay, interesting, uh, nice information, but what's the point? Why is this important for us to understand the default mode network? And basically it is a huge leap in conceptual thinking in neuroscience that is it possible we might be able to see consciousness. What does it mean to be conscious? And basically between psychology neuroscience the the one thing that's always been shared is this interest in understanding what does it mean to be conscious to be conscious of your world to know yourself to know others to think. And the default mode is basically giving us uh further hints uh in that direction. But there are also people who um suggest that you could actually measure this type of creative state when your mind is allowed to wander. Does that permit it to be more innovative to link things that you know in a specific task you might not naturally link? But when you're allowed to daydream and wander, are you allowed to have that higher creative understanding of different concepts? Or could the default mode help us, you know, track different pathologies and understand mental disorders better? Could it be an a physical indicator of certain psychological states? Depression has been studied for hundreds of years and it was thought to be much more a mental or a psychological state. uh then we got hints about neurotransmitters and physical bases or molecular roots of depressive states. But now in a default mode network you you can see physiological changes in the brain based on that psychological state. Um or could we use uh measurements in the default mode network um to track improvements from therapy or how people become better or how the default mode changes or becomes more quote unquote normal uh based on interventions. So these are some of the more exciting things that are coming out of neuroscience these days related to the default mode network. It uh is by no means definitive and this is one of the youngest areas of research. We hope a lot of you will continue to contribute in the future. So as a general summary uh we began this week looking at concepts of mindfulness. We talked about Ellen Langanger's uh main theories and we link that to Carol Dwek's concept of mind sets and what it means to understand that you know you are not your biology you are not trapped into this molecular state but that you can leverage this nature and nurture balance in your favor. Um and we alluded to concept of meditation which will be um discussed further in the sections this week and we ended up by introducing this rather new concept of the default mode network um trying to understand its definition. How can we measure changes and what types of mental states is it related to? Okay, with that information we're going to ask you to come to class with all of your great questions and don't forget to do the 321 at the end of the live class. Thanks a lot.