Neuroscience backs up the Buddhist belief that “the self” isn’t constant, but ever-changing

[Kusala]

Thoughts? Comments?

http://buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id= ... vSQIHpW8bs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[SarathW]

Thoughts? Comments?

http://buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id= ... vSQIHpW8bs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Buddha rejected any form of self even a ever changing self.
However he taught an ever changing consciousness.
He very clearly said that consciousness is not self either.

[chownah]

From the article:
"But Thompson supports the Buddhists’ view that the self does in fact exist."
I guess these Buddhists' views must be those good old buddhists' wrong views.
chownah

[Lucas Oliveira]

The source of this news, has the link to the scientific papers published.

One neuroscience paper, published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences in July, links the Buddhist belief that our self is ever-changing to physical areas of the brain. There’s scientific evidence that “self-processing in the brain is not instantiated in a particular region or network, but rather extends to a broad range of fluctuating neural processes that do not appear to be self specific,” write the authors.

Thompson, whose work includes studies of cognitive science, phenomenology and Buddhist philosophy, says this is not the only area where neuroscience and Buddhism converge. For example, some neuroscientists now believe that cognitive faculties are not fixed but can be trained through meditation. And there may be scientific backing to the Buddhist belief that consciousness extends into deep sleep.

http://qz.com/506229/neuroscience-backs ... -changing/

I like this one ( trained through meditation. )

Abstract

The information processing capacity of the human mind is limited, as is evidenced by the so-called “attentional-blink” deficit: When two targets (T1 and T2) embedded in a rapid stream of events are presented in close temporal proximity, the second target is often not seen. This deficit is believed to result from competition between the two targets for limited attentional resources. Here we show, using performance in an attentional-blink task and scalp-recorded brain potentials, that meditation, or mental training, affects the distribution of limited brain resources. Three months of intensive mental training resulted in a smaller attentional blink and reduced brain-resource allocation to the first target, as reflected by a smaller T1-elicited P3b, a brain-potential index of resource allocation. Furthermore, those individuals that showed the largest decrease in brain-resource allocation to T1 generally showed the greatest reduction in attentional-blink size. These observations provide novel support for the view that the ability to accurately identify T2 depends upon the efficient deployment of resources to T1. The results also demonstrate that mental training can result in increased control over the distribution of limited brain resources. Our study supports the idea that plasticity in brain and mental function exists throughout life and illustrates the usefulness of systematic mental training in the study of the human mind.

Author Summary

Meditation includes the mental training of attention, which involves the selection of goal-relevant information from the array of inputs that bombard our sensory systems. One of the major limitations of the attentional system concerns the ability to process two temporally close, task-relevant stimuli. When the second of two target stimuli is presented within a half second of the first one in a rapid sequence of events, it is often not detected. This so-called “attentional-blink” deficit is thought to result from competition between stimuli for limited attentional resources. We measured the effects of intense meditation on performance and scalp-recorded brain potentials in an attentional-blink task. We found that three months of intensive meditation reduced brain-resource allocation to the first target, enabling practitioners to more often detect the second target with no compromise in their ability to detect the first target. These findings demonstrate that meditative training can improve performance on a novel task that requires the trained attentional abilities.

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ar ... io.0050138

but this is chat for scientists


thank you so much.