DSpace Community:http://hdl.handle.net/10722/441742024-03-29T12:52:19Z2024-03-29T12:52:19ZLong-term practice of intuitive inquiry meditation modulates EEG dynamics during self-schema processingGao, JunlingLeung, Hang KinWu, Bonnie Wai YanHung, JennyChang, ChunqiSik, Hin Hunghttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/3379762024-03-11T10:25:20Z2023-09-11T00:00:00ZTitle: Long-term practice of intuitive inquiry meditation modulates EEG dynamics during self-schema processing
Authors: Gao, Junling; Leung, Hang Kin; Wu, Bonnie Wai Yan; Hung, Jenny; Chang, Chunqi; Sik, Hin Hung
Abstract: <h3>Objective</h3><p>Intuitive inquiry meditation is a unique form of Buddhist Zen/Chan practice in which individuals actively and intuitively utilize the cognitive functions to cultivate doubt and explore the concept of the self. This event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to investigate the neural correlates by which long-term practice of intuitive inquiry meditation induces flexibility in self-schema processing, highlighting the role of doubt and belief processes in this exploration.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p>Twenty experienced and eighteen beginner meditators in intuitive inquiry meditation were recruited for this ERP study. The interactions of doubt and belief processes with concepts of the self and Buddha were investigated. A 128-channel electroencephalography (EEG) system was used to collect EEG data. The ERP data were processed and analyzed using EEGLAB.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The data showed a double dissociation between beginners and experienced meditators (monks) in the concepts of the self and Buddha: intuitive inquiry meditation reduced the brain activity of beginners when viewing Buddha image but not when viewing a picture of themselves. However, in experienced meditators, intuitive inquiry meditation reduced brain activity when they viewed images of themselves but not when they viewed Buddha image. Further event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) analysis revealed that experienced meditators had a greater theta spectral power and higher intertrial coherence (ITC), indicating that they could more flexibly modulate ongoing cognitive processes than beginner meditators.</p><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>Intuitive inquiry meditation could help beginner meditators detach from the concept of Buddha but not from that of the self. However, in experienced meditators, the opposite was true. ERSP analysis showed that only experienced meditators exhibited significant alterations in brain activity dynamics during intuitive inquiry meditation, which might enable these practitioners to become spontaneously detached from the concept of the self. These findings revealed the neural mechanism by which long-term practice of intuitive inquiry meditation can influence the doubting process and its effect on self-schema processing.</p>2023-09-11T00:00:00ZInhibitory dysfunction may cause prospective memory impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients: an event-related potential studyYu, HMGao, JLChang, RSKMak, WThach, TQCheung, RTFhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/3378302024-03-11T10:24:13Z2023-07-26T00:00:00ZTitle: Inhibitory dysfunction may cause prospective memory impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients: an event-related potential study
Authors: Yu, HM; Gao, JL; Chang, RSK; Mak, W; Thach, TQ; Cheung, RTF
Abstract: IntroductionProspective memory (PM) is the ability to remember future intentions, and PM function is closely related to independence in daily life, particularly in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). As PM involves various cognitive components of attention, working memory, inhibition and other executive functions, this study investigated how TLE may affect PM components and the underlying neural mechanisms. MethodsSixty-four subjects were recruited, including 20 refractory TLE patients, 18 well-controlled TLE patients and 26 age-matched healthy controls. A set of neuropsychological tests was administered to assess specific brain functions. An event-related potential (ERP) task was used to further explore how PM and its components would be differentially affected in the two TLE types. ResultsOur findings revealed that: (1) refractory TLE patients scored lower than the healthy controls in the digit span, Verbal Fluency Test and Symbol Digit Modalities Test; (2) refractory TLE patients exhibited impaired PM performance and reduced prospective positivity amplitudes over the frontal, central and parietal regions in ERP experiments when compared to the healthy controls; and (3) decreased P3 amplitudes in the nogo trials were observed over the frontal-central sites in refractory but not in well-controlled TLE patients. DiscussionTo our knowledge, this is the first ERP study on PM that has specifically identified PM impairment in refractory but not in well-controlled TLE patients. Our finding of double dissociation in PM components suggests that inhibition dysfunction may be the main reason for PM deficit in refractory TLE patients. The present results have clinical implications for neuropsychological rehabilitation in TLE patients.2023-07-26T00:00:00ZTimeless Symbolism. An Early Dzogchen Patriarch Hagiography and ScripturesHalkias, Georgioshttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/3373802024-03-11T10:20:27Z2022-08-18T00:00:00ZTitle: Timeless Symbolism. An Early Dzogchen Patriarch Hagiography and Scriptures
Authors: Halkias, Georgios
Abstract: <p>The life of Śrī Siṃha, the early contemplative patriarch of the teachings of the Great Perfection, is shrouded in mystery. Our knowledge of the life of this teacher is indebted to Tibetan hagiographical records of the Treasure and oral traditions, centuries after the latest date assigned to him in the first half of the ninth century. Śrī Siṃha occupies a seminal role in the Nyingma history of the transmission of the Great Perfection to Tibet and there are a good number of texts attributed to him in the Tengyur, Vairocana’s Collected Tantras, and the Collected Tantras of the Nyingma. With the aim of examining Śrī Siṃha’s contribution to the earliest genealogies of Dzogchen in Tibet, this study will serve as an overview of his works and life by examining traditional methods of explanation of the Great Perfection’s Symbolic Lineage of Transmission.<br></p>2022-08-18T00:00:00ZShouldering His Guru’s Legacy: Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro’s Discourse in Relation to thos-bsam-sgom after the Death of Khenpo Jigme PhuntsokHardie, CatherineHobhouse, Nicholas S.http://hdl.handle.net/10722/3368432024-03-04T02:59:28Z2022-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Shouldering His Guru’s Legacy: Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro’s Discourse in Relation to thos-bsam-sgom after the Death of Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok
Authors: Hardie, Catherine; Hobhouse, Nicholas S.
Abstract: This article contributes to the growing discussion of the ways that Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok’s legacy has been carried forward by his spiritual successors at the Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy (or Larung Gar), in contemporary Eastern Tibet, by focusing on the contribution of the Larung vice principal and leading second-generation luminary, Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro (1962-). Drawing on a range of Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro’s spoken teachings and writings over a twenty-year period, this article undertakes a contextualised analysis of how he has shouldered his guru’s legacy in the areas of Tibetan Buddhist monastic education, monastic governance, and monastic-lay relations. It explores how the threefold framework of thos-bsam-sgom (listening, reflecting, meditating), whether in its parts or its entirety, lies at the centre of his reformist discourse in these matters, articulated in relation to a wide range of Buddhist and secular concepts, as well as to concrete institutions and organisational structures. It is argued that, while Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro expounds the entire framework of thos-bsam-sgom throughout the years in question, in ‘the earlier period’ (c.2000-2012), from shortly before his guru’s death until approximately a decade afterwards, he subtly privileges the intellectual attributes associated with thos-bsam, while in ‘the later period’ (c.2013-2021) he reweights his exposition to give a balanced emphasis to the practice of sgom.2022-01-01T00:00:00Z