Dave Vago – Meditation, Neuroscience, and Self

Mind & Life

In this episode, Wendy speaks with contemplative neuroscientist Dave Vago. Dave has been studying the brain, meditation, and the self for over two decades, and has developed several models of how mindfulness might work from cognitive and neurobiological perspectives. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• his intertwined interests in brain, mind, self, philosophy, and religion;
• the temporal nature of memory;
• mindfulness for fibromyalgia and chronic pain;
• unconscious attentional bias;
• sticky thoughts and how they change with meditation;
• the role of the self in contemplative practice (S-ART model);
• meta-awareness and decentering;
• the centrality of inhibitory control in contemplative practice;
• dissolving the self/other divide;
• integrating wisdom to create meaning;
• how meditation can shift attentional bias at very early levels of processing;
• the deeply interconnected nature of brain function;
• self-pattern theory and (in)flexibility in the mind;
• mindfulness and the glymphatic system, and implications for sleep and neurodegenerative disorders;
• and the new academic society for contemplative research (ISCR).

Full show notes and resources