Shawn Prest

Advanced meditation ushers in incredible new possibilities for the science of consciousness.

In the first-ever fMRI study of Extended Cessation (EC), for which we’ve just preprinted, my colleagues and I examine this advanced meditative event—where consciousness is deliberately switched off and...

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Last weeks to apply for the postdoc position on multisensory integration and self-body perception in Marseille !!

Now on Antoine Lutz on the phenomenology of meditation and its neural correlates in the concurrent sessions

@theassc.bsky.social

I'll be presenting work today on a poster at @assc28.bsky.social on how deep meditative experience challenges challeges predominant computational views of affective valence. At 12:30pm, come by, booth 179! #assc28

Heading to my very first ASSC! Quite excited to present my work, supervised by @dsotob.bsky.social on unconscious working memory in the concurrent session at Studio Theatre on Wednesday at 15:30! Please come drop by! : ) @assc28.bsky.social #ASSC28

Enjoying the atmosphere at @assc28.bsky.social here in Crete! It's great to be around a lot of researches focused on our actual experience. Also looking forward to Edmundo Lopez-Sola's poster coming up and @matthewsacchet.bsky.social 's talk this afternoon on advanced meditation. :) #assc28

Sensitivity to visual features in inattentional blindness As a group, inattentionally blind participants can successfully report the location, color, and shape of stimuli they deny noticing, and exhibit a systematic bias to report not noticing.

5 years since our first pilot, and 25,000 participants later, I'm super happy this work with Makaela Nartker, @chazfirestone.bsky.social and Howard Egeth on inattentional blindness is now out in eLife! A little 🧵 of what we found... 1/12 elifesciences.org/articles/100...

Training the embodied self in its impermanence: meditators evidence neurophysiological markers of death acceptance AbstractBackground. Human predictive capacity underlies its adaptive strength but also the potential for existential terror. Grounded in the predictive pro

FYI: free link to a publication led by Yair Dor-Ziderman in Aviva Berkovich-Ohana's lab. We provided MEG evidence supporting the hypothesis that the brains of experienced meditators exhibit reduced defensiveness toward mortality compared to those of controls.
academic.oup.com/nc/article-a...

New study being run by @julietagalante.bsky.social looking for (teacher) participants

psychologicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/CSC/research...

The FEEL lab is doing some of the most fascinating, groundbreaking research on emotions and emotion regulation. Do NOT miss this opportunity!! #psychjobs #AffectSci

Aarhus University Student Survey This questionnaire will take approximately 15- 25 minutes to complete. Please answer in a safe environment and as truthfully as possible. As a neurodiverse research team, we prioritize the comfort an...

Hello Bluesky!
Our students are running a short survey on interoception, ADHD, and autism. If you’ve got a few minutes, they’d be so grateful if you could take part — and help spread the word!
🔗 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#psychscisky

Save the Date #ACNS2025

The ASSC is now on bluesky! Please follow us for more information about consciousness neuroscience, and our upcoming conference ASSC 25 assc2025.gr

We are seeking participants for a free online mindfulness study together with colleagues from @monash-m3cs.bsky.social @hohwy.bsky.social
See details below, and follow this link for more information lnkd.in/gwCrne7v

#research #mindfulness #meditation #psychology

Olaf Blanke and I are pleased to announce the opening of a funded PhD position in cognitive and contemplative neuroscience at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center entitled "Neurophenomenological Study of Non-Dual Mindfulness Meditation and Its Impact on Self and Agency" Thanks for sharing this ad!

6/ A lot of gratitude and thanks to @hohwy.bsky.social , @matthewsacchet.bsky.social, Björn Weghenkel and various others for all of the very helpful feedback on drafts of this work.

5/ 🔗 Link to preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

4/ Takes a step toward the quantification of advanced meditative experience, paving the way for quantitative answers to questions like, how equanimous was experience during a given window of time?

3/ Results show how deconstruction:
▪️ Increases short temporal scale perception
▪️ Reduces conceptual complexity
▪️ Increases equanimity (non-reactivity) and stillness
▪️ Aids the self-regulation of affective valence

2/ The model casts the release of contraction (arising from clinging) as reducing belief precision in a hierarchical generative model, driving increased lower-level inference.

1/ We know meditation attenuates the conceptual mind, increases equanimity (non-reactivity), and moves experience into the present moment. But what are the computational mechanisms behind this?

New preprint: Modelling meditative deconstruction via letting go! 🧘

Model shows how the phenomenology of defabrication naturally emerges from the dynamics of hierarchical active inference.

I take a computational phenomenology approach, with a model that is in-silico and formalised.🧵

Do it

Breaking the barrier between theorists and experimentalists Many neuroscience students are steeped in an experiment-first style of thinking. Let’s not forget how theory can guide experiments.

Sam Gershman writes beautifully about how theory-free neuroscience prevents the field from reaching its promise. Beautiful and true. Most folks do not test hypotheses. Running a NHST does not a hypothesis make. www.thetransmitter.org/theoretical-...

📣 Free online event: Join @pliknaitzky.bsky.social (Monash Clinical Psychedelic Lab), as he discusses the role of psychedelics in therapy & their potential for transforming treatment at our seminar:

🗓️ Thursday, 6 March 2025
⏰ 12:00 – 12:50 PM AEDT
💻 Zoom
👇 Register via the link in the comments 👇

Lars Sandved-Smith giving a presentation

Shawn Prest giving a presentation

Beth Fisher giving a presentation

A fabulous day of M3CS PhD presentations - Lars Sandved-Smith on pure awareness, @shawnprest.bsky.social on defabrication in meditation, @bethfisher.bsky.social Fisher on optimism and gratitude. All done brilliantly with active inference and FEP modelling.
#neuroskyence #philsky

Just realised Bluesky supports videos so here is our new visual illusion!

Fix your gaze on the grey dot. How many red dots do you see within the green frames? Many people consistently see two, despite only ever being shown one!

jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx... w/ @renrutmailliw.bsky.social

Initialized a starter pack for Active Inference!

Just hit me up if you want to be added or removed.

go.bsky.app/CuYTnqV