Discussion Forum Discussion Forum

Science and Meditation

Amygdala bliss to dark night

Threads [ Previous | Next ]
Toggle
Amygdala bliss to dark night
Answer
10/13/14 11:22 PM
Watching a video on the neuroscience of meditation, I see an explanation that the amygdala has two sides, one dealing with happiness and one dealing with fear. If the stimulation of the happiness side becomes intense enough then the activity spills over to the other side and activates fear. This is supposed to be the origin of the cycles of bliss and dark night.
Is this a well known explanation ?

RE: Amygdala bliss to dark night
Answer
10/13/14 6:39 AM as a reply to John.
I don't know if it's somehow related to meditation.

I just remember Brene Brown saying that there are studies showing that joyful events are likely to lead to relapses of depression, alcoholism etc.
Can't have one without the other obviously.

RE: Amygdala bliss to dark night
Answer
10/13/14 9:57 PM as a reply to John.
This might be the one you're thinking of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqrpKUTMXgY

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala#Hemispheric_specializations
There are functional differences between the right and left amygdala. In one study, electrical stimulations of the right amygdala induced negative emotions, especially fear and sadness. In contrast, stimulation of the left amygdala was able to induce either pleasant (happiness) or unpleasant (fear, anxiety, sadness) emotions. Other evidence suggests that the left amygdala plays a role in the brain's reward system.

RE: Amygdala bliss to dark night
Answer
10/13/14 11:19 PM as a reply to Richard Zen.
That's the Jimmy, yes. I didn't want to dig through his videos again to find the exact bit but you've got it there. Murphy says that prolonged intense stimulation of the happy side can cause a spillover of neural activity into the dark side so I wonder if there is any other confirmatory work on this ?
He also says, if I remember, eventually this spillover can stop leaving a permanent enhanced connection tot he happy side.
I wonder if I could ask him to stop by the forum and explain ?

RE: Amygdala bliss to dark night
Answer
10/13/14 11:21 PM as a reply to John.
John:

I wonder if I could ask him to stop by the forum and explain ?


Ultimately that would be the best, since he can give more details or point to other studies that back him up.