Hi Dhru,
That's an interesting take on it.
I kind of think that what vipassana, and specifically noting, does is to surface to the cognitive level what typically remains at the somato-sensory level. My theory is that this process rewires part of the brain that connects the body map on the cortex to the pleasure and pain centers, which leads to the feelings of
prana or energy flowing through the body. So what is then really happening is that the brain is tuning into sensations, i.e. making them conscious, that normally are inhibited. Check out
this blog post for more.
The study in the paper actually doesn't provide evidence for this theory however. The part of the brain where enhanced activity was measured is the prefrontal cortext, not below the cortical body map. But I don't know if this difference is due to the practices used by the study participant or not, and I'm not a neurophysiologist or cognitive scientist so maybe my understanding of brain wiring is faulty.