Hacking Persistent
Non-Symbolic Experience
Jeffery A. Martin
Center for the Study of Non-Symbolic Consciousness
www.nonsymbolic.org
Everyone is looking for something.
Something feels missing.
Most of us can’t quite put our finger on it.
Because it feels like an absence,
most of us think that ‘more’…
… money, love, approval, whatever …
is needed.
The population I study doesn’t. They feel complete.
When most people think about PNSE…
Buddha
Maharishi
Mahesh
Yogi
Rumi
Bernadette
Roberts
Eckhart
Tolle
Ramana
Maharshi
Sri
Aurobindo
St. Francis
Our Sample
• Over 1,000 individuals
• Age ranges from 18-90’s
• Mostly Caucasian European and North
American
• Educated
• All income levels/diverse socio-economic status
• Diverse religious/spiritual representation
including atheists and agnostics
Approach
• ‘Gold standard’ self report measures
– Example: Batch 1 - Modified M-Scale, DES2, STAI, SWLS,
BFI, TAS, and Modified MUMEX
• In-depth interviews (6-12+ hours)
– Focused on Cognition, Affect, Memory and Perception
– Extracting and refining testable psychological claims from
self reports
• Experiments
• Physiological measurement
– HRV, SPV, breath, etc.
– EEG, fMRI, …
– DNA, blood, and other bio soon…
What is PNSE?
Narrative
Expanded
What is PNSE?
Narrative
Expanded
Towards the far end…
No Emotion
A step or so back…
“Loving Kindness”
“Proto Emotions” for all other emotions
A step or so back…
Persistent positive emotion punctuated
by negative emotions that fall off quickly
PNSE Continuum
Location 1
Location 2
Location 3
Location 4
• Experiences cluster together into different
types of PNSE
• Locations actually represent regions with sublocations
• Some people stay in one spot, others move
• Generally a forward progression but not
always
What is PNSE?
Narrative
Expanded
Expanded
Other interesting data…
You May be Surprised That…
• Psychologically “normal” – keep same
preferences, hobbies, etc.
• Unable to be differentiated in crowd (or work,
family, etc.)
• Dogmatic
• Divorce
• Morality, Health Behaviors, …
• Stress, physical illness can knock it out
How Does it Happen?
Purposeful Effort
Self Objectifying Event
?
Is it all in the brain…?
Where Is The “I”?
Core Self
Auto
biographical
Self
Proto Self
“The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of
Consciousness”. Antonio Damasio. Harvest Books, 2000.
Neuropsychological Correlates
Fox, Snyder, Vincent, Corbetta, Van Essen, & Raichle, 2005
Default & Task Networks
• Default network, intrinsic network
– Self referential thinking
– Allows mental contemplation of past and future
• Task network, extrinsic network
– Task oriented behavior
– Goal oriented behavior
mPFC & PCC
Brewer, et al., 2011
Brain Stem
• Change in brainstem gray matter concentration following a
mindfulness-based intervention is correlated with improvement in
psychological well-being. – Singleton, et al., 2014
• Locus Coeruleus, Pontine Tegmentum, Nucleus Raphe Pontis, and
the Sensory Trigeminal Nucleus
• Serotonin (Raphe) - Sleep, mood, appetite, conditioned fear
– Stress down regulates
– Very effective for mood and anxiety disorders
• Locus coeruleus - Norepinephrine (neurotransmitter),
– Modulates arousal
– Regulates the interplay between focused vs. flexible responding to
environmental demands, or selective vs. scanning attention,
– Depression, anxiety, sleep
Things to Consider
• The brain is very flexible
• Quick changes (6 weeks, etc.), but slow
habituation
• Many brain regions on the Task and Default
networks, and elsewhere have been
implicated
• May need a variety of techniques, methods,
etc.
Engineering PNSE
Not Just About PNSE…
Tech
• Feedback
– Neuro
– Other Bio
• Stimulation
– Neuro
• Traditional tools
– Augmented or
redesigned with tech
Types of Feedback
• Biased
• Unbiased
• Real-time
• Async
• Part-time
• Full-time
•
•
•
•
Visual
Auditory
Touch/vibration
…
Applied Research - Feedback
Narrow AI
rt-fMRI sEEG
MEG
fMRI
Home
Neuro-feedback
Neurofeedback
• rt-fMRI
• MEG
• EEG
Biofeedback
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pupil dilation
Facial muscles
Eye blink strength
Eye tracking
Galvanic skin response
Heart rate
Breathing
Temperature
• Breath gasses
• Hormones,
neurotransmitters, etc.
• Blood
Applied Research - Stimulation
tDCS
T/FUS
rt-fMRI sEEG
MEG
fMRI
Home Unit
•
•
•
•
TMS/dTMS
tDCS
tACS
Ultrasound
– TUS
– FUS
tDCS
tACS
Neuling, Rach, & Herrmann,
Front Hum Neurosci, 2013
Brittain et al, Current Biology, 2013
TUS
Hameroff, et al.,2012
TUS
Sterling Cooley
FUS
Yoo, et al., Neuroimage, 2011
Traditional Tools
• Meditation
• Prayer
• Psychological tools
• Classes, books, other training methods
• Apps
– Social
– Gamification
Recent Experiment
•
•
•
•
Best practices from data
4 months
2 classes – 1 course
6 participants
– 3 men, 3 women
– high, med, low well-being
– 1 man did not successfully complete the
program
Recent Experiment
• NSE
– Location 1 = 1 person
– Location 2 = 3 person
– Location 3 = 1 person
• Measures
– STAI, STRESS, PILL, M-Scale, NETI, AHI, CES-D, FEQ,
GHS, PNAS, Gratitude, Optimism, Meaning, ATH,
SWLS
– In ‘positive’ direction across subjects
PNSE Special Interest Group (SIG)
Community Project
tDCS Benefits
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•
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•
•
•
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Learning
Memory
Language Fluency
Mood/happiness
Mystical experience
Visual Tracking
Higher level cognitive
functions
• Reading
•
•
•
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Parkinson’s
Stroke
Schizophrenia
Depression
Pain
Stuttering
Community Project
• Open tDCS/tACS hardware development
• Front and backend website
• Cloud based research and sharing
Thank You!
Slides at: nonsymbolic.org/CH-SF-2014.pptx
Paper at: nonsymbolic.org/PNSE-Article.pdf
Email: jeffery.a.martin@gmail.com