Norm Farb - Meditation and the Brain
b'In this episode, Wendy speaks with contemplative researcher Norm Farb. Norm was one of the first people to study how meditation impacts our brains, and his broader work incorporates emotions, body sensations, and present-moment awareness. Their conversation covers many topics, including:\\nhis initial research on meditation, neural networks, and modes of self;\\npredictive models of mind;\\nreinforcing vs. updating our model of the world (and implications for political polarization);\\nthe default mode network and its role in cognition;\\nhow meditation can help shift our habitual patterns;\\nwhat happens in our minds when we learn to meditate;\\nthe concept of mental foraging;\\ninteroception and how sensing the body might reduce conceptual processing;\\ndepression & interoception, and getting stuck avoiding difficult feelings;\\nthe self as the current model of the world;\\na deeper look at the idea of no-self;\\nthe ethics of updating our self model responsibly;\\nlocalization vs. distribution in the brain;\\nand the state of research on meditation and the brain.\\nFull resources and show notes'