Main content
Inter-brain synchronization in the practice of Tibetan monastic debate
- Marieke K. van Vugt
- Joshua Pollock
- Bryce Johnson
- Kalden Gyatso
- Ngawang Norbu
- Thabkhe Lodroe
- Thupten Gyaltsen
- Thokney Aadhentsang
- Jampa Thakchoe
- Jampa Khechok
- Jampa Gyaltsen
- Amir Moye
- David Marc Fresco
Date created: | Last Updated:
: DOI | ARK
Creating DOI. Please wait...
Category: Project
Description: Monastic debate is an interactive and dyadic analytical meditation practice by which Tibetan monastics seek to jointly deepen their understanding of complicated philosophical issues. We examined the neural correlates of this analytical meditation practice by means of hyperscanning EEG. Consistent with the idea that analytical meditation helps to train concentration, we observed that over the course of the debate, frontal theta oscillations—a correlate of absorption—increased significantly. This increase was stronger for more experienced monks compared to monks at the beginning of their education. In addition, we found evidence for increases in synchrony in frontal alpha oscillations between the two debaters during moments of agreement as compared to disagreement on a set of premises. Together, these findings provide an initial understanding of Tibetan monastic debate and analytical meditation using neuroscientific methods.