Browsing by Author "Cosmelli, Diego"
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Item Assessing Subjective Processes and Vulnerability in Mindfulness-based Interventions: A Mixed methods Exploratory Study(2021) Medeiros, Sebastián; Crempien, Carla; Vásquez, Alejandra; Duarte, Javiera; Andreu, Catherine; Langer, Álvaro; Ibaceta, Miguel; Silva, Jaime; Cosmelli, DiegoContext: Research in the contemplative field has focused on trainable capacities that foster self-regulation and integration. From a psychological perspective, mindfulness and personality research has largely grown with a categorical approach that explores the relationship between personality traits and mindfulness skills in clinical contexts. Problem: There is still a gap in our understanding of the subjective processes that occur through contemplative learning. Moreover, a dimensional personality approach that acknowledges personality functioning and individual vulnerability has not formed part of the discussion in the field. Method: We used a mixed methods framework to explore change and learning mechanisms among six participants in an eight-week mindfulness-based intervention. Pre- and post-intervention measurements were registered, including a micro-phenomenological interview (MPI) to explore first-person experience in dealing with difficulty, self-reported personality functioning, symptoms, and mindfulness skills, and heart rate variability, to relate self-reporting and phenomenological accounts. Results: Multiple levels of observation seem to be sensitive to capturing change and processes occurring in mindfulness-based interventions. The MPI analysis points to greater awareness and embodied care as central mechanisms. Personality functioning correlates with autonomic activity during critical phases of the MPI. Conceptual and experiential understanding of new forms of relating to experience are exemplified through a case study. Implications: This exploratory study contributes to scientific and clinical understanding of healing mechanisms of mindfulness practice. Taking vulnerability into account can help refine therapeutic strategies and clinical sensitivity. The results support more skillful ways of guiding and inquiring in mindfulness practices. Future research should explore subtler levels of experiential and physiological regulatory processes using larger samples, particularly with participants who experience difficulties during practice. Constructivist content: This work contributes to the development of Francisco Varela’s neurophenomenology project and his scientific interest in contemplative practices as tools for the study of consciousness.Item Functional Cortical Network in Alpha Band Correlates with Social Bargaining(2014) Billeke, Pablo; Zamorano, Francisco; Chavez, Mario; Cosmelli, Diego; Aboitiz, FranciscoSolving demanding tasks requires fast and flexible coordination among different brain areas. Everyday examples of this are the social dilemmas in which goals tend to clash, requiring one to weigh alternative courses of action in limited time. In spite of this fact, there are few studies that directly address the dynamics of flexible brain network integration during social interaction. To study the preceding, we carried out EEG recordings while subjects played a repeated version of the Ultimatum Game in both human (social) and computer (non-social) conditions. We found phase synchrony (inter-site-phaseclustering) modulation in alpha band that was specific to the human condition and independent of power modulation. The strength and patterns of the inter-site-phaseclustering of the cortical networks were also modulated, and these modulations were mainly in frontal and parietal regions. Moreover, changes in the individuals’ alpha network structure correlated with the risk of the offers made only in social conditions. This correlation was independent of changes in power and inter-site-phase-clustering strength. Our results indicate that, when subjects believe they are participating in a social interaction, a specific modulation of functional cortical networks in alpha band takes place, suggesting that phase synchrony of alpha oscillations could serve as a mechanism by which different brain areas flexibly interact in order to adapt ongoing behavior in socially demanding contextsItem Paradoxical Expectation: Oscillatory Brain Activity Reveals Social Interaction Impairment in Schizophrenia(2015) Billeke, Pablo; Armijo, Alejandra; Castillo, Daniel; López, Tamara; Zamorano, Francisco; Cosmelli, Diego; Aboitiz, FranciscoBackground People with schizophrenia show social impairments that are related to functional outcomes. We tested the hypothesis that social interaction impairments in people with schizophrenia are related to alterations in the predictions of others’ behavior and explored their underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Methods Electroencephalography was performed in 20 patients with schizophrenia and 25 well-matched control subjects. Participants played as proposers in the repeated version of the Ultimatum Game believing that they were playing with another human or with a computer. The power of oscillatory brain activity was obtained by means of the wavelet transform. We performed a trial-by-trial correlation between the oscillatory activity and the risk of the offer. Results Control subjects adapted their offers when playing with computers and tended to maintain their offers when playing with humans, as such revealing learning and bargaining strategies, respectively. People with schizophrenia presented the opposite pattern of behavior in both games. During the anticipation of others’ responses, the power of alpha oscillations correlated with the risk of the offers made, in a different way in both games. Patients with schizophrenia presented a greater correlation in computer games than in human games; control subjects showed the opposite pattern. The alpha activity correlated with positive symptoms. Conclusions Our results reveal an alteration in social interaction in patients with schizophrenia that is related to oscillatory brain activity, suggesting maladjustment of expectation when patients face social and nonsocial agents. This alteration is related to psychotic symptoms and could guide further therapies for improving social functioning in patients with schizophrenia.Item Someone has to give in: theta oscillations correlate with adaptive behavior in social bargaining(2014) Billeke, Pablo; Zamorano, Francisco; López, Tamara; Rodriguez, Carlos; Cosmelli, Diego; Aboitiz, FranciscoItem The Underlying Social Dynamics of Paradigm Shifts(01/09/2015) Rodríguez-Sickert, Carlos; Cosmelli, Diego