Deconstructing the sense of self with VR-enhanced meditation

We are excited to share a new study exploring how we can modulate and cultivate deconstruction of the bodily self, with the help of virtual reality (VR), during meditation.

Experienced meditators often describe states of detachment and disembodiment, including decentring and distancing the self from the body. Yet, the neural and behavioral underpinnings of such altered self-experiences have been challenging to explore in neuroscience meditation settings.

In this study, we investigated how shifting visual perspective during a guided meditation—either from a first-person (1PP) or third-person (3PP) viewpoint - can temporarily alter participants’ experience of the bodily self. For this we developed a new VR platform that supports meditation practice. We found that meditating in a disembodied 3PP led to a marked reduction in body ownership, a blurring of body boundaries, and a modulated the sense of self-identification with the body. These subjective effects were accompanied by neural changes in heartbeat-evoked potentials and increased activation in brain regions implicated in self-related processing, such as the posterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex.

Using a new VR-supported meditation platform, our study reveals novel connections between the sense of self in meditation practice and the neuroscience of the multisensory bodily self, reflected in subjective and behavioral changes in multisensory own body perception, and associated interoceptive bodily processes in insula and prefrontal regions. Future studies on our VR meditation platform will further (1) cultivate links between meditation practice and bodily selfhood, (2) will test this in novices and expert meditators, and (3) apply these insights to constructive meditation practices, such as self-compassion meditation.