Building on more than 30 years of cutting-edge brain research, a new book by Richard J. Davidson offers an inside look into how emotions are coded in our brains and our power to control them.
Emotions
How does the compassionate brain, measured in the lab, predict what occurs in real life?
Researchers are launching a new series of studies to understand how laboratory measures of virtuous qualities such as compassion relate to their behavior in the real world.
Expectant Brains Help Predict Anxiety Treatment Success
A network of emotion-regulating brain regions implicated in the pathological worry that can grip patients with anxiety disorders may also be useful for predicting the benefits of treatment.
$6 Million Grant Creates Meditation Study Center
Research at UW-Madison has already shown that meditation can change the brain. Now a new grant will allow a more in-depth investigation of how these changes can affect sleep, pain tolerance, emotion regulation and other measures of well-being.
Can love change your mind? New project explores neuroscience of ‘positive qualities’
By Brian Mattmiller, University Communications What is happening in the minds of people who have developed a greater capacity for forgiveness and compassion? Can a quality like love — whether it’s shown toward a family member …
Scientists study links between brain, meditation
Meditation matters. Brain scientists are using the age-old practice to understand stress and pain reduction, attention spans, even compassion.
Study shows compassion meditation changes the brain
Can we train ourselves to be compassionate? A new study suggests the answer is yes. Cultivating compassion and kindness through meditation affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples’ mental states, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Brain Storm
The building is locked. Most of the windows are dark. But in a small room on the first floor of the Waisman Center, a group of four is gathered around Richard Davidson.
Research of Richard Davidson shows how meditation changes the mind
By Dave Tenenbaum, University Communications For hundreds of years, Tibetan monks and other religious people have used meditation to calm the mind and improve concentration. This week, a new study shows exactly how one common …
Meditation may fine-tune control over attention
Everyday experience and psychology research both indicate that paying close attention to one thing can keep you from noticing something else.