Selective reductions amid global increases in neural information dynamics jointly track self-dissolution in meditation
Abstract
<p>The sense of self is fundamental to experience, yet its neural basis remains unresolved. Contemplative traditions and empirical evidence suggest it can be voluntarily dissolved while retaining awareness, offering a window onto this question. We combined magnetoencephalography with in-depth phenomenology in long-term meditators (N=45, mean 3,832 practice hours) who reliably modulated self-boundaries across rest, self-maintenance and self-dissolution. Meditation broadly increased entropy and information transfer, yet selective reductions characterized self-dissolution. Reduced posterior-medial high-beta entropy and within-cingulate information transfer differentiated dissolution from maintenance. Information transfer reductions from occipital, cingulate, limbic, and subcortical regions, alongside orbitofrontal entropy stabilization, correlated with dissolution phenomenology. Combined with posterior-medial high-beta power reductions, these correlates explained 52% of dissolution depth variance, yet only information transfer predicted held-out participants. We propose selfhood relies on distributed processes that can be reconfigured in meditation through relaxed priors, gated bottom-up evidence, and stabilized evaluative dynamics, distinct from global disruption during psychedelic ego-dissolution.</p>
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