About the keynote

The benefits of regular meditation practice can be challenging to document. Individuals often report that practice 'changed my life', yet these changes can be difficult to describe and are rarely captured objectively. In this talk, researchers Sara Lazar and Omar Singleton will present their new data concerning the use of a tool based on Piaget’s stage theory of development that assesses ‘ego’ maturity. We will discuss how this tool may be useful for measuring certain benefits of meditation practice which are particularly difficult to assess objectively, including changes in interpersonal relationships and deeply comprehending the constructed nature of reality.

We will also present information about neural correlates of this tool, and how meditation-related changes in brain structure may contribute to growth through the different stages. The talk will end with a brief discussion of how growth in ego maturity may be related to issues of diversity, equality and inclusion. 

About the speakers

Sara W. Lazar is Associate Researcher in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School. The focus of her research is to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of meditation, both in clinical settings and in healthy individuals. Results from the Lab suggest that meditation can produce experience-based structural alterations in the brain. She is a contributing author to Meditation and Psychotherapy (Guilford Press).    

Read more here: https://scholar.harvard.edu/sara_lazar/home

Omar Singleton is a PhD-student at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Prior to Princeton, Omar received his BA in Psychology from the University of California, Davis, and MS in Neuroscience from Wake Forest. His research interests include brain networks, neuroplasticity, and computational psychiatry.