Dalai Lama To Attend US Scientific Conference
MADISON, Wisconsin (AP)--The Dalai Lama, whose teachings emphasize the
training of the mind and the interaction between mind and body, will meet
this week with scientists who are studying the physical state of happiness
and the effects of meditation on the brain.
The Tibetan leader on Monday and Tuesday will visit the University of
Wisconsin to attend the ninth international Mind and Life Conference, a
collaboration among the Dalai Lama and Western philosophers and scientists
who conduct research on emotions and the brain.
He will tour the university's new $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for
Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, which uses advanced, noninvasive
equipment to track biochemicals in the brain and observe how different parts
of the brain respond to various emotions.
The facility is one of the few in the world that combines key technologies
for studying neurological changes, including functional magnetic resonance
imaging and positron emission tomography.
The MRI scanner, powered by a 16-ton magnet, shows different parts of the
brain as it processes emotions and external information. PET measures
chemical activity in the brain, using radioactive tracers created in the
laboratory's own accelerator.
"These are tools that allow us for the first time, with unprecedented
precision, to look inside the brain with a level of detail that's really
quite extraordinary," said Richard Davidson, the lab's director, who invited
the Dalai Lama to see the facility at the last Mind and Life Conference in
India.
Davidson's research has shown that people who describe themselves as happy
and enthusiastic have more activity in the left side of their prefrontal
cortex, which is located just behind the forehead. People who are more
withdrawn tend to have more activity in their right side of their prefrontal
cortex.
The research on emotion led Davidson to study the effects of meditation,
predicting it would provoke the same neurological reactions as happiness.
Scientists at the Keck Laboratory are testing the theory that people can
train their minds to be happy, just as athletes can make their bodies
perform better.
At this week's conference, scientists will use the lab's capabilities to
scan the brain of French molecular biologist and Buddhist monk Matthieu
Ricard to see whether years of rigorous meditation can be detected in his
brain and to observe what happens as he is meditating.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against
Chinese rule, has expressed interest in Western science and technology since
he was a child.
"He believes that science and Buddhism share a common objective, which is to
serve humanity and create a better understanding of the world," said his
translator, Thupten Jimpa.
The conference, cosponsored by the HealthEmotions Research Institute of
UW-Madison's Medical School and the Mind and Life Institute of Boulder,
Colorado, is closed to the public.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 05-20-01
07:02 PM
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