From Loizzo, J., Neale, M., Wolf, E., Eds. (2017). Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy: Accelerating Healing and Transformation. New York: Routledge.

Chapter Three

Positive Neuroplasticity: The Neuroscience of Mindfulness

In this chapter I will share some ideas about the intersection of three circles: neuroscience, clinical psychology, and Buddhist contemplative practice, which I informally call "applied neurodharma." (In Sanskrit, dharma means both reality and an accurate description of it.) Let’s begin with a review of some relevant neuroscience.   The Science of Experience-Dependent Neuroplasticity The function of the nervous system is to process information, and the brain is constantly changing – both functionally and structurally – due to the information coursing through it. Most of the immaterial information represented by material neural subst