concept

S-ART framework

Also known as: Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence, Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence framework, S-ART model

Facts (45)

Sources

Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART) frontiersin.org Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 45 facts

claimThe S-ART framework suggests that decentering and non-attachment play a significant role in practice effects and the development of meta-awareness.

claimThe development of S-ART through meditation is proposed to modulate self-specifying and narrative self-networks through an integrative fronto-parietal control network.

claimThe four qualities of effort, clarity, mindful awareness, and equanimity facilitate the development of an advanced self-monitoring system, which serves as the first essential step to the S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework.

claimThe authors of the S-ART framework declare that their research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

claimThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework provides mechanisms through which mindfulness practice can unravel the cycle of dysfunctional attitudes toward the self and toward one's relationship with the world.

perspectiveThe authors of the S-ART framework argue that mindfulness should not be reduced to a single unitary dimension of cognition, but rather understood as a complex set of mechanisms that reduce suffering and foster a sustainable healthy mind through self-processing.

referenceThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework is a proposed conceptual model that synthesizes traditional Buddhist and contemporary models of mindfulness by focusing on self-processing and underlying neural systems.

referenceThe S-ART framework (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) describes mindfulness as a systematic mental training that develops meta-awareness (self-awareness), the ability to modulate behavior (self-regulation), and a positive relationship between self and others that transcends self-focused needs (self-transcendence).

claimThe six neurocognitive processes in the S-ART framework are conceptualized as a skillset designed to facilitate the integration of self-experience through both top-down and bottom-up mechanisms.

claimThe S-ART framework characterizes mindfulness as a broad framework of perceptual, physiological, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral component processes, rather than a unitary dimension.

claimThe S-ART framework identifies intention and motivation, attention regulation, emotion regulation, extinction and reconsolidation, prosociality, non-attachment, and decentering as supporting neuropsychological mechanisms.

referenceThe S-ART framework distinguishes between two functional aspects of self-specifying processes: (1) the experiential enactive self (EES), which is non-conscious sensory-affective-motor processing, and (2) the experiential phenomenological self (EPS), which is an agentic, self-as-subject acting as awareness in the present moment.

claimThere have been relatively few attempts to operationalize mindfulness into distinct cognitive-neuro-psycho-social processes or to propose a conceptual mechanistic model, according to the authors of the S-ART framework.

claimThe S-ART framework operationalizes mindfulness in two ways: (1) as a broadly defined method for developing a multidimensional skillset that reduces self-processing biases and creates a sustainable healthy mind; and (2) as a continuous discriminative attentional capacity referred to as 'mindful awareness,' which is a skill developed through specific meditation practices.

accountHis Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama provided comments on aspects of the S-ART framework at the Mind & Life XXIV conference.

claimThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework refers to the specific attentional skill discussed in the text as "mindful awareness."

claimThe S-ART framework predicts that mindfulness can facilitate both dorsal and ventral vagal tone through focused attention (FA) on the body during stressors.

claimThe development of meta-awareness may facilitate the role of the Frontoparietal Control System (FPCS) in network integration and increase the efficiency of networks for Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART).

referenceIn the S-ART framework, the experiential enactive self (EES) is conceptualized similarly to William James's 'physical self' (1890) and Antonio Damasio's 'proto-self' (1999), while the experiential phenomenological self (EPS) is described similarly to Antonio Damasio's 'core-self' (1999).

referenceThe S-ART framework posits that mindfulness-based practice improves automatic regulation (homeostasis) during stress through two mechanisms: the 'raincoat effect' (protecting the internal milieu from the harmful effects of a stressor) and the 'towel effect' (facilitating recovery after exposure to a stressor).

claimThe S-ART framework posits that mindfulness acts as a master self-regulatory mechanism for de-coupling and integrating experiential and Narrative Self modes of processing, potentially transforming the reified self from maladaptive to positive, adaptive trajectories.

claimS-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) is a framework for reducing self-specific biases and sustaining a healthy mind, supported by the component processes of mindfulness.

perspectiveThe S-ART model proposes that plasticity associated with prosociality may indicate self-transcendence, which involves dissolving distinctions between self and other and reflecting loving-kindness.

claimThe S-ART framework operates on the premise that human perception, cognitions, and emotions related to ordinary experiences can be distorted or biased to varying degrees, existing on a spectrum that may or may not include clear psychopathology.

referenceThe S-ART framework focuses on two core meditation practices: focused attention (FA), which is a concentrative practice, and open monitoring (OM), which is a receptive practice.

claimThe neural substrates for attentional processes are described through S-ART networks, where preparatory forms of attention are described through EES circuitry, and the substrates for FA and executive monitoring are described through EPS and the FPCS.

claimThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework proposes six neurocognitive component mechanisms—intention and motivation, attention and emotion regulation, extinction and reconsolidation, prosociality, non-attachment, and de-centering—that are integrated and strengthened through intentional mental strategies to modulate networks of self-processing and reduce bias.

claimNeural substrates identified in the S-ART framework do not have functional roles reducible to definitive functional categories; instead, they are contextually dependent and operate on a dynamic, functional gradient that allows for functional overlap.

procedureThe progression of meditation practice within the S-ART framework involves the following steps: (1) stabilize the mind and decrease mental proliferation (rumination) by developing a fully absorbed state of concentration on an object like the breath using focused attention (FA); (2) move on to open monitoring (OM) and other advanced receptive practices that have no object of focus and are receptive to all physical and mental phenomena that arise.

claimThe authors of the S-ART framework assert that the common practice of 'cherry picking' aspects of meditation practices to include in clinical interventions or education curricula and labeling them 'mindfulness' poses conceptual dangers for scientific investigation if the term is not qualified in its specific context.

claimThe S-ART framework posits that mindfulness-based practice can strengthen controlled emotion regulation processes in novice practitioners.

claimThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework aims to dismantle mindfulness practices into component mechanisms to allow contemplative sciences to investigate dispositional differences among practitioners and correlate practice-specific changes with first-person experience.

claimThe S-ART framework posits that historical and contemporary models of mindfulness are tied together by the elements of suffering and a distorted or biased sense of self, including one's relation to others, events, and the external world.

claimThe S-ART framework outlines specific neural networks of self-specifying and non-self (NS) processing, alongside an integrative fronto-parietal network, which are supported by six neurocognitive processes developed in mindfulness-based meditation practices.

perspectiveThe S-ART framework is a simplified parcellation of the nature of self, intended to scaffold a conceptual account of self-specific processing that is susceptible to influence by mindfulness practice, rather than an exhaustive account.

claimThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework provides process models that can be used to deconstruct the heterogeneity of meditation practices into component parts and illustrate a representative map for the underlying processes of self-transformation.

referenceThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework identifies six component mechanisms underlying the practice and cultivation of mindfulness: intention and motivation, attention regulation, emotion regulation, memory extinction and reconsolidation, prosociality, and non-attachment and de-centering.

claimMindfulness practice can produce enduring neuroplastic changes, including gross morphological changes, across self-specific networks and the frontoparietal control network (FPCN) which supports self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART).

claimThe S-ART framework distinguishes the term 'mindfulness' from other Buddhist concepts such as equanimity and clarity, integrating them into a multidimensional skillset strengthened through Focused Attention (FA), Open Monitoring (OM), and Effortless Presence (EE) practices.

perspectiveThe S-ART framework authors argue that the field must examine the adverse effects of long-term meditation practice, which are often overlooked in clinical trials but may be more prevalent in long-term retreats or in practitioners with predispositions toward psychopathology.

claimThe S-ART framework is based on existing brain networks that support systems of self-processing, which are proposed to be subject to modulation through specific mechanisms cultivated by mindfulness-based meditation practices.

claimWithin the S-ART framework, mindfulness reduces cognitive and emotional biases through mental training that develops three components: meta-awareness of self (self-awareness), the ability to manage or alter responses and impulses (self-regulation), and the development of a positive relationship between self and other that transcends self-focused needs (self-transcendence).

referenceThe S-ART framework distinguishes between self-specifying processes and self-related processes, the latter of which is referred to as the narrative self (NS), representing the evaluative self-as-object and the autobiographical narrative reconstructed from the past or projected into the future.

claimThe S-ART framework defines mindfulness as a method for becoming aware of and familiar with the conditions that cause or remove distortions and biases in an individual's construction of their external or internal experience.

perspectiveThe authors of the S-ART framework propose that future research should examine how neural networks change longitudinally through meditation training using advanced multivariate statistical network analyses that incorporate changes in attentional and cognitive bias, reduction of psychological symptoms, and first-person self-reports.