MBSAT Scientific Foundations

Scientific Disciplines MBSAT is based on:

As a multi-faceted program, MBSAT draws on several scientific fields, especially on Computational Neuroscience. In addition, it draws on Positive Psychology, System Dynamics, Behavioral Economics, Management and Finance, as well as on elements from other areas. Most importantly, it integrates classical, secular mindfulness practices as a proven methodology to cultivate awareness.

MBSAT Scientific Foundations

At the core of MBSAT lies a robust scientific framework grounded in computational neuroscience. This approach views the brain as a tireless prediction machine. We constantly make predictions about the world around us, and when those predictions are off the mark, we experience a ‘surprise’ or prediction error. MBSAT leverages this principle.

Imagine your brain as a sophisticated composite of internal models, continuously refined based on your ongoing experiences. MBSAT, inspired by the Free Energy Minimizing Principle, teaches you to understand your personal internal models. By recognizing how your brain makes predictions and adjusts them based on what you experience, you gain a powerful tool for self-awareness.

In essence, MBSAT liberates the profound, practical potential of the Free Energy Principle, translating complex scientific theories into practical strategies for everyday life. It’s about harnessing the brain’s natural ability for self-organization to navigate the complexities of the 21st century with greater mindfulness, skill, and a sense of thriving.

Base glossary of computational neuroscience terms use in MBSAT protocol

Free Energy Principle:

Imagine your brain wants to minimize surprise or uncertainty about the world. It does this by constantly making predictions and updating its understanding based on experiences. The Free Energy Principle is the scientific idea behind this process.

Prediction:

Your brain is a prediction machine! It anticipates what will happen next based on past experiences and the sensory information you are receiving right now. Think of it like your brain constantly guessing how things will unfold.

Prediction Error:

Sometimes, those predictions are off the mark. This mismatch between what you expect and what happens is called a prediction error. These errors can be helpful because they signal the need to update your brain’s models of the world.

Recognition Models:

This is your brain’s understanding of how the world works. It’s like an internal map that helps you make sense of things. For example, your recognition models tell you the shape and feel of an apple.

Generative Models:

These models allow your brain to imagine and predict not just what is but what could be. It drives creativity and planning. For example, your generative models help you picture the perfect way to arrange your living room, even before you move the furniture.

Active Inference:

This concept isn’t just about passively taking in information. Active inference is how your brain actively shapes the world by taking actions to test its predictions. For example, if you predict there’s a book on the table, active inference drives you to reach out and confirm (or, if not, to correct) that prediction.

Minding: A foundation for individual and collective flourishing

Minding is cultivating a strategic awareness of one’s internal landscape of body sensations, emotions, thoughts, and action impulses (BETA). This awareness involves recognizing patterns in our internal experience through continuous observation and refinement of our recognition models. Minding allows us to tune into the subtle signals our bodies and minds constantly generate, providing valuable information for understanding ourselves and the world around us. By focusing on our BETA and META and skillfully evaluating their information, we can make informed choices, regulate our emotions, and engage in adaptive behaviors that promote well-being. This active inference process, guided by our generative models, allows us to test predictions, update our beliefs, and make more accurate forecasts about future outcomes. Minding creates a foundation for federated active inference in social contexts, a process where individuals share and align their mental models, reducing conflict, strengthening relationships, and enhancing cooperation. Through this process, minding contributes to both personal flourishing and a more peaceful, harmonious, and sustainable world.

Precision:

Precision is how confident your brain is in its predictions. High precision means your brain is sure about its expectations. Low precision means your brain is unsure. Learning to make accurate predictions is the role of precision. Sometimes high precision can be inaccurate like believing with full conviction something that is not there (hallucinations). Or the opposite not believing what is in fact real (delusions). Thus, leading to more erroneous predictions.

Opacity:

Imagine looking out a perfectly clear window. The glass is so transparent you barely notice it’s there. This transparency can be problematic because you’re so focused on the view beyond that you miss the window glass itself. In Metzinger’s view, this is similar to opacity. When our beliefs, habits, and internal processes become completely familiar, they are like a transparent, invisible glass pane and operate unconsciously, influencing our behavior without our awareness.

The key idea here is that to change something, we often need to make it opaque. By bringing these internal processes into our awareness, they become like a “smudge” on the window. We can then observe them objectively, understand their influence, and consider adjusting.

The concept of opacity from a computational neuroscience perspective was developed by the German cognitive philosopher Thomas Metzinger. Through MBSAT practices and introspection we can bring our up to now transparent beliefs and biases into focus, allowing us to “see the smudge on the window” and make informed choices about how we want to live.

Scientific Disciplines MBSAT is based on: