Contemplative neuroscience (or contemplative science) is an emerging field of research that focuses on the changes within the mind, brain, and body as a result of contemplative practices, such as mindfulness-based meditation, samatha meditation, dream yoga, yoga nidra, tai chi or yoga.
[1][2][3] The science is interdisciplinary and attempts to clarify such mind-brain-body changes across emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and perceptual domains with an emphasis for relating such changes to neurobiology and first-person experience.
Founders of the field include Richard Davidson, Francisco Varela and B. Alan Wallace, among others.
[4] One of the field's first high-profile public gatherings was the Mind and Life Institute’s public dialogue, held at MIT in 2003, entitled 'Investigating the Mind'.
[5] Participants included the 14th Dalai Lama, Nobel Laureate scientist Daniel Kahneman and Eric Lander, Director of the MIT Centre for Genomic Research.