Augmenting brain function with meditation: can detachment coincide with empathy?

Meditation practices aim at modifying the emotions by reducing reactivity to both pleasant and unpleasant emotions (Sperduti et al., 2012; Reva et al., 2014).Meditation also regulates the attention by reducing distractibility and directing focused attention to the object of meditation (Sperduti et al., 2012). In many meditation techniques attention is directed to ongoing experiences without the intention to analyze, judge, get involved, or expect anything which can lead to detachment (Tei et al., 2009). Detachment here was taken to mean reducing or removing the need to control, possess, and be influenced by the actions of people or circumstances. Detachment or remaining dispassionate is ideally combined with empathy. The aim of the present article is to discuss the neurophysiological basis by which detachment and empathy may co-exist in meditation.