Episode 73 :: Dr. Cathy Kerr :: Modulating Somatosensory Attention

By Ted Meissner | July 15, 2011

Dr. Cathy Kerr

Dr. Cathy Kerr joins us to speak about her recent study on the effects of mindfulness meditation training on anticipatory alpha modulation in primary somatosensory cortex.

Hi, everyone. Today, with this episode as with many others, I learned something. Only this time, it was very unexpected, and helped me assess my own attitudes about the placebo effect.

In our culture, we can have this aversion to placebo effect, dismissing it because it does not show actual repair of damaged tissue. And it doesn’t. But, that doesn’t mean it has no usefulness. In particular, with how we interact with our experiences of pain. As our guest today describes, we have some indication that this is not merely a perception, but that there are brain mechanisms which lessen the focus of our attention spotlight — resulting in what we have called “placebo”. And with this possibility, we open the door to intentionally practicing this refocus. We also speak about the impact of this naturalistic approach to meditation, as becoming more available to a broad range of people.

Dr. Cathy Kerr got her B.A. from Amherst College, and her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins. She has been a lecturer at Harvard University, and recently has become an Assistant Professor at the Department of Family Medicine at Brown University School of Medicine.

So, sit back, relax, and have a nice latte with a shot of macadamia nut.