News 2015: UMass Dartmouth psychology professor to discuss if mindfulness training has real benefits or is just another fad

Assistant Professor Aminda O'Hare to talk on mindfulness and the brain today at the Claire T. Carney Library

UMass Dartmouth Assistant Professor of Psychology Aminda O'Hare will discuss mindfulness and the brain today Tuesday April 14 at 4 p.m. at the Claire T. Carney Library Robert F. Stoico/FirstFed Charitable Foundation Grand Reading Room. Professor O'Hare will speak on the recent rise of mindfulness training techniques and if there are real benefits or if it is just another fad. She will offer insight on if the techniques lead to measurable change in consciousness and experience through the lens of cognitive neuroscience. 

Assistant Professor Aminda O'Hare received her B.A. in Psychology at the University of Wyoming and her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, with depth in Cognitive Neuroscience and a minor in Quantitative Psychology, at the University of Kansas. She completed an NIH sponsored two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign before coming to UMass Dartmouth in 2012. Her research focuses on the neuroscience of emotion-cognition interactions and, most recently, how practice with mindfulness can modify those interactions. 

UMass Dartmouth's College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Nursing have organized today's lecture as the second event in a new series, the ARNIE (Art. Research. Nexus. Innovation. Education.) Talks. 

UMass Dartmouth distinguishes itself as a vibrant, public research university dedicated to engaged learning and innovative research resulting in personal and lifelong student success. The University serves as an intellectual catalyst for economic, social, and cultural transformation on a global, national, and regional scale.