Focused attention meditation training modifies neural activity and attention: longitudinal EEG data in non-meditators

Abstract

Focused attention meditation (FAM) is a basic meditation practice that cultivates attentional control and monitoring skills. Cross-sectional studies have highlighted high cognitive performance and discriminative neural activity in experienced meditators. However, a direct relationship between neural activity changes and improvement of attention caused by meditation training remains to be elucidated. To investigate this, we conducted a longitudinal study, which evaluated the results of electroencephalography (EEG) during three-stimulus oddball task, resting state and FAM before and after 8 weeks of FAM training in non-meditators. The FAM training group (n = 17) showed significantly higher P3 amplitude during the oddball task and shorter reaction time (RT) for target stimuli compared to that of the control group (n = 20). Furthermore, a significant negative correlation between F4-Oz theta band phase synchrony index (PSI) during FAM and P3 amplitude during the oddball task and a significant positive correlation between F4-Pz theta band PSI during FAM and P3 amplitude during the oddball task were observed. In contrast, these correlations were not observed in the control group. These findings provide direct evidence of the effectiveness of FAM training and contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the effects of meditation on brain activity and cognitive performance.

Keywords: EEG; attention; meditation; phase synchrony; training.

Fig. 1

Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) results during three-stimulus oddball task. (A) indicates hit rate in each condition. (B) indicates reaction time to target stimuli in each condition. (C) indicates ERP waveform at Pz at the time that participants responded to target stimuli. (D) indicates P3 amplitude at Pz at the time that participants responded to target stimuli. pre_T1_M, pre-training, T1 condition, meditation group; pre_T1_C, pre-training, T1 condition, control group; pre_T2_M, pre-training, T2 condition, meditation group; pre_T2_C, pre-training, T2 condition, control group; post_T1_M, post-training, T1 condition, meditation group; post_T1_C, post-training, T1 condition, control group; post_T2_M, post-training, T2 condition, meditation group and post_T2_C, post-training, T2 condition, control group. ^*P < 0.05; ^**P < 0.01. Error bars indicate standard error.

Fig. 2

Fast Fourier transform (FFT) results. The power spectrum at Fz in T1 (A) and T2 (B) condition is shown. The topographical map in theta band in T2 condition (C) shows an increase of frontal theta band power spectrum in the post-training meditation group, but the result was not statistically significant. Heatmap indicates log-transformed power spectrum.

Fig. 3

The results of correlation analysis between P3 amplitude at the time of responding to target stimuli and theta band phase synchrony index (PSI) during resting state or focused attention meditation (FAM) in post-training T2 condition. (A) indicates significant negative correlation between P3 amplitude and F4-Oz theta band PSI during FAM. (B) indicates significant positive correlation between P3 amplitude and F4-Pz theta band PSI during FAM. (C) indicates the correlation between P3 amplitude and F4-Oz theta band PSI during resting state. (D) indicates the correlation between P3 amplitude and F4-Pz theta band PSI during resting state. Black and white dots indicate meditation and control groups, respectively.