Abstract
Meditation is a form of mental training that has therapeutic potential and cognitive benefits that may enhance attention, mental well-being, and neuroplasticity. However, the learning process is not easy because meditators do not receive immediate feedback that lets them know if they are correctly doing the activity. EEG Neurofeedback training is one of the techniques to train brain self-regulation and it has the potential to increase the effectiveness of meditation. However, the benefits greatly differ between subjects with a high percentage of inefficacy. In this work, an EEG Neurofeedback Training System is proposed based on user-centered design methodology to provide real-time performance feedback to meditators to increase levels of attention and relaxation through a visual, sound and smell stimuli interface. Levels of attention and relaxation of nine participants were measured with a mobile Neurosky EEG headset biosensor during meditation practice to analyze the incidence of each type of stimuli during activity. Visual stimuli feedback was able to increase attention levels of 78% of the participants by 11.8% compared to a meditation session without any stimuli. The sound stimuli feedback was able to increase the relaxation levels of 44.4% of the participants by 16% compared to a session without any stimuli. These results might bring new insights for the design of a neurofeedback system interface for meditation. Further research on neurofeedback training interfaces for meditators is suggested to validate these results with more participants.
Highlights
Over the last thirty years, science has been proving numerous physiological and psychological benefits of the meditation practice [1-3]
These results show that the visual stimuli feedback was able to increase the average attention levels of 78% of the participants by 11.8% compared to a meditation session without any feedback
At the end of the test, most participants felt cheerful-happy and relaxed-carefree. This resonates with the biometric measurements taken at the beginning and at the end of the test in which most participants show a decrease in both, pulse variability and arterial pressure, this behavior is directly related to low anxiety and high wellbeing. These results show that different stimuli feedback can improve the meditation performance of the practitioners by increasing attention and relaxation levels leading to a desired mindful state
Summary
Over the last thirty years, science has been proving numerous physiological and psychological benefits of the meditation practice [1-3]. Some research has shown the relation between mental disposition and pain experience [4], the effects of anxiety on the immune system [5], the reduction of cardiovascular risk and healthy aging [6] and how meditation can induce plastic changes in the brain, creating new circuits and new neurons [7]. To develop these studies, researchers have been using neuroimaging technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). An EEG Neurofeedback Training System (EEG-NFTS) is proposed, based on user-centered design methodology to provide real-time performance feedback to meditators to increase attention and relaxation levels through a visual, sound and smell stimuli interface. This article is divided as follows: Section 2 presents a description of the methodology, Section 3 presents the design of the EEG Neurofeedback Training System, Section 4 shows the experimental data results and analysis after testing the EEG Neurofeedback Training System, and Section 5 presents the conclusions of the work
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