Abstract
ObjectiveThe present study aimed at comparing frontal beta power between long-term (LTM) and first-time meditators (FTM), before, during and after a meditation session. We hypothesized that LTM would present lower beta power than FTM due to lower effort of attention and awareness.MethodsTwenty one participants were recruited, eleven of whom were long-term meditators. The subjects were asked to rest for 4 minutes before and after open monitoring (OM) meditation (40 minutes).ResultsThe two-way ANOVA revealed an interaction between the group and moment factors for the Fp1 (p<0.01), F7 (p = 0.01), F3 (p<0.01), Fz (p<0.01), F4 (p<0.01), F8 (p<0.01) electrodes.ConclusionWe found low power frontal beta activity for LTM during the task and this may be associated with the fact that OM is related to bottom-up pathways that are not present in FTM.SignificanceWe hypothesized that the frontal beta power pattern may be a biomarker for LTM. It may also be related to improving an attentive state and to the efficiency of cognitive functions, as well as to the long-term experience with meditation (i.e., life-time experience and frequency of practice).
Highlights
Many studies seek to understand the neurophysiology of sustained attention [1,2,3,4,5]
The two-way ANOVA revealed an interaction between the group and moment factors for the Fp1 (p
We found low power frontal beta activity for LTM during the task and this may be associated with the fact that Open Monitoring (OM) is related to bottom-up pathways that are not present in first-time meditators (FTM)
Summary
Many studies seek to understand the neurophysiology of sustained attention [1,2,3,4,5]. In conditions when more external stimuli than can be fully processed activate the central nervous system (CNS), attentional impairments result, such as stress, distraction, forgetfulness, anxiety, memory loss, and fatigue [6,7,8]. This impairment is discussed in studies of working memory, default mode network, and attentional disorder studies. Recent studies have demonstrated the role of meditation as an important tool for attention management [9,10,11] In this context, mindfulness meditation is one important method that increases attention performance. Further studies showed a different pattern of frontal beta power when compared to another meditation practice [19,20]
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