Abstract
BackgroundAttribution of agency involves the ability to distinguish our own actions and their sensory consequences which are self-generated from those generated by external agents. There are several pathological cases in which motor awareness is dramatically impaired. On the other hand, awareness-enhancement practices like tai-chi and yoga are shown to improve perceptual-motor awareness. Meditation is known to have positive impacts on perception, attention and consciousness itself, but it is still unclear how meditation changes sensorimotor integration processes and awareness of action. The aim of this study was to investigate how visuomotor performance and self-agency is modulated by mindfulness meditation. This was done by studying meditators’ performance during a conflicting reaching task, where the congruency between actions and their consequences is gradually altered. This task was presented to novices in meditation before and after an intensive 8 weeks mindfulness meditation training (MBSR). The data of this sample was compared to a group of long-term meditators and a group of healthy non-meditators.ResultsMindfulness resulted in a significant improvement in motor control during perceptual-motor conflict in both groups. Novices in mindfulness demonstrated a strongly increased sensitivity to detect external perturbation after the MBSR intervention. Both mindfulness groups demonstrated a speed/accuracy trade-off in comparison to their respective controls. This resulted in slower and more accurate movements.ConclusionsOur results suggest that mindfulness meditation practice is associated with slower body movements which in turn may lead to an increase in monitoring of body states and optimized re-adjustment of movement trajectory, and consequently to better motor performance. This extended conscious monitoring of perceptual and motor cues may explain how, while dealing with perceptual-motor conflict, improvement in motor control goes beyond the mere increase of movement time. The reduction of detection threshold in the MBSR group is also likely due to the enhanced monitoring of these processes. Our findings confirmed our assumptions about the positive effect of mindfulness on perceptual-motor integration processes.
Highlights
Attribution of agency involves the ability to distinguish our own actions and their sensory consequences which are self-generated from those generated by external agents
Our results suggest that mindfulness meditation practice is associated with slower body movements, better motor performance, and enhanced awareness of perceptualmotor conflict
Self-attribution of mindfulness The results of the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory measuring self-attribution of mindfulness consistently showed that practicing mindfulness meditation is associated with a higher level of self-attribution of mindfulness
Summary
Attribution of agency involves the ability to distinguish our own actions and their sensory consequences which are self-generated from those generated by external agents. The aim of this study was to investigate how visuomotor performance and self-agency is modulated by mindfulness meditation This was done by studying meditators’ performance during a conflicting reaching task, where the congruency between actions and their consequences is gradually altered. This task was presented to novices in meditation before and after an intensive 8 weeks mindfulness meditation training (MBSR). High-precision motor control is still possible, relying on internal representations of the actual, desired, and predicted states of our body and the environment [4] Certain components of these internal representations may become available to awareness when the discrepancy between the predicted and the actual sensory consequences of an action is large [5,6]. The exact threshold above which this perceptual-motor conflict becomes available to awareness is currently a focus of intensive research (for reviews see [4,7,8])
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