Abstract
Mindfulness has been shown to improve attentional performance, which is known to decline in aging. Long-latency electroencephalographic (EEG) event-related potential (ERP) changes have been reported immediately after mindfulness training, however the enduring stability of these effects is unknown. Furthermore, the ability of mindfulness to impact earlier stages of information processing is unclear. We examined neural activation using high density EEG in older adults engaged in mindfulness training to examine the long-term stability of training effects. After 6 months of training, mindfulness practitioners displayed enhanced neural activation during sensory encoding and perceptual processing of a visual cue. Enhanced perceptual processing of a visual cue was associated with increased neural activation during post-perceptual processing of a subsequent target. Similar changes were not observed in a control group engaged in computer-based attention training over the same period. Neural changes following mindfulness training were accompanied by behavioural improvements in attentional performance. Our results are suggestive of increased efficiency of the neural pathways subserving bottom-up visual processing together with an enhanced ability to mobilise top-down attentional processes during perceptual and post-perceptual processing following mindfulness training. These results indicate that mindfulness may enhance neural processes known to deteriorate in normal aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
Highlights
Mindfulness has been shown to improve attentional performance, which is known to decline in aging
Within the cognitive training (CT) group, no significant correlation was found between the cue N1–P2 effect and RT (r(75) = 0.10, p = 0.38, CI [− 0.13, 0.32]). These results indicate that only the cue N1 and target P3 neural responses observed in the mindfulness training (MT) group were significantly associated with reaction time
We examined attentional and neural changes in older adults after 6 months of mindfulness training to determine the ability of mindfulness to enhance processes known to decline in aging
Summary
Mindfulness has been shown to improve attentional performance, which is known to decline in aging. Two cross-sectional studies comparing long-term practitioners with matched controls report neural changes in short-latency P1 and N1 ERP components in addition to N2-P3 changes, suggesting that with prolonged practice mindfulness may exert up-stream effects on earlier stages of information processing[5,15] This ability to deploy greater attentional capacity at earlier stages of information processing is predicted by contemporary cognitive models of mindfulness which assert that increased attentional capacity may be allocated at earlier and earlier stages of information processing as proficiency in this style of attention training grows[2]. Mindfulness preferentially trains executive attentional control processes such as inhibitory control to develop sustained attention to present-moment experience[2], leading to the enhanced attentional and neurophysiological changes discussed above While this ability to improve attentional processes susceptible to aging suggests a potential role for mindfulness in treating age-related and neurodegenerative cognitive declines, few studies have investigated the efficacy of mindfulness in older adults
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