Spontaneous eye movements during focused-attention mindfulness meditation.

Alessio Matiz,Franco Fabbro,Riccardo Budai,Massimo Bergamasco,Cristiano Crescentini,Anastasia Fabbro,Joseph Najbauer

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0210862

Abstract

Oculometric measures have been proven to be useful markers of mind-wandering during visual tasks such as reading. However, little is known about ocular activity during mindfulness meditation, a mental practice naturally involving mind-wandering episodes. In order to explore this issue, we extracted closed-eyes ocular movement measurements via a covert technique (EEG recordings) from expert meditators during two repetitions of a 7-minute mindfulness meditation session, focusing on the breath, and two repetitions of a 7-minute instructed mind-wandering task. Power spectral density was estimated on both the vertical and horizontal components of eye movements. The results show a significantly smaller average amplitude of eye movements in the delta band (1–4 Hz) during mindfulness meditation than instructed mind-wandering. Moreover, participants’ meditation expertise correlated significantly with this average amplitude during both tasks, with more experienced meditators generally moving their eyes less than less experienced meditators. These findings suggest the potential use of this measure to detect mind-wandering episodes during mindfulness meditation and to assess meditation performance.

Highlights

Mindfulness meditation practitioners are skilled to intentionally sustain their focus on present-moment experiences with a detached attitude toward their mental contents
Post-hoc tests showed that the difference between focused attention breath mindfulness meditation (FAM) and instructed mind-wandering” (IMW) held in delta (p < .001), theta (p < .001) and gamma (p < .05) bands, with the greatest difference in terms of average power and probability in the delta band (Fig 4, left panel)
Looking at the relationship between the meditation expertise index and the average power in the delta band of ocular activity during FAM and IMW tasks (Fig 5), we found that meditation expertise was significantly negatively correlated with vertical eye movements (VEM) activity during both tasks

Summary

Introduction

Mindfulness meditation practitioners are skilled to intentionally sustain their focus on present-moment experiences (thoughts, emotions, feelings) with a detached attitude toward their mental contents. After an indefinite period of time, their minds usually drift away from the meditation object, giving rise to spontaneous thought Sometime during this mental state, known as mind-wandering, which extends for an indefinite period of time, practitioners become aware that they are not focused on the meditation object (e.g., breath) and try to shift their attention back to it. This cyclic process [1,2], between the two poles of being effectively engaged in a task and being off-task, appears to be common in all human activities [3].

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Conclusion