Meditating on mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness meditation has been clinically proven to benefit patients with stress and emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression and chronic pain. However, the neurobiological mechanisms involved in this process are still poorly understood.

Under the aegis of the ATTENTION REGULATION (Regulatory effects of mindfulness meditation on attention and epilepsy: Behavioral, clinical, and neuronal correlates) project, researchers assessed the impact of meditation on cognitive control. Techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG), electrocardiogram and salivary cortisol were used for the studies.

Researchers recorded EEG during wakefulness and sleep as well as in an auditory Go/No-Go task to measure response inhibition and error awareness. For comparison with long-term meditator (LTM) participants, meditation naïve participants (MNPs) were included in the study. Data analysis revealed measurable changes in spontaneous brain activity in LTMs. Importantly, results suggest that EEG gamma activity during sleep could represent a sensitive measure of the long-lasting, plastic effects of meditative training on brain function.

Spontaneous eye blink rates (sEBRs) are a non-invasive peripheral measure of central dopamine activity. Changes in sEBR have been linked to cognitive functions such as mind wandering, cognitive flexibility and attention – functions that are also affected by meditation. Measurement of sEBRs showed that LTMs blinked less frequently and had a different eye-blink pattern than MNPs. This suggests that meditation practice induces stable changes in baseline striatal dopaminergic functioning.

Overall, study outcomes helped identify novel EEG and psychophysics markers of meditation practices. Results also demonstrated that lifelong meditation induces neuroplastic changes in brain circuits, as seen in EEG patterns of waking and non-rapid eye movement sleep.

ATTENTION REGULATION activities were published in highly regarded scientific magazines in English and in French as well as in high-impact journals. The tools and markers could be used to assess the efficacy of mindfulness-based clinical interventions.