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Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness

Meditation practice is believed to foster states of mindful awareness and mental quiescence in everyday life. If so, then the cultivation of these qualities with training ought to leave its imprint on the activity of intrinsic functional brain networks. In an intensive longitudinal study, we investi...

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Autores principales: Zanesco, Anthony P., Skwara, Alea C., King, Brandon G., Powers, Chivon, Wineberg, Kezia, Saron, Clifford D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8193519/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33783922
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25430
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author Zanesco, Anthony P.
Skwara, Alea C.
King, Brandon G.
Powers, Chivon
Wineberg, Kezia
Saron, Clifford D.
author_facet Zanesco, Anthony P.
Skwara, Alea C.
King, Brandon G.
Powers, Chivon
Wineberg, Kezia
Saron, Clifford D.
author_sort Zanesco, Anthony P.
collection PubMed
description Meditation practice is believed to foster states of mindful awareness and mental quiescence in everyday life. If so, then the cultivation of these qualities with training ought to leave its imprint on the activity of intrinsic functional brain networks. In an intensive longitudinal study, we investigated associations between meditation practitioners' experiences of felt mindful awareness and changes in the spontaneous electrophysiological dynamics of functional brain networks. Experienced meditators were randomly assigned to complete 3 months of full‐time training in focused‐attention meditation (during an initial intervention) or to serve as waiting‐list controls and receive training second (during a later intervention). We collected broadband electroencephalogram (EEG) during rest at the beginning, middle, and end of the two training periods. Using a data‐driven approach, we segmented the EEG into a time series of transient microstate intervals based on clustering of topographic voltage patterns. Participants also provided daily reports of felt mindful awareness and mental quiescence, and reported daily on four experiential qualities of their meditation practice during training. We found that meditation training led to increases in mindful qualities of awareness, which corroborate contemplative accounts of deepening mental calm and attentional focus. We also observed reductions in the strength and duration of EEG microstates across both interventions. Importantly, changes in the dynamic sequencing of microstates were associated with daily increases in felt attentiveness and serenity during training. Our results connect shifts in subjective qualities of meditative experience with the large‐scale dynamics of whole brain functional EEG networks at rest.
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spelling pubmed-81935192021-06-15 Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness Zanesco, Anthony P. Skwara, Alea C. King, Brandon G. Powers, Chivon Wineberg, Kezia Saron, Clifford D. Hum Brain Mapp Research Articles Meditation practice is believed to foster states of mindful awareness and mental quiescence in everyday life. If so, then the cultivation of these qualities with training ought to leave its imprint on the activity of intrinsic functional brain networks. In an intensive longitudinal study, we investigated associations between meditation practitioners' experiences of felt mindful awareness and changes in the spontaneous electrophysiological dynamics of functional brain networks. Experienced meditators were randomly assigned to complete 3 months of full‐time training in focused‐attention meditation (during an initial intervention) or to serve as waiting‐list controls and receive training second (during a later intervention). We collected broadband electroencephalogram (EEG) during rest at the beginning, middle, and end of the two training periods. Using a data‐driven approach, we segmented the EEG into a time series of transient microstate intervals based on clustering of topographic voltage patterns. Participants also provided daily reports of felt mindful awareness and mental quiescence, and reported daily on four experiential qualities of their meditation practice during training. We found that meditation training led to increases in mindful qualities of awareness, which corroborate contemplative accounts of deepening mental calm and attentional focus. We also observed reductions in the strength and duration of EEG microstates across both interventions. Importantly, changes in the dynamic sequencing of microstates were associated with daily increases in felt attentiveness and serenity during training. Our results connect shifts in subjective qualities of meditative experience with the large‐scale dynamics of whole brain functional EEG networks at rest. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2021-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8193519/ /pubmed/33783922 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25430 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Zanesco, Anthony P.
Skwara, Alea C.
King, Brandon G.
Powers, Chivon
Wineberg, Kezia
Saron, Clifford D.
Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness
title Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness
title_full Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness
title_fullStr Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness
title_full_unstemmed Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness
title_short Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness
title_sort meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8193519/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33783922
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25430
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