The EEG spectral fingerprints of meditation and mind wandering differ between experienced meditators and novices

Rodriguez-Larios, Julio; Bracho Montes de Oca, Eduardo A.; Alaerts, Kaat · 2021 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1101/2021.07.06.451305

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Summary

This study investigates whether the neural correlates of meditation and mind wandering differ between experienced meditators and novices, addressing inconsistencies in prior literature regarding EEG signatures of these states. Previous research has yielded conflicting results on alpha oscillations during meditation, potentially due to the confounding effects of mind wandering and the failure to separate oscillatory activity from non-oscillatory 1/f trends. The authors hypothesized that meditation training alters both the subjective experience and the underlying spectral fingerprints of brain activity, specifically affecting individual alpha frequency (IAF), individual alpha power (IAP), and the 1/f slope. The researchers recorded electroencephalography (EEG) from 58 participants: 29 experienced meditators (mean experience >3 years) and 29 novices. Participants underwent three conditions: eyes-closed rest, uninterrupted breath-focus meditation, and breath-focus meditation with probe-caught experience sampling. During the sampling condition, participants reported their attentional state (breath focus, mind wandering, or other distraction) and drowsiness levels at random intervals. EEG analysis utilized Morlet wavelet transforms to estimate raw power, 1/f slope, IAP, and IAF without a priori frequency band definitions, allowing for the disentanglement of oscillatory and non-oscillatory components. Statistical significance was assessed using cluster-based permutation tests. Behavioral data revealed that meditators reported significantly higher proportions of breath focus and lower proportions of mind wandering compared to controls. EEG results showed distinct group-specific spectral modulations. Relative to rest, meditators exhibited a significant decrease in alpha/beta power, reduced IAF in frontal regions, reduced IAP in parietal regions, and a steeper 1/f slope during meditation. Controls showed no such decreases; instead, they displayed a trend-level increase in IAF. When comparing mind wandering to breath focus periods within meditation, controls showed a significant increase in alpha/beta power and frontal IAP during mind wandering. In contrast, meditators showed no significant changes in IAP or IAF during mind wandering, though they exhibited a trend-level decrease in theta power and a flattening of the 1/f slope. These findings demonstrate that meditation training fundamentally alters the EEG spectral fingerprints associated with meditative states and mind wandering. The results suggest that the commonly reported alpha increases during meditation may reflect mind wandering in novices rather than the meditative state itself. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of analyzing non-oscillatory 1/f trends alongside oscillatory activity, as changes in the 1/f slope were significant in meditators but not controls. This work clarifies previous contradictions by showing that experienced meditators maintain distinct neural profiles characterized by reduced alpha activity and altered excitation-inhibition balance during focused attention, whereas novices exhibit neural signatures during meditation that resemble those of mind wandering.

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• neuro workload indices