Psychophysiology of Meditation: Dusana Dorjee
Psychophysiology of Meditation: Dusana Dorjee
Psychophysiology of Meditation: Dusana Dorjee
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Psychophysiology of Meditation
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Psychophysiology of Meditation
Dusana Dorjee
Abstract
physiology resulting from, or associated with, meditation. This chapter considers the
potentials (ERPs), heart-rate variability (HRV) and its derivative indexes, and galvanic skin
response (GSR). The emerging mosaic of findings suggests an inconclusive mixed pattern
meditation is very limited, not allowing for conclusive answers. Results across studies on
modulations in these markers with different meditation types. Finally, a very small number of
parasympathetic activity (however, this pattern needs to be interpreted with caution due to
providing novel insights into the effects and mechanisms of meditation. More rigorous
studies with long-term follow up, comprehensive systemic assessments and explorations of
related brain potentials (ERP); heart-rate variability (HRV); galvanic skin response (GSR)
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
Introduction
range of research methods investigating the relationship between mental processing and
brain functioning, sweat response, hormonal stress response, heart rate and related
markers, facial muscle activity etc. The psychophysiological brain measures used in this field
asymmetry and event-related brain potentials (ERPs). More recent brain imaging methods
could also be considered under the label of psychophysiology, but in this chapter, we will
indexes including ERPs, heart-rate variability measures and galvanic skin response (see
Chapter by Fox & Cahn in this volume for magnetic resonance imaging and related EEG
Before we consider the specifics of the different psychophysiological markers and their
associations with, or modulations by, meditation, it might be helpful to consider a few general
methodological points. The first one relates to the participant samples in current
been adults with different levels of meditation proficiency compared to meditation novices.
Accordingly, very few studies using psychophysiological methods involved children and
adolescents (e.g., Sanger et al., 2018) or older adults (e.g., Malinowski et al., 2017).
Similarly, most participants in the studies were healthy and there is very little research on the
effects of meditation in clinical samples (for an exception see Bostanov et al., 2012).
adults but will also consider initial research evidence from research with children,
adolescents, older adults and clinical samples, where relevant, to encourage further
research.
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
mindfulness and psychophysiological indexes (e.g., Brown et al., 2013) and other (cross-
and non-meditators at one point in time (e.g., Teper et al., 2012). Dispositional studies
typically include participants without prior training in meditation and rely on natural variation
a control group (e.g., Eddy et al., 2015) or on pre-post effects resulting from more extensive
meditation training over days or weeks compared to a control group (e.g., Davidson et al.,
2003). In this chapter we will primarily focus on the longitudinal ‘several-session’ studies
since these provide strongest evidence of the causal impact meditation can have on
psychophysiological changes.
cognitive effects of meditation, has so far mostly focused on associations and changes in
attention- and emotion-related indexes. These two areas have been repeatedly highlighted
Lutz et al., 2008; Tang et al., 2015). However, some recent theoretical models outlined more
2016). In what follows we will apply a proposal by Dorjee (2016; 2017) considering changes
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
in the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity (MSRC) of the mind and modes of existential
awareness (MEA) as the two core mechanisms modulated by meditation. The MSRC
involves self-reflective metacognition and attention control, emotion regulation and relevant
the ability to notice and monitor processes of the mind and use this information in guiding
attention control which in turn enables us to decide where we place attention and for how
long. Flexible and adaptive self-reflective metacognition and attention control facilitate
effective management of emotions, such as noticing early when emotions arise and
increasing or decreasing their intensity in line with our goals. Language processes interact
and get modified by the self-reflective metacognition, attention control and emotion
regulation processes – for example, one can notice negative rumination arising and shift
attention to some neutral activity or content, then with practice activation of negative
meanings decreases. The MEA refer to phenomenological experiential shifts in the construal
of self and reality gradually progressing from immersion in mental phenomena through
decentering from them (perceiving them more as fleeting phenomena rather than facts) and
towards more ‘de-constructed’ phenomenological sense of self and reality (states sometimes
proposes direct reciprocal links between changes in the MSRC and the MEA with further
methods (such as ERPs) are particularly suitable for assessing changes in the MSRC and
MEA with meditation, others (e.g., heart-rate variability measures) can uniquely enhance our
understanding of the links between MSRC/MEA and the autonomic nervous system.
The EEG signal is recorded from the surface of the scalp and measures cumulative electrical
activity (on the scale of microvolts) of the brain. The electrical signal relates to
neurotransmitter activity at the level of neuronal synapses. The EEG signal can be used to
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
derive a variety of psychophysiological markers indexing brain activity. One of the simplest
and historically oldest of these markers is the division of brain activity based on the
frequency of the EEG signal into delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma frequency bands.
Prefrontal alpha asymmetry is a derivative index of the raw frequency band signal in the
of the signal) alpha band signal over the left brain hemisphere to the same alpha band
measure over the right hemisphere with higher values suggesting increased left-sided
The prefrontal alpha asymmetry is typically recorded during a several-minute long alternating
sequence of resting with eyes open and closed. It has been used as an index of approach-
oriented behaviour or positive emotions linked to higher left-sided prefrontal alpha activity vs.
prefrontal alpha activity. A relatively extensive body of research suggests that increased
is associated with depression (Stewart et al., 2014) and prefrontal alpha asymmetry has
2015).
Within the framework of mechanisms underlying contemplative practice (Dorjee, 2016) the
the processes of emotion regulation inevitably also entail the contribution of metacognitive
attention control involving noticing and monitoring of mental processes and associated shifts
frequency and associated intensity of emotions. It is also possible that prefrontal alpha
asymmetry could be sensitive to changes in MEA, particularly since decentering - the ability
to ‘step back’ and disidentify with own thoughts and emotions - has been proposed as the
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
In meditation research, a prefrontal alpha asymmetry study by Davidson et al. (2003) that
meditation-based course. The study examined whether mindfulness training could result in a
shift towards increased left-sided prefrontal activity associated with positive emotions and
approach-oriented behaviour (tendency to seek social contact rather than withdraw from
others). This randomized controlled study with healthy adults in a workplace context had a
very good sample size for standards in psychophysiological research and included
assessments before the MBSR course, after its completion and also a follow-up assessment
The predicted significant shift towards left anterior activity in the MBSR group in comparison
to the control group was present at the post-test and at the follow-up whilst the groups didn’t
differ at the pre-test (Davidson et al., 2003).In addition, the study reported significant
increases in antibodies in response to a flu vaccine in the MBSR group and the antibody
increase was positively related to the shift towards left-sided anterior activity indexed by the
Other studies on mindfulness-based interventions tried to replicate and extend the findings
of Davidson et al. (2003) using prefrontal alpha asymmetry as the main measure. To date
resting prefrontal alpha asymmetry was a randomised-controlled trial with healthy older
adults (Moynihan et al. 2013). The effects of an 8-week MBSR course in comparison to
treatment as usual were assessed from before to after the course and at 24 weeks follow-up.
Basic statistical tests showed only marginal effects from baseline to post-test but between
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
left-sided anterior activity in the control group. There were no significant differences in
prefrontal alpha asymmetry between the two groups at follow-up. Given the strong design of
this study, the findings cast doubts on the modifiability of prefrontal alpha asymmetry by
The evidence of meditation effects in clinical populations assessed using the prefrontal alpha
asymmetry is also mixed. One small-scale study investigated changes in prefrontal alpha
asymmetry with participants that had a previous history of suicidal depression (Barnhofer et
therapy (MBCT) or a treatment as usual control group, and assessed before and after the 8
weeks. The results revealed no change in the MBCT group while the control group showed
larger scale randomized controlled study with recurrently depressed patients in remission,
where one group underwent MBCT training and was compared to a wait-list control group
(Keune et al., 2011). While the MBCT group reported significant reductions in residual
depressive symptoms and rumination, both groups showed shifts towards right-sided
Some studies suggested that meditation can produce more stable short-term modulations of
prefrontal alpha asymmetry, rather than lasting longer-term trait changes in this index. For
example, one study evaluated the effects of mindfulness in recurrently depressed female
participants following negative mood induction during and after brief meditation sessions, in
sentences encouraging them to analyse their feelings (Keune et al. 2013). The findings
showed significant shifts towards left-sided prefrontal activation during meditation only,
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
Cumulatively the findings across the studies raise questions about the sensitivity and
long-term meditation training would be needed to produce lasting ‘trait’ shifts in this
effects seems important for providing insights into the questions about long-term impact of
Event-related potentials (ERPs) are produced by averaging EEG signal arising in response
to particular stimuli such as emotional images or sounds (Luck, 2012). ERP components are
typically characterized by the polarity of their peak (based on positive or negative voltage),
timing of the peak (latency) and its scalp distribution (e.g., frontal, parietal, central etc.). The
main advantage of ERPs is their functional specificity; some event-related potentials for
example, primarily index the ability to inhibit processing of irrelevant stimuli (the N2 ERP
component) and other emotion regulation as the ability to modify an emotion response (the
LPP component) . While many questions about functional specificity of ERP components
remain, several decades of basic research underpin our current understanding of ERPs
The majority of ERP research on meditation has, thus far, focused on investigating changes
in attention with meditation training. For example, one study examined the impact of
intensive meditation training in a retreat setting on the P300 ERP component as an index of
attention efficiency (Slagter et al. 2007). The study particularly focused on a subtype of the
P300 called the P3b which has parietal distribution and signals detection of a target stimulus.
Participants in the study were meditators and their P3b responses were compared to
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
matched controls; both groups were tested before and after 3 months during which time the
attention to the present moment, as well as cultivating feelings of loving kindness and
compassion. The experimental task involved the attention blink paradigm, in which a stream
of letters and numbers is presented to participants in a fast succession, and participants are
asked to identify certain types of visual stimuli. The term ‘attention blink’ refers to the
difficulty in identifying a visual stimulus (such as a number) appearing within 500 ms after
correct detection of another visual stimulus (such as a letter). The researchers in the current
study wanted to examine whether meditation training could result in a reduction of the
The findings revealed that, after the retreat, the meditators but not the control group showed
a better detection of the stimuli appearing within the brief ‘attention blink’ interval.
Importantly, they also found a reduction in the P3 component peaks (their amplitude) to the
first stimuli preceding the attention blink intervals. This suggested that, after the retreat,
meditators used less attention resources to correctly detect the first stimulus; this allowed for
appearing within the attention blink interval. However, the results also opened the question
about the amount of meditation training needed for such modulations in the P3b to arise,
given that the meditation training was intensive - involving 10-12 hours of meditation per day
for 3 months.
This question was partially answered in a randomized controlled study, which assessed the
effects of a less intensive meditation training, which consisted of an initial 2-hour introductory
session (breath focus with an accepting attitude), followed by regular practice of 10 minutes
per day during 16 weeks (Moore et al. 2012). The experimental task used was the Stroop
these were words where the meaning of a word contrasted with the colour of the ink in which
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
the word was written (e.g., the word red written in blue ink). The participants’ task was to
name the colour of the ink and they had to suppress the automatic reading of the word for
the incongruous stimuli. The ERP responses were recorded to both congruous (such as the
word red written in red ink) and incongruous stimuli. The focus of the ERP investigations in
the study was again on the P300 component as a marker of attentional efficiency - the use of
minimum cognitive resources needed to perform correctly on the task. The authors found
changes were observed 8 weeks into the training. These findings indicate that even shorter
meditation training may result in significant modulations of ERP markers that are sensitive to
attention efficiency.
While the findings in these two studies are likely to reflect changes in attention efficiency
related to attention control, other studies examined whether meditation training could impact
meditators’ distractibility. Cahn & Polich (2009) presented long-term meditators in the
Goenka Vipassna tradition with a simple auditory oddball paradigm. The task consisted of
frequent sounds (80% of stimuli), distractor white noise sounds (10% of stimuli) and oddball
sounds (10%) – infrequent higher pitch sounds - during meditation and during a control
thinking state. The meditation state involved focusing on sensations in the body, whereas
the control thinking state consisted of thinking about emotionally neutral events. The P3a, an
ERP component indexing automatic responding to infrequent stimuli, was derived from EEG
responses to the sounds. As expected, P3a amplitudes were reduced to the distractor
sounds in the meditative state in comparison to the control thinking state suggesting less
automatic reactivity to the distractors during meditation. Interestingly, this effect was only
found for meditators not reporting drowsiness during the meditation state. In addition,
meditators with more time spent in daily meditation showed greater reductions in the P3a to
distractors, providing stronger support for the effect being related to meditation practice.
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
There are also studies with adolescents and older adults which reported changes in ERP
study with adolescents who participated in an 8-week mindfulness training delivered by their
(Sanger & Dorjee, 2016). Furthermore, a study with older adults suggested improvements in
attention based on a significant shift in an ERP component indexing the ability to inhibit
irrelevant stimuli (more negative N2) after 8-weeks of regular brief (10 mins, 5 times per
week) mindfulness training (Malinowski et al., 2017). Overall, the studies reviewed are
indicative of the broader pattern of evidence on meditation effects assessed using ERPs,
Attention control strongly contributes to our ability of managing emotions (Ochsner & Gross,
2005). Given the evidence suggesting improvements in attention control (including attention
efficiency and inhibition) and the fact that various meditation practices often invite meditators
that meditation training would result in emotion regulation improvements (Teper & Inzlicht,
2013). An ERP marker sensitive to different types of emotion regulation is the late positive
potential (LPP) (Hajcak et al., 2010). Previous studies showed that more adaptive forms of
about an emotional experience, are associated with less positive LPP mean amplitudes
(Hajcak & Nieuwenhuis, 2006). Thus it can be predicted that meditation would improve
emotion regulation skills, and accordingly, some ERP studies assessed if meditators would
One study compared the LPP responses to negative, neutral and positive stimuli during
passive viewing between a group of Buddhist meditators and a matched control group
(Sobolewski et al. 2011). The findings revealed significantly reduced LPP mean amplitudes
in meditators compared to controls for the negative pictures only - possibly suggesting less
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
differences for the positive stimuli in this study may be explained by the fact that these
stimuli had lower arousal (emotional intensity) ratings than the negative stimuli. Indeed, a
dispositional mindfulness study found that participants with higher trait mindfulness,
compared to those with lower trait mindfulness, showed reduced LPP amplitudes to both
highly arousing negative stimuli and highly arousing positive stimuli (Brown et al. ,2012).
This suggests that higher trait mindfulness may be linked to more effective management of
Another cross-sectional ERP study comparing meditators and non-meditators found that
meditators showed less emotional reactivity when they noticed making an error (Teper et al.,
2012). In a Stroop task the study measured an ERP component called the error-related
negativity; this measures how one monitors one’s performance in response to an error. The
meditators made less errors than controls and showed more negative ERN on error trials;
this likely reflects their better metacognitive monitoring skills. Importantly, the more negative
experience) in meditators, who also showed significantly higher acceptance scores when
emotion regulation and attention control in meditators with enhanced attention skills likely
enabling better emotion regulation resulting in better performance and in turn attention
In addition to the LPP and ERN components, the P300 can also index emotion processing.
(Sanger et al. 2018). The emotional oddball task involved happy and sad face target
oddballs (10% of stimuli each) embedded in a stream of neutral faces. The results indicated
no changes in P300 amplitudes across the different stimuli types in the training group,
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
whereas the control group showed reductions in the P300. This pattern of findings was
have been associated with depression in previous studies (e.g., Cavanagh & Geisler, 2006),
the finding of maintained P300 might be indicative of possible protective effects of meditation
on depression vulnerability.
The effects of meditation on attention control and emotion regulation potentially have an
indirect effect on wellbeing through the meditator’s ability to manage negative rumination —
higher negative rumination has been associated with development and maintenance of
anxiety and depression (Watkins 2008)). Yet ERP evidence on possible reductions of
negative rumination due to meditation is virtually absent. Only one study has so far
investigated possible links between meditation and language processing (Dorjee et al.,
2015). This study assessed associations between trait mindfulness and ERP indexes of
semantic integration (N400) and semantic reanalysis (P600). Participants were presented
meaning pairs consisting of positive-negative and negative-positive word pairs. The findings
word targets in high trait mindfulness participants only. This suggests less frequent access to
negative word meanings in those with higher trait mindfulness, which reflects a lower
tendency towards negative rumination. The study also reported reductions in the P600 for
those higher in trait mindfulness, suggesting an association between higher mindfulness and
less re-analysis involving repeated thinking about the words presented, which might be
As for language processing, ERP evidence on the effects of mediation on decentering and
other modes of existential awareness is very limited. The only relevant study so far (Eddy et
al., 2015) assessed the effects of a brief 15-minute mindfulness session involving breath
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
focus instructions on P300 and LPP components elicited by viewing positive, negative and
neutral images. While the brief mindfulness session did not result in any ERP changes, the
participants who reported higher state decentering during the session also showed less
positive P300 responses to negative images. The effect was specific to decentering, not
mindfulness. The authors interpreted the findings in terms of a change in the way
participants attended to the images due to decentering – this involved disidentification with
the emotions the stimuli induced, viewing the emotions as transient rather than identifying
with them. This in turn led to reduced reactivity to the negative images indexed by less
positive P300. This again highlights the interconnected and overlapping nature of various
Overall, the pattern of ERP findings on meditation suggests that meditation practice
modulates attention control (including attention efficiency, improved inhibition and reduced
distractibility) and emotion regulation linked to reactivity to high intensity stimuli. The
evidence on how meditation might impact language processing is currently very limited, as is
our understanding of how decentering and other modes of existential awareness may modify
ERPs. Most studies investigated the different mechanisms of the metacognitive self-
regulatory capacity in isolation; only one of the studies linked attention control (indexed by
the ERN) to emotion regulation (acceptance) (Teper et al., 2012). This highlights the need of
as the importance of examining the links between the different mechanisms to provide a
mechanisms to changes in the autonomic nervous system. In this way we will be able to
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
autonomic system activation involves heart-rate variability (HRV) and derived measures.
HRV refers to the beat-to-beat variability (time gaps between heart beats) which has been
mechanism of the stress response (Thayer et al., 2012). While increases in sympathetic
activation are associated with the fight-flight response, the parasympathetic system
induced not only by a real threat (e.g., fast approaching car when we are crossing the road),
but also by a threat such as thinking of a stressful situation. Low frequency (LF) HRV (0.01 –
whereas high frequency (HF) HRV (0.15 – 0.40 Hz) is linked to parasympathetic activation
mediated by acetylcholine changes. Importantly, low frequency HRV has been associated
with disease and high frequency HRV has been liked to better emotion regulation
One interesting meditation study assessed changes in high frequency heart rate (HF HRV)
in meditators who underwent meditation training over three months (daily guided meditation
practice of 20 minutes plus 2-hour sessions each week) in three types of meditation:
et al., 2015). The study investigated if all types of meditation resulted in increased HF HRV
reflecting possible relaxing effects of meditation. Interestingly, the findings were contrary to
this prediction and showed reductions in HF HRV over time, with these reductions being
most pronounced for the loving kindness meditation and least reductions in the breathing
meditation. These results indicate that different meditation types may module heart rate
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
An earlier cross-sectional study compared high frequency and low frequency heart rate
variability in Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist meditators during different types of meditation
(Amihai & Kozhevnikov, 2014). They found that Theravada meditators practicing Vipassana
deity meditation and rigpa (abiding in the highest non-dual state of awareness) meditations
Yet, a study on integrative mind-body training (IMBT) with Chinese undergraduate students
showed increases in HF HRV after only five days of 20-minute long daily sessions in
comparison to a relaxation training of the same duration (Tang et al., 2009). Interesting,
mindful breath focus is one of the key elements of the IMBT training. This further supports
the proposal that different meditation types are associated with different modulations in the
HRV.
There are other heart rate variability derived metrics that have been used to study meditation
(Allen et al., 2007). The two most common ones are the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)
and the cardiac sympathetic index (CSI). The RSA indexes the change in interbeat intervals
in relation to the inbreath and outbreath phases of respiration. It reflects the parasympathetic
control with higher values indexing better emotion regulation. In contrast, the CSI (Toichi,
1997) measures sympathetic influence. A higher CSI has been linked to psychopathology
and higher stress (Weinberg et al., 2009). The RSA and CSI and dissociable antagonist
The RSA and CSI indexes have been rarely used in research on meditation. In, so far, the
most comprehensive study Ditto et al. (2006) compared the effects of body scan meditation,
progressive muscular relaxation or wait-list control group after four weeks of daily practice.
The results revealed increases in the RSA only during the meditation sessions after the four
weeks. With regards to CSI, a study which recorded changes in CSI during Zen meditation
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
(involving sustain breath focus) in comparison to a control rest condition reported increased
CSI during meditation (Kubota et al., 2001). Just like the pattern of findings for the HF and
LF HRV, the results from these two studies again demonstrate that changes in RSA and CSI
meditation type.
In addition to measures described above, galvanic skin response (GSR) has been
processing, the magnitude of the GSR is positively correlated with subjective reports of
Decreases in GSR indicate reduced sympathetic activation and have been reported in a few
meditation studies. In a study with meditation novices, they found a significant decrease in
GSR during 20 minutes of meditation (Mohan et al. 2011). An earlier study comparing the
first and last 3 minutes of a 20-minute meditation session with control conditions also found
reductions in GSR (Wenk-Sormaz 2005). A similar pattern of findings has been reported with
longer-term meditation (1-month of daily practice) (Singh & Talwar, 2012). However, the
overall evidence base on the effects of meditation on GSR is currently very limited,
longitudinal studies. The evidence so far suggests that changes in heart rate variability, as
well as its derivative indexes,, resulting from meditation depend on the type of meditation.
While breath focus meditation tends to result in increased parasympathetic activity, other
activation. Available evidence on changes in GSR suggest that reductions in this marker are
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
associated with increased parasympathetic activity, but all of the studies seem to have
involved basic breath-focus style meditation practices. The pattern of modulations in the
GSR might be different with other meditation types. Further research is needed to elucidate
these complex findings and to assess longer term state and trait effects of meditation on
these indexes.
The general methodological limitations of meditation research (e.g., Davidson & Kaszniak,
2015; Van Dam et al., 2018) are applicable to the psychophysiology of meditation. This
includes the need for larger sample sizes, randomization of participants, and active control
group studies. There is also the need for clear specification of meditation experience/training
Nonetheless, there are some methodological issues that are specific to research in the
psychophysiology of meditation.
While the psychophysiological markers used in meditation research, such as the P300 and
N400 components, or HRV and RSA, are one of the most established indexes in the field of
research, such as meditation training studies, is much more recent. Consequently, the
ambiguous and purely reliant on self-report measures. For example, in two studies
discussed earlier in this chapter, the P300 has been found to decrease with meditation
training in attention blink (Slagter et al., 2007) and a Stroop task (Moore et al., 2012). This
P300 was associated with self-reported mind wandering. This is at odds with what one would
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
stimuli.
activation vary greatly based on the type of meditation participants are performing. Increased
parasympathetic activity has been mostly associated with breath-focus meditation styles
whereas increased sympathetic activity seems linked to ‘more effortful’ kinds of meditation
into long-term effects on health and well-being is currently unknown. Overall, the predicted
training, and the long-term effects of meditation. The replicability of findings is a particularly
conditions, participant sample type and data collection and analysis methods than
standardized self-report methods. It is very rare to see replications of findings within the
same labs and replications across labs are virtually absent. This obviously relates to a
broader problem of replication studies being ‘less valued’ than original new findings;
however, this seems to be more the case in psychophysiological and neuroscience research
studies the replication of RCTs are often required and funded to inform implementation
efforts, as in the case of MBCT for recurrent depression (Kuyken et al., 2008; Kuyken et al.,
The context of meditation practice and associated motivations for engaging in meditation are
two factors which quite likely impact changes in the mechanisms of underlying meditation
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
(Dorjee, 2016). For example, the psychophysiological effects of meditation might be different
person who meditates in order to reach spiritual insight. The context of meditation practice
and motivation training has so far not been explicitly assessed as a possible modulator of
possible modulators, particularly since we already know that different meditation types
(including Buddhist meditation styles from different schools) may differentially modulate
Finally, while there are a few studies using self-reports that investigated longer-term effects
of meditation (3-5 year follow up), psychophysiological studies with a follow-up of any length
are virtually absent. This is to a large extent the result of the cost and logistical challenges
amount (or lack of) further meditation practice, as well as long-term trajectories of changes
with practice.
Conclusion
While psychophysiological research holds considerable promise for providing unique insights
into the modulations in the brain and body physiology resulting from meditation, and their
possible implications for health and well-being, much of this potential remains untapped.
Most of the available evidence in this area, including research on prefrontal alpha
picture of mixed findings with a strong need for further rigorous investigation. Research on
attention, provides the most consistent evidence for improvements in attention control and
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Psychophysiology of Meditation (Dorjee)
about the impact of meditation on relevant language processes and modes of existential
awareness, such as decentering, are extremely limited, yet they are much needed in order to
Future research on the psychophysiology of meditation also needs to address the pitfalls of
context and motivation for meditation as well as evaluate the long-term effects of meditation.
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