Abstract
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a widely-used form of mindfulness-based meditation, has shown positive effects on reducing psychological stress, and helping the immune system and a variety of disorders. So far little is known as to how neurophysiological activity is affected by MBSR and how it changes over time as a meditator becomes more experienced with MBSR. In this study we investigated naive meditators’ EEG activity during an eight-week MBSR program. We developed easy-to-use and portable dry-sensor EEG devices and the participants recorded data by themselves. We investigated the effect of concentration level on EEG power spectrum, and tracked how EEG changed over time during the program. Significant results were found between EEG and concentration, and between EEG and amount of experience. We discussed our findings in the context of EEG rhythmic activity in relation to meditation. Our findings provided insight into developing a BCI system to guide meditation practice.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K., Glaser, R., Gravenstein, S., Malarkey, W.B., Sheridan, J.: Chronic Stress Alters the Immune Response to Influenza Virus Vaccine in Older Adults. PNAS 93(7), 3043–3047 (1996)
McEwen, B.S.: Protection and Damage from Acute and Chronic Stress: Allostasis and Allostatic Overload and Relevance to the Pathophysiology of Psychiatric Disorders. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1032, 1–7 (2004)
Dhabhar, F.S., Mcewen, B.S.: Acute Stress Enhances while Chronic Stress Suppresses Cell-Mediated Immunityin Vivo: A Potential Role for Leukocyte Trafficking. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 11(4), 286–306 (1997)
Jin, P.: Efficacy of Tai Chi, Brisk Walking, Meditation, and Reading in Reducing Mental and Emotional Stress. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 36(4), 361–370 (1992)
Shapiro, S.L., Bootzin, R.R., Figueredo, A.J., Lopez, A.M., Schwartz, G.E.: The Efficacy of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction in the Treatment of Sleep Disturbance in Women with Breast Cancer: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 54(1), 85–91 (2003)
Alexander, C.N., Swanson, G.C., Rainforth, M.V., Carlisle, T.W., Todd, C.C., Oates Jr., R.M.: Effects of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Stress Reduction, Health, and Employee Development: A Prospective Study in Two Occupational Settings. Anxiety, Stress and Coping: An International Journal 6(3), 245–262 (1993)
Kabat-Zinn, J.: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Delta Trade Paperbacks, New York (1990)
Davidson, R.J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S.F., Urbanowski, F., Harrington, A., Bonus, K., Sheridan, J.F.: Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. Psychosom Med. 65(4), 564–570 (2003)
Robinson, F.P., Mathews, H.L., Witek-Janusek, L.: Psycho-endocrine-immune Response to Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction in Individuals Infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus:a Quasiexperimental Study. J. Altern. Complement. Med. 9(5), 683–694 (2003)
Jain, S., Shapiro, S.L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S.C., Mills, P.J., Bell, I., Schwartz, G.E.: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Meditation versus Relaxation Training: Effects on Distress, Positive States of Mind, Rumination, and Distraction. Ann. Behav. Med. 33(1), 11–21 (2007)
Rapgay, L., Bystrisky, A.: Classical Mindfulness: an Introduction to its Theory and Practice for Clinical Application. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 1172, 148–162 (2009)
Lutz, A., Greischar, L.L., Rawlings, N.B., Ricard, M., Davidson, R.J.: Long-term Meditators Self-induce High-amplitude Gamma Synchrony during Mental Practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 101(46), 16369–16373 (2004)
Lagopoulos, J., Xu, J., Rasmussen, I., Vik, A., Malhi, G.S., Eliassen, C.F., Arntsen, I.E., Sæther, J.G., Hollup, S., Holen, A., Davanger, S., Ellingsen, Ø.: Increased Theta and Alpha EEG Activity During Nondirective Meditation. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 15(11), 1187–1192 (2009)
Pfurtscheller, G., Stancak Jr., A., Neuper, C.: Event-related Synchronization (ERS) in the Alpha Band-an Electrophysiological Correlate of Cortical Idling: A Review. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 24, 39–46 (1996)
Jensen, O., Mazaheri, A.: Shaping Functional Architecture by Oscillatory Alpha Activity: Gating by Inhibition. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 4, 186 (2010)
Hözel, B.K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S.M., Gard, T., Lazar, S.W.: Mindfulness Practice Leads to Increases in Regional Brain Gray Matter Density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 191, 36–43 (2011)
Savitzky, A., Golay, M.J.E.: Smoothing and Differentiation of Data by Simplified Least Squares Procedures. Analytical Chemistry 36(8), 1627–1639 (1964)
Welch, P.D.: The Use of Fast Fourier Transform for the Estimation of Power Spectra: A Method Based on Time Averaging Over Short, Modified Periodograms. IEEE Trans. Audio Electroacoustics AU-15, 70–73 (1967)
Hogg, R.V., Ledolter, J.: Engineering Statistics. MacMillan, New York (1987)
Yoav, B., Yosef, H.: Controlling the False Discovery Rate: a Practical and Powerful Approach to Multiple Testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (Methodological) 57(1), 289–300 (1995)
Takahashi, T., Murata, T., Hamada, T., Omori, M., Kosaka, H., Kikuchi, M., Yoshida, H., Wada, Y.: Changes in EEG and autonomic nervous activity during meditation and their association with personality traits. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 55(2), 199–207 (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Luo, A., Szibbo, D., Forbes, J., Sullivan, T.J. (2011). Neural Correlates of Mindfulness Practice for Naive Meditators. In: D’Mello, S., Graesser, A., Schuller, B., Martin, JC. (eds) Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction. ACII 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6975. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24571-8_60
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24571-8_60
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-24570-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-24571-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)