Mindfulness meditation can improve well-being, but people often struggle with adherence, session quality, or dosage. Closed-loop systems and real-time neurofeedback—using signals from fMRI or EEG—may help support mindfulness performance and engagement. This review describes how neurofeedback signals such as fMRI activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, default mode network, central executive network, and salience network, as well as EEG alpha, theta, and gamma bands, have been used to provide subjective correlates of mindfulness states. Past work has focused on aligning interventions with the subjective meditation experience. Future research should use control conditions like mindfulness only or sham neurofeedback to quantify the effects of closed-loop and neurofeedback-guided meditation on cognition and well-being.
Awe, a positive emotion linked to well-being and social behavior, was studied using EEG and autonomic physiology in 23 healthy older adults watching a nature film. Awe was the dominant emotion reported, though joy was also common. During awe events, skin conductance decreased, and EEG alpha and theta power decreased—changes associated with low arousal and positive emotion. Awe also increased Lempel Ziv Complexity (LZC), a measure of neural signal entropy linked to richer conscious experience. LZC correlated positively with awe intensity and negatively with skin conductance. Three additional datasets using different induction methods (video clips and DMT) showed similar occipital LZC increases, suggesting LZC may be a generalizable neurophysiological marker of awe.