Neural Effects of Meditation Following a Randomized Controlled Trial of the Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE).
IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society January 1, 2026 Busra T. Susam, Nathan T Riek, Richard T Gall et al.
Mindfulness training may help autistic individuals regulate emotions by altering brain activity patterns. In a randomized controlled trial, 39 autistic adults completed an affective attention task while wearing an EEG headset before and after either the Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE) program or an active control therapy. Machine learning classifiers distinguished the EASE group from the control group with 88% to 92% accuracy based on post-training EEG features. Changes in theta and beta brainwave power, particularly in response to rewarding versus unfavorable feedback, differed significantly between groups. These neural changes were most pronounced in autistic individuals who showed clinical improvement from the intervention, suggesting mindfulness-based programs can modulate brain systems supporting adaptive emotional responses.