Focused attention (FA) meditation narrows attentional scope, reducing initial distraction but limiting rapid recalibration beyond the initial focus. Open monitoring (OM) meditation improves the speed of selecting relevant targets while slowing perceptual-motor encoding and motor execution. These distinct attentional mechanisms were identified by fitting a computational model to flanker task data from 29 meditation-naïve participants who completed brief FA, OM, and control inductions in a within-subject crossover protocol. The findings provide model-based evidence differentiating how FA and OM affect attention control processes.
Focused attention (FA) meditation narrows the width of attentional focus and slows the rate at which attention can be narrowed further, while open monitoring (OM) meditation speeds up the rate of attention narrowing and increases nondecision time, suggesting distinct cognitive mechanisms. In a within-subject experiment with 29 meditation-naïve participants, FA reduced the maximum attentional spotlight width compared to OM and an active control condition, and slowed the rate of narrowing. OM accelerated attention narrowing and increased time for perceptual-motor and motor processes. These computational model-based results indicate FA may limit initial distraction but hinder rapid attentional recalibration, whereas OM improves target selection speed at the cost of slower encoding and execution.
A month-long silent meditation retreat altered the expression of genes involved in epigenetic modulation and inflammation. In experienced meditators attending an Insight meditation retreat (28 participants) compared to a community control group (34 experienced practitioners living their everyday lives), retreat participants showed differential changes in genes related to chromatin modulation and inflammation. The most substantive finding was downregulation of the TNF pathway in retreat participants, which was not observed in controls. These findings suggest that meditation retreat participation may influence inflammatory mechanisms involved in chronic disease development and may have therapeutic potential, particularly in experienced practitioners.