Effect of Meditation on Brain Activity during an Attention Task: A Comparison Study of ASL and BOLD Task fMRI
Brain Sciences November 29, 2023 Yakun Zhang, Shichun Chen, Zongpai Zhang et al. 1 citation
Two months of focused attention meditation training in novice meditators altered brain activity during a visual oddball task. Using arterial spin labeling (ASL), activation increased in the middle cingulate and temporoparietal regions; more practice time was linked to decreased activation in the medial prefrontal and middle frontal regions. Using BOLD, more practice time was linked to increased activation in the inferior parietal, dorsolateral prefrontal, and precentral regions. The effect sizes for changes and their association with practice time were larger with ASL than with BOLD. The findings suggest that focused attention meditation may improve attention by modulating the default mode, dorsal attention, salience, and frontoparietal networks, and that ASL may be a sensitive tool for studying these effects.