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.
A novel MRI technique called dynamic arterial spin labeling (dASL) detected changes in resting-state functional connectivity after two months of focused attention meditation practice in ten novice meditators. Meditation practice caused increased connectivity between the left medial temporal seed and precuneus, and between the right frontal eye seed and medial prefrontal cortex. More practice time was linked to increased connectivity between the default mode network and dorsal attention network, and between the default mode network and insula, but decreased connectivity between the default mode network and frontoparietal control network, and between the dorsal attention network and visual regions. These findings suggest focused attention meditation strengthens efficient control of the frontoparietal control network for switching between the default mode and dorsal attention networks, and reduces focus on visual processing.
After two months of focused attention meditation, novice meditators showed increased resting-state functional connectivity between brain networks involved in attention and mind wandering. Ten participants from a university meditation course were scanned before and after the practice. Connectivity increased between the posterior cingulate cortex and the dorsal attention network, the right middle temporal region and the default mode network, and the superior parietal lobules with both networks. The connectivity between the left superior parietal lobule and medial prefrontal cortex was linked to total meditation practice time. These changes suggest that focused attention meditation may improve the brain's ability to switch between mind wandering and focused attention.