A single 10-minute session of focused attention meditation (FAM) temporarily improves response inhibition, as measured by Stroop task performance, but the effect appears 60 minutes after meditation rather than immediately. In a study with 39 healthy participants, those who practiced FAM performed significantly better on the Stroop task 60 minutes later compared to those who did a sham meditation. Greater subjective effort during meditation was associated with better performance at that time point. The findings suggest that FAM may work by preventing cognitive fatigue, with the effect strengthening as effort increases.
A single 10-minute session of focused attention meditation can prevent state fatigue in people who have never meditated before. In a randomized trial with 56 meditation-naïve participants, those who practiced focused attention meditation maintained their performance on a 60-minute fatigue-inducing Go/NoGo task, while a control group showed declining performance. Brain imaging revealed that the meditation group had increased functional connectivity between the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and right superior parietal lobule, suggesting cognitive effort improved attention regulation. In contrast, the control group showed increased connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex and left inferior occipital gyrus, linked to poor attention and reduced cognitive function.
A single 15-minute session of focused attention meditation (FAM) increased working memory capacity (WMC) in meditation novices, while a control condition of mind-wandering decreased it. The FAM group showed activation of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the intervention, and across all participants the increase in WMC correlated with DLPFC activation. The findings suggest that top-down attention control during FAM can activate the bilateral DLPFC and improve WMC.