Conscious Attention, Meditation, and Bilateral Information Transfer
Clinical EEG and Neuroscience January 1, 2013 Petr Bob, Elizabeth M. Zimmerman, Elizabeth A. Hamilton et al.
Conscious attention depends on large-scale information integration across brain regions and hemispheres, with the level of information transference influencing attentional capacity and being linked to emotional arousal and autonomic responses. A hypothesis that changes in conscious attention during meditation could be reflected in autonomic activity via left–right information transference was tested by measuring bilateral electrodermal activity in 7 healthy persons during resting state, a Stroop task, a neurofeedback memory test, and meditation. Pointwise transinformation (PTI) distinguished these attentional states, with the highest level occurring during meditation, indicating greater left–right connectivity. Other measures like mean skin conductance level or laterality index did not differentiate the states. PTI may be useful for assessing information flow related to neural functioning, potentially reflecting integrative autonomic changes during focused attention.