No effect of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on EEG auditory mismatch negativity in expert and novice practitioners.
International Journal of Psychophysiology March 28, 2022 Enrico Fucci, A. Poublan-Couzardot, O. Abdoun et al.
A well-powered experiment found no evidence that focused attention or open monitoring meditation alters the auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) amplitude—a brain response linked to automatic change detection—in either expert or novice practitioners, failing to replicate earlier findings. Bayesian analysis provided strong evidence against any interaction between expertise and meditation practice on MMN amplitude, strong evidence against effects of either meditation practice compared to a control condition, and moderate evidence against an effect of expertise during meditation. The study did replicate increased alpha oscillatory power during meditation. The null results are discussed in light of low statistical power, flexible analysis methods, and possible publication bias in prior work.