Changes in Multisensory Integration Following Brief State Induction and Longer-Term Training with Body Scan Meditation
Mindfulness May 1, 2022 Tess Guthrie, Julian R. Matthews, Richard Chambers et al.
A brief body scan meditation makes people more susceptible to a bodily illusion (the rubber hand illusion), suggesting that a short mindfulness induction increases attention to ambiguous bodily signals. However, 14 days of daily body scan training reduces the illusion more than a control activity, indicating that longer-term mindfulness practice dampens the integration of conflicting sensory information. The findings suggest that state and trait mindfulness cultivated through body scan meditation have opposite effects on how the brain combines signals from different senses, with initial heightened attention giving way to acceptance over time.