Psychological Bulletin
May 14, 2012
Peter Sedlmeier, Juliane Eberth, Marcus Schwarz et al.
910 citations
A meta-analysis of 163 studies on meditation in nonclinical adults found medium average effects (r = .28) on psychological variables, not explainable by relaxation or cognitive restructuring alone. Effects were strongest for emotionality and relationships (medium to large), medium for attention, and small to medium for cognitive measures. Results varied by meditation type (transcendental, mindfulness, other). Meditation experience only partially predicted long-term impact. Most of 595 initial studies were excluded due to methodological problems, and many lacked theoretical grounding. The authors call for more precise theories and measurement tools to understand how meditation works.
Frontiers in Psychology
March 14, 2016
Peter Sedlmeier, Kunchapudi Srinivas
70 citations
Ancient Indian scriptures, particularly the Samkhya-Yoga system, contain empirically derived psychological theories intertwined with religious and philosophical content. Extracting these theories yields broad hypotheses about personality, the effects of Samkhya-Yoga practice on normal and extraordinary cognition, and different ways of perceiving reality. Existing empirical evidence from diverse fields, collected mostly without reference to this Indian system, substantially supports these hypotheses, though considerable theoretical and research gaps remain. These ancient theories can modify and complement Western mainstream accounts of cognition, potentially providing stronger theoretical grounding for areas like meditation research and consciousness studies.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
September 17, 2022
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
17 citations
All four 8-week treatments—mantra meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and all three combined—similarly improved body awareness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, and distress tolerance in adults new to yoga and meditation. These benefits persisted at 2- and 12-month follow-ups despite declining home practice. Mantra meditation alone had the least favorable effect on daily affect, while adding physical yoga best prevented negative affective responses. The findings suggest that mantra meditation is the central component driving improvements in interoception, self-awareness, and embodied processing, even though it negatively influenced affect on its own.
September 15, 2021
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
3 citations
preprint
A single-case multiple-baseline study with 57 healthy, inexperienced yoga practitioners tested how different combinations of yoga components—mantra meditation, physical postures, and ethical teachings—affect body awareness, emotion regulation, affectivity, self-compassion, and distress tolerance. All four treatments (meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and all three combined) improved body awareness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, and distress tolerance to a similar extent. Meditation alone had the least favorable effect on daily affect, whereas adding ethical education enhanced positive valence most, and adding physical yoga best prevented negative affective responses. The authors suggest mantra meditation is the core driver of improvements in interoception and self-awareness, despite its negative influence on daily affect.
arXiv (Cornell University)
March 21, 2016
Kieran C. R. Fox, Matthew L. Dixon, Savannah Nijeboer et al.
Different styles of meditation produce distinct patterns of brain activity. A meta-analysis of 78 functional neuroimaging studies (31 experiments, 527 participants) found that four common meditation styles—focused attention, mantra recitation, open monitoring, and compassion/loving-kindness—reliably activate and deactivate different brain regions, with suggestive differences for three others (visualization, sense-withdrawal, and non-dual awareness). Some areas like the insula and anterior cingulate cortex are recruited across multiple techniques, but convergence is the exception. Medium effect sizes for activations (d = .59) and deactivations (d = -.74) suggest practical significance. The findings support the neurophysiological dissociability of meditation practices while highlighting methodological concerns.
International journal of speech-language pathology
May 9, 2026
Britta Biedermann, Rosemary Croasdale, Anne Whitworth et al.
Intensive meditation training can improve visual and auditory attention in people with chronic post-stroke aphasia, even when verbal-language skills remain largely unchanged. Five individuals with chronic aphasia, anomia, good comprehension, and no meditation experience completed a 9-week meditation program. Before training, all showed deficits in at least one attention task alongside word retrieval and verbal working memory problems. After training, four of the five participants improved on at least one measure of non-verbal attention. Only one participant showed gains in verbal-language skills. The findings suggest that attention can be enhanced independently of language in aphasia through regular meditation practice.
Mindfulness
December 1, 2023
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier
Body awareness, decentering, and emotion regulation improved reliably and continuously over time for all four meditation techniques—concentrative, humming, observing-thoughts, and walking—suggesting these processes are common mechanisms for novice meditators. Walking meditation produced the smallest improvements in decentering and mind-wandering but the largest in body awareness and emotion regulation. Classic techniques (concentration, observing-thoughts) led to more consistently positive response patterns and better outcomes for participants high in neuroticism, while those high in extraversion benefited more from humming and walking meditation. Motivation and personality also interacted with technique effectiveness.
Journal of Clinical Medicine
August 4, 2022
Karin Matko, Anne Berghöfer, Michael Jeitler et al.
People differ in how much they benefit from mind-body practices like meditation and yoga. In an eight-week study of 57 healthy beginners, those with high anxiety, high absorption, low spirituality, low openness, and younger age showed greater improvements in wellbeing and decentering and less mind wandering. Adding ethical education consistently boosted wellbeing, while adding physical yoga reduced mind wandering. Cluster analysis revealed that participants with more maladaptive personality traits improved their emotion regulation skills the most. These findings suggest that tailoring mind-body interventions to individual characteristics may enhance their effectiveness.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
Adding ethical education to mantra meditation produced the largest increases in well-being, while combining meditation with physical yoga reduced stress the most. In an eight-week program with 42 healthy adults who had no regular yoga or meditation practice, those who received meditation plus ethical education showed well-being gains (Tau-U = 0.30/0.23), followed by meditation plus physical yoga (Tau-U = 0.12). Meditation alone showed no change in well-being (Tau-U = 0.07). Stress decreased most with meditation plus physical yoga (Tau-U = -0.40) but increased slightly with meditation alone (Tau-U = 0.17). These results indicate that combining meditation with other yoga components produces differential and incremental benefits.
arXiv Preprint Archive
March 21, 2016
Kieran C. R. Fox, Matthew L. Dixon, Savannah Nijeboer et al.
Meditation comprises diverse mental practices with distinct strategies. A meta-analysis of 78 neuroimaging studies (527 participants) found reliably different brain activation patterns for four common meditation styles—focused attention, mantra recitation, open monitoring, and compassion/loving-kindness—and suggestive differences for three others. Some brain regions (insula, pre/supplementary motor cortices, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, frontopolar cortex) were recruited across multiple techniques, but convergence was the exception. Effect sizes were medium for both activations (d = .59) and deactivations (d = -.74), indicating potential practical significance. The findings support the neurophysiological dissociability of meditation practices while highlighting methodological concerns and future research directions.
Psychological Bulletin
March 1, 2014
Peter Sedlmeier, Juliane Eberth, Marcus Schwarz
The authors respond to methodological criticisms of their meta-analysis on meditation's psychological effects. They defend their approach to aggregating effects across variable categories and maintain that transcendental meditation (TM) studies show some upward bias, even using the critics' preferred method. They concede they missed some TM studies but argue this omission did not alter their conclusions. The piece concludes with suggestions for improving future meditation research.
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger Carl Bringmann
preprint
Adding ethical education or physical yoga to meditation practice enhances well-being and stress reduction more than meditation alone. In an 8-week program with 42 healthy adults, nearly all participants who combined meditation with ethical education, physical yoga, or both reported increased well-being, while those practicing only meditation did not. The largest well-being gains occurred in groups receiving ethical education. Stress decreased across all conditions, but the most marked reduction appeared in the yoga-plus-meditation group. The findings suggest that the components of traditional yoga—postures, ethics, and meditation—have incremental and differential effects.