Psychological Science
June 1, 2010
Katherine A Maclean, Emilio Ferrer, Stephen R Aichele et al.
625 citations
Voluntary attention cannot be sustained for long periods, leading to a decline in perceptual sensitivity called the vigilance decrement. Training involving meditation practice—about 5 hours daily for 3 months—improved sustained attention. Participants were randomly assigned to receive training first or serve as waiting-list controls. Training improved visual discrimination, linked to increases in perceptual sensitivity and vigilance during sustained visual attention. These results suggest that perceptual improvements reduce the resource demand of target discrimination, making it easier to sustain voluntary attention.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
June 1, 2011
Tonya L Jacobs, Elissa S Epel, Jue Lin et al.
435 citations
After a 3-month meditation retreat with about 6 hours of daily practice, retreat participants showed greater telomerase activity—an indicator of cellular longevity—compared to a matched wait-list control group. Retreat participants also reported increased Perceived Control, Mindfulness, and Purpose in Life, and decreased Neuroticism. Statistical mediation analyses suggested that the retreat's effect on telomerase activity was explained by increases in Perceived Control and decreases in Neuroticism. These changes in perceived control and neuroticism were themselves partially explained by increased Mindfulness and Purpose in Life. Purpose in Life also directly mediated the group difference in telomerase activity, whereas Mindfulness did not. The findings suggest that meditation may influence cellular health through psychological changes.
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
April 1, 2011
Baljinder K Sahdra, Katherine A Maclean, Emilio Ferrer et al.
203 citations
Three months of intensive meditation training in an isolated retreat setting improved sustained self-regulatory control, measured by a response inhibition task, and adaptive socioemotional functioning, a latent factor combining measures of attachment, mindfulness, empathy, personality traits, emotion regulation, depression, anxiety, and well-being. A wait-list control group showed no improvement until they underwent the same training. Gains in both self-regulation and adaptive functioning were sustained at a 5-month follow-up. Dynamic modeling indicated that improvements in self-regulation drove later changes in adaptive functioning, supporting the Buddhist claim that enhanced self-regulation is a precursor to emotional well-being.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2012
Manish Saggar, Brandon G King, Anthony P Zanesco et al.
136 citations
Intensive meditation training produces replicable changes in brainwave activity. In a controlled study, participants who practiced focused attention meditation for three months showed reduced beta-band power over anterior and posterior scalp regions during meditation, compared to a wait-list group that later received identical training. Individual alpha frequency also decreased across both retreats, and the decrease was directly related to the amount of meditation practice. These longitudinal changes in brain oscillatory activity help explain how meditation may support long-term improvements in attention and cognition.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
Anthony P Zanesco, Brandon G King, Katherine A Maclean et al.
96 citations
One month of intensive daily Vipassana meditation training improved executive control on a 32-minute response inhibition task. Trained participants showed better accuracy and reduced reaction time variability compared to matched controls. They also reported increased concentration during the task, but not changes in effort or motivation. Higher concentration ratings predicted lower reaction time variability, linking subjective concentrative engagement with objective attentional stability. The findings support contemplative claims that meditation leads to stable, clear attentional focus and suggest that meditators accurately perceive their improved cognitive performance.
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
December 1, 2015
Erika L Rosenberg, Anthony P Zanesco, Brandon G King et al.
77 citations
Three months of intensive meditation training—daily practice in attention and compassion techniques—alters emotional responses to human suffering. In a randomized trial, 60 participants were assigned to either a meditation retreat or a wait-list control. At post-training, those who meditated showed more facial expressions of sadness and fewer expressions of anger, contempt, and disgust when viewing film scenes of suffering, compared to controls. Self-reported sympathy, but not sadness or distress, predicted these sad expressions and reduced rejection emotions in the training group. The results suggest that intensive meditation fosters enhanced sympathetic concern for others and reduced aversion to their suffering.
Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association
October 1, 2013
Tonya L Jacobs, Phillip R Shaver, Elissa S Epel et al.
62 citations
Cognitive perseverations such as worry and rumination may prolong cortisol release, potentially contributing to disease pathways. Meditation training can increase self-reported mindfulness, which is linked to reductions in such perseverations, but no prior work directly linked mindfulness to resting cortisol output. In an observational study of 57 adults on a 3-month meditation retreat, mindfulness increased from pre- to post-retreat, while cortisol did not significantly change overall. However, mindfulness was inversely related to evening cortisol at both time points, and larger increases in mindfulness were associated with decreases in cortisol, whereas smaller increases or slight decreases in mindfulness were linked to increases in cortisol. These findings suggest a relationship between self-reported mindfulness and resting output of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system.
Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice
March 1, 2016
Anthony P Zanesco, Brandon G King, Katherine A Maclean et al.
61 citations
Intensive meditation training in focused attention and monitoring is associated with reduced mind wandering and less mindless reading during a complex cognitive task. In two longitudinal studies, participants completed a reading task that required ongoing error monitoring to detect semantic inconsistencies. In the first study, training participants were assessed before and after a 3-month shamatha meditation retreat and again 7 years later. In the second study, training and matched control participants were assessed before and after a 1-month insight meditation retreat. Across both studies, meditation training reduced lapses of attention while reading, suggesting that intensive meditation may help maintain attention over time.
BMC Neurosci
January 1, 2010
Manish Saggar, Stephen R Aichele, Tonya L Jacobs et al.
50 citations
Advanced computational methods reveal that intensive meditation training produces lasting alterations in brain activity patterns, beneficially modifying how the brain functions. The approach identifies positive longitudinal changes in cortical activity, suggesting that dedicated meditation practice can reshape the brain and enhance neural well-being.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
August 1, 2019
Anthony P Zanesco, Brandon G King, Chivon Powers et al.
40 citations
Improvements in perceptual discrimination from intensive meditation training can alter brain signals related to attention and perception, but only when the task difficulty is fixed rather than adjusted to match the person's improving ability. In two three-month meditation retreats, participants performed a continuous visual task while brain activity was recorded. When the target difficulty was held constant, training reduced declines in early sensory processing and shifted the timing of those brain signals. Changes in later processing stages correlated with better perceptual thresholds. No such brain changes occurred when task difficulty was increased to keep pace with participants' improving skill. The findings show that directed mental training can modify electrophysiological markers of attention and perception, depending on how task demands relate to the individual's capacity.
Neuroimage
July 1, 2015
Manish Saggar, Anthony P Zanesco, Brandon G King et al.
31 citations
Intensive meditation training alters brain dynamics by increasing the delay between cortical and thalamic cells and reducing inhibitory connections within the thalamus. These changes, identified through computational modeling of EEG data from two 3-month meditation retreats, provide a neural mechanism for the previously observed slowing of individual alpha frequency. The reduced thalamic inhibition enhances dynamical stability in the model. This is the first computational approach incorporating anatomical and physiological constraints to formally model brain processes underlying intensive meditation, offering testable hypotheses for attention training and potential clinical applications.
Anthony Paul Zanesco, Brandon G King, Chivon Powers et al.
20 citations
Sustained attention tasks often reduce the ability to discriminate goal-relevant stimuli over time. Intensive training in shamatha (focused-attention) meditation can improve perceptual discrimination of difficult-to-see visual stimuli. In two 3-month meditation retreats, participants performed a continuous performance task at three time points. In Retreat 1, the target difficulty was adjusted to match each participant's improving perceptual capacity, and no training effects on brain activity were observed. In Retreat 2, the target difficulty was held constant, leading to earlier onset of sensory brain signals and reduced performance decline over time. Changes in later processing stages correlated with improvements in perceptual threshold. The findings suggest that meditation-related improvements in perceptual discrimination can alter electrophysiological markers of attention and perception, but only when task demands allow discrimination capacity to exceed target difficulty.
Anthony Paul Zanesco, Brandon G King, Katherine A Maclean et al.
6 citations
Intensive meditation training over three months improved sustained attention and response inhibition, and these gains were partially maintained up to seven years later. Continued meditation practice during the follow-up period moderated age-related declines in response inhibition accuracy and reaction time variability. The findings suggest that dedicated mental training can produce lasting benefits for cognitive health and alter long-term cognitive trajectories as people age.
Anthony Paul Zanesco, Brandon G King, Katherine A Maclean et al.
1 citation
After one month of intensive daily Vipassana meditation training, participants showed improved response inhibition accuracy and reduced reaction time variability on a 32-minute task compared to matched controls. They also reported increased concentration during the task, but not changes in effort or motivation. Critically, the increases in concentration predicted improvements in reaction time variability, linking the subjective experience of concentrative engagement with objective attentional stability. These results corroborate phenomenological accounts from contemplative traditions that meditation training leads to stable, clear attentional engagement, and suggest that meditators' felt experience accurately reflects measurable changes in performance.
Manish Saggar, Brandon G King, Anthony Paul Zanesco et al.
1 citation
Intensive meditation training over three months produces replicable changes in brain electrical activity. Retreat participants who practiced focused attention meditation showed reduced beta-band brain wave power over front and back regions of the scalp during mindfulness of breathing. Individual alpha frequency also decreased across retreats, and the decrease was directly related to the amount of meditation practice. These changes in brain oscillatory patterns may underlie improvements in attention and cognition from contemplative practice.
Frontiers in Endocrinology
January 1, 2024
Quinn A Conklin, Anthony P Zanesco, Brandon G King et al.
A month-long silent meditation retreat reduced circulating levels of oxytocin in 28 retreat participants compared to 34 control participants, who showed no change. Higher openness to experience at the start predicted greater oxytocin decreases, and lower oxytocin at the end was linked to stronger feelings of personal connection with fellow meditators. Oxytocin changes were unrelated to attachment style or anxiety. Vasopressin decreased similarly in both groups, indicating no specific retreat effect. The authors interpret these preliminary findings cautiously, noting measurement limitations and suggesting future research to differentiate effects of meditation practices and contexts on oxytocin signaling.
Brain Behavior and Immunity Integrative
September 1, 2023
Quinn A Conklin, Cavan E. Patterson, Brandon G King et al.
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein involved in learning and neuroplasticity, was measured in experienced meditators before and during a month-long silent retreat. Participants with higher BDNF levels at the start of the retreat showed greater increases in telomere length over three weeks. However, BDNF levels did not change on average during the retreat, and higher BDNF was linked to lower telomerase activity. The findings suggest that a person's baseline BDNF, rather than changes induced by meditation, may influence cellular aging markers.
Mindfulness
January 30, 2023
A. Zanesco, Brandon G King, Quinn A Conklin et al.
Experienced meditators who attended a month-long insight meditation retreat reported more profound insights, powerful emotional experiences, and non-ordinary sensory or perceptual events compared to similarly experienced meditators who continued daily life. Retreat participants also scored higher on dimensions of mystical experience, including internal unity, transcendence, sacredness, noetic quality, and deeply felt positive affect. The findings suggest that intensive meditation training is associated with a range of profound and mystical-type experiences, which may contribute to psychological or spiritual development, though long-term consequences remain to be understood.
Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology
August 1, 2022
María Jesús Álvarez-López, Quinn A Conklin, Marta Cosín-Tomás et al.
A month-long silent meditation retreat altered the expression of genes involved in epigenetic modulation and inflammation. In experienced meditators attending an Insight meditation retreat (28 participants) compared to a community control group (34 experienced practitioners living their everyday lives), retreat participants showed differential changes in genes related to chromatin modulation and inflammation. The most substantive finding was downregulation of the TNF pathway in retreat participants, which was not observed in controls. These findings suggest that meditation retreat participation may influence inflammatory mechanisms involved in chronic disease development and may have therapeutic potential, particularly in experienced practitioners.
Mindfulness
January 1, 2022
Alea C. Skwara, Brandon G King, Anthony P Zanesco et al.
Three months of focused attention meditation training reduces beta brainwave power not only during formal practice but also during eyes-closed rest, indicating that meditation's neurocognitive effects transfer beyond the meditation session itself. Experienced meditators were randomly assigned to a residential retreat or a waitlist control, with the control group later completing their own retreat. EEG recordings from 88 channels showed longitudinal reductions in beta frequency power, replicated across two independent training periods. Smaller reductions also appeared in high alpha and individual peak alpha frequencies. These findings suggest that resting brain activity is not an invariant baseline but can carry training-related changes, blurring the distinction between meditative state and enduring trait.
Current Opinion in Psychology
August 1, 2019
Brandon G King, Quinn A Conklin, Anthony P Zanesco et al.
Residential meditation retreats are a distinct type of intervention that can help researchers understand the effects of intensive, continued meditation practice as expertise develops, filling a gap left by studies of brief inductions or short-term programs. The article describes how retreats differ from other meditation interventions in design and highlights their value for studying meditation's effects on cognition, health, and well-being over time.
Human Brain Mapping
March 9, 2019
A. Zanesco, Alea C. Skwara, Brandon G King et al.
Meditation training increases mindful awareness and mental quiescence in everyday life, and these subjective changes are linked to alterations in the brain's spontaneous electrical activity at rest. In a study of experienced meditators, three months of full-time focused-attention meditation (compared to a waiting-list control) led to increases in daily reports of felt attentiveness and serenity. The training also reduced the strength and duration of EEG microstates—transient patterns of brain activity—and changes in how these microstates sequenced over time correlated with daily improvements in mindful qualities. The results connect shifts in meditative experience with the large-scale dynamics of functional brain networks.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
May 1, 2018
Quinn A Conklin, Brandon G King, Anthony P Zanesco et al.
Intensive meditation during a one-month residential Insight retreat was associated with an apparent increase in telomere length compared to a control group of experienced meditators not on retreat. Personality traits moderated this effect: retreat participants highest in neuroticism and lowest in agreeableness showed the greatest telomere length increases. Changes in telomere-related gene expression suggested improved telomere maintenance, including increases in Gar1 and HnRNPA1. No group-level changes in telomerase activity were observed, but retreat participants' telomerase activity at post-assessment was inversely related to retreat engagement and prior meditation experience. Neuroticism also predicted variation in telomerase activity across the retreat.
Alea C. Skwara, Brandon G King, Anthony Paul Zanesco et al.
Three months of intensive focused-attention meditation training reduces beta brain-wave power not only during formal practice but also during eyes-closed rest, indicating that the training's neurocognitive effects transfer to spontaneous brain activity. Experienced meditators were randomly assigned to a residential retreat or a waitlist control; the controls later completed their own retreat. EEG recordings before and after each retreat showed consistent reductions in beta power, with smaller reductions in high alpha and individual peak alpha frequency. These changes mirror those previously observed during mindfulness of breathing practice, suggesting that resting states are not an invariant baseline but can carry training-related effects that blur the line between temporary state and lasting trait change.