Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
August 1, 2026
Clarita Bonamino, Clara Hausen, Matthew D. Sacchet
Consciousness can persist, transform, and dissolve across wakefulness, sleep, and advanced meditation. An interdisciplinary perspective reveals converging phenomena that challenge binary accounts of consciousness and highlight its graded, dynamic, and trainable nature. The interface of advanced meditation, sleep, and consciousness science constitutes a promising frontier for understanding the structure, dynamics, and limits of conscious experience. Advanced meditation offers cultivable means for modulating these dimensions, while sleep provides recurring biological states in which awareness, experiential content, embodiment, and sensory input coupling systematically dissociate. Evidence from these domains highlights states such as deep absorption meditation, cessations, lucid dreaming, sleep-wake transitions, and clear light sleep that challenge binary distinctions between consciousness and unconsciousness. An integrated, mixed-methods perspective enables a more nuanced examination of graded and minimal forms of conscious experience.
June 17, 2026
Terje Sparby, Vanessa Naughton, Batool Abbasi et al.
preprint
Meditation research has focused mostly on short-term effects in beginners and mindfulness-based practices, leaving advanced and long-term meditation poorly understood. This systematic review of 52 studies found that long-term and advanced meditators show greater well-being, deeper relational attunement, and more refined emotional capacities than those with basic practice. These benefits appear tied to skill-based proficiency rather than simply how long someone has meditated. However, the field's reliance on time-based measures and tools unsuited for experienced practitioners may hide these deeper effects. Realizing meditation's full potential requires shifting research toward meditative skills, stages, and attainments.
PsyArXiv
May 28, 2026
Oliver Andersson Hugemark, Terje Sparby, Andrea Grabovac et al.
preprint
Advanced meditation can sometimes lead to challenging experiences involving destabilization, rigidification, and social negotiation. Through a reflexive thematic analysis of practitioners' accounts, the authors describe how embodied sense-making and integration processes unfold during these difficulties. The analysis identifies how meditators navigate destabilizing experiences, how rigid patterns of response may emerge, and how social contexts shape the meaning and resolution of these challenges. The findings suggest that advanced meditation difficulties are not merely individual psychological events but are deeply embedded in bodily, relational, and social processes.
PsyArXiv
May 27, 2026
Asiya Gul, Sebastian Ehmann, Catherine Prueitt et al.
preprint
This theoretical paper proposes extending the scientific study of advanced meditation to Sufism within Islam, comparing self-attenuation practices across Theravāda Buddhism, Tibetan Dzogchen, and Sufi traditions. The authors argue that contemplative traditions beyond Buddhism, particularly Sufism, offer valuable but underexplored models for understanding advanced meditative states and their effects on self-related processing. By examining similarities and differences in how these traditions conceptualize and cultivate self-transcendence, the paper suggests that a broader cross-traditional framework can enrich scientific understanding of meditation's transformative potential. The analysis highlights common themes of self-diminishment and non-dual awareness while respecting each tradition's unique doctrinal and practical contexts.
BMJ Open
March 12, 2026
Rosalind McAlpine, Magdalena Jaglinska, Krisztina Jedlovszky et al.
A 21-day mobile-accessible programme called the Digital Intervention for Psychedelic Preparation (DIPP) is being tested for feasibility and preliminary efficacy in a randomised controlled trial. The study will recruit 40 non-treatment-seeking adults without a clinical diagnosis, randomly assigning them to either a guided meditation with music condition or a music-only condition. After the digital intervention, all participants will attend an in-person supervised psilocybin session with a standardised 25 mg dose. Primary outcomes include recruitment efficiency, retention, and adherence; secondary outcomes assess preparedness, quality of the psychedelic experience, and wellbeing, with follow-ups up to 9 months. The trial is registered as NCT06815653.
March 2, 2026
Andrea Grabovac, Nickolas Grabovac, Winson F.z. Yang et al.
preprint
A new theoretical framework called the Insight Development Process (IDP) describes how propositional insights—brief shifts in perception that align with transience, self-lessness, and incongruence—can become durable changes in perception, cognition, and behavior. The framework distinguishes momentary insights, which are brief pre-reflexive perceptual shifts, from integrated insights, which are more lasting intuitive understandings. Drawing on Buddhist meditation traditions and first-person accounts, the IDP outlines eight stages of insight, each with characteristic patterns of momentary insights and experiential features. The framework is designed to generate testable hypotheses about the cognitive, affective, and neural mechanisms underlying insight and how advanced meditation shapes consciousness and well-being.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
February 10, 2026
David Zarka, Winson F.z. Yang, Abel Rassat et al.
preprint
Extended cessation (EC) is a rare meditative state in which conscious experience temporarily stops, followed by heightened perception and emotional balance. In five highly trained meditators, electroencephalographic microstate analysis revealed that EC altered brain activity patterns linked to self-referential processing. Specifically, microstate B occurred less often and for shorter durations, while microstate C occurred more often and for longer durations. Transition probabilities also shifted, with more transitions from A and B to C and fewer from A to B. These changes appeared across delta, theta, and beta frequency bands, with additional band-specific effects for microstates A and D. The findings suggest EC involves a reweighting of self-referential and sensory processes.
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
January 13, 2026
Caitlin Baten, Gladys Zamora, Amanda M. Klassen et al.
A meta-analysis of 135 fMRI studies involving 6,391 participants found that youth and adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) show different patterns of brain activation during tasks. Compared to adults with MDD, youth with MDD had distinct activation differences in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). After controlling for illness duration, youth showed less activation than adults with shorter-duration MDD in regions like the sgACC. Among adults, those with longer-duration MDD showed less activation in the dlPFC compared to those with shorter-duration MDD. These results suggest that both age and length of illness matter for understanding brain changes in depression.
Imaging Neuroscience
January 1, 2026
Hagar Tal, Winson F.z. Yang, Matthew D. Sacchet
Neurofeedback (NF) has been proposed as a tool to support meditation practice, but a systematic review mapping the field across clinical and non-clinical contexts reveals that most studies are proof-of-concept and vary widely in design, implementation, and outcome measures. While NF consistently modulates neural activity, evidence for corresponding improvements in behavior, phenomenology, or transferable meditative skills remains limited. The review concludes that additional research is essential to determine whether NF can help practitioners overcome common meditative barriers, such as anxiety and self-doubt, and accelerate meditative development from novice to advanced meditators.
December 9, 2025
Sebastian Ehmann, Terje Sparby, Vanessa Naughton et al.
preprint
Advanced meditators report profound psychological changes across emotional, cognitive, interpersonal, and existential domains, including vast improvements in baseline well-being, consistently strong positive attitudes, increased positive affect, enhanced mental clarity and attentional stability, positive shifts in life orientation, and transformative changes in mental health conditions. Many described existential insights arising through resolving psychological difficulties, leading to reduced suffering and deeper meaning. Additional themes included synergistic effects between meditation, psychotherapy, and psychedelics. This provides initial empirical evidence that advanced meditation supports profound psychological transformation and reduced suffering.
arXiv (Cornell University)
November 26, 2025
Jonas Mago, Josh Brahinsky, Mark Miller et al.
During a 10-day retreat, ten experienced meditation practitioners showed that neural dynamics can be volitionally shifted toward a critical regime—a state between order and chaos that supports flexible yet stable information processing. Compared to regular mindfulness of breathing, a refined state of meditative absorption called jhana produced pronounced sensory fading, slower respiration, higher neural signal diversity, reduced chaoticity, and enhanced mismatch negativity amplitude over frontocentral sites. Spectral analyses revealed a flatter aperiodic component and reorganization of long-range temporal correlations. These findings suggest that criticality is a candidate neurophysiological marker of absorptive, minimal-content experiences.
November 23, 2025
Terje Sparby, Matthew D. Sacchet
preprint
Meditation can lead to advanced meditative endpoints (MEND), often called awakening, enlightenment, or nirvana. Different Buddhist traditions and contemporary mindfulness teachers describe nirvana in conflicting ways: as ultimate reality beyond awareness, as pure awareness itself, as the cessation of suffering, as ultimate happiness, as ineffable, or as paradoxical. These varied views make it difficult to study nirvana scientifically. The authors propose an integrated taxonomy that unifies these perspectives by distinguishing between ways of entering MEND, MEND events, and persistent MEND. This framework provides a starting point for investigating MEND beyond the specific case of nirvana.
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
November 13, 2025
Winson F.z. Yang, Ruby M. Potash, Grace Mackin et al.
preprint
Advanced concentration absorption meditation (ACAM-J) produces a distinct, structured mode of awareness characterized by stable positive states and reduced narrative thought. In the first ultra-high-field (7T) fMRI study of jhana meditation, neural trajectories across eight successive states showed reorganization from anterior to posterior brain regions, flattening of cortical hierarchies, and nonlinear changes in global brain harmonics. These brain changes were tightly linked to equanimity, attentional stability, and behavior. Brain activity patterns associated with ACAM-J related more to attentional monitoring than to suffering-related processes. The findings suggest advanced meditation offers a framework for understanding psychological transformation and supporting human well-being.
October 8, 2025
Sebastian Ehmann, Brian Lord, Erica Cook et al.
preprint
Inhibiting the posterior cingulate cortex with transcranial focused ultrasound during a ten-day silent retreat enhanced meditative qualities such as equanimity, concentration, and sensory clarity. Twenty-eight meditators received two stimulation sessions and reported significant increases in trait mindfulness, nondual awareness, and interoceptive body listening. Qualitative reports showed consistent differences between stimulation and non-stimulation days, including shifts in self-perception and cathartic emotional release. The effects often interacted with participants' ongoing psychological challenges, suggesting tFUS may increase baseline equanimity and support meditative development. Implementation was feasible but required logistical planning; limitations include the quasi-experimental design and reliance on self-reports.
bioRxiv
September 25, 2025
Jakub Vohryzek, Edmundo Lopez-Sola, Winson F.z. Yang et al.
preprint
Advanced concentrative absorption meditation (jhāna) produces a shift in brain dynamics toward near-criticality, a state of heightened flexibility and integration. Using 7T fMRI and whole-brain modeling, the study found that later absorption states, considered minimal phenomenal experiences, show increased large-scale functional integration and a shift of the default mode network from a noise-driven regime to near-critical dynamics. This near-critical regime is interpreted as a form of openness, where constrained brain activity gives way to greater flexibility, correlating with broader attention and reduced narrative thought. The trajectory of these states is non-linear, with major reconfigurations at key meditative milestones.
medRxiv
July 29, 2025
Yuwen He, Shan Lei, Wangli Si et al.
preprint
Mindfulness meditation training alters functional connectivity in the somatomotor network (SMN) in both healthy and depressed populations. In 51 healthy and 35 depressed participants, common changes involved SMN-attentional network connections, suggesting that training modulates attention through somatic awareness. Population-specific changes also emerged: healthy individuals showed SMN-subcortical network shifts, indicating more pervasive effects on automatic processes, while depressed individuals showed SMN-default mode network interactions, which may explain why mindfulness is effective for depression. These altered connectivity patterns significantly predicted insomnia improvements after training in both groups, highlighting shared and distinct neural mechanisms underlying mindfulness-related mental health benefits.
Neuroscience of Consciousness
January 1, 2025
Catherine Prueitt, Idil Sezer, Matthew D. Sacchet
Pain is an allostatic imperative that commands an organism to adapt a part of its body. Drawing on empirical studies of pain reprocessing during advanced meditation, allostatic paradigms of biological self-regulation, and the philosophy of pain in the classical Sanskrit Pratyabhijñā Śaivism tradition, this paper theorizes two components of an allostatic response: homeostatic responses, which are error-corrective and aim to return to a previous stable state, and heterostatic responses, which are anticipatory and shift to a new steady state to better prepare for future challenges. Successful adaptation depends on both error-correction and anticipatory change. A broad range of affect properly accompanies pain, and the model may extend to mental pain.
December 26, 2024
Idil Sezer, Matthew D. Sacchet
preprint
Meditation's effects on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) are inconsistent across studies, with reports of both sympathetic and parasympathetic activation, sympathetic-only, parasympathetic-only, or temporally variable patterns. This review synthesizes these heterogeneous findings by considering three explanatory factors: type of meditation, meditator expertise level, and intra-individual variations within a practice. Considering these factors reveals convergent patterns, shifting from the broad notion of 'long-term' meditation to a more precise characterization of 'advanced' meditation, highlighting skills, states, and stages of mastery. The synthesis identifies specific heart rate variability patterns, including very low and low-frequency spectral power peaks, along with cardiac and respiratory coupling, which can inform improved meditation training.
European Psychiatry
April 1, 2024
J. H. Shepherd, A. Hickman, C.t.m. Baten et al.
Acute ketamine administration alters neural activation in multiple cortical and subcortical regions in healthy people, as shown by a meta-analysis of 18 fMRI studies with 306 participants. The analysis used multilevel kernel density analysis and ensemble thresholding to minimize bias. These findings help map the functional neuroanatomical effects of ketamine, which may inform its therapeutic use for psychiatric and neurological conditions. Future research should examine both short- and long-term neural effects in clinical populations.
European Psychiatry
April 1, 2024
A. M. Klassen, C.t.m. Baten, J. H. Shepherd et al.
Repeated-dose intravenous ketamine is an effective rapid-acting treatment for treatment-resistant depression. In a large-scale analysis of 1,182 participants across 51 primary studies, intravenous ketamine produced statistically significant reductions in depression symptoms compared to placebo and other control conditions, as measured by standardized clinician and self-report scales. The findings provide quantitative support for ketamine's effectiveness in treatment-resistant depression and highlight variations in treatment parameters across the literature.
November 22, 2023
Rosalind McAlpine, Katarina Krajnović, Maisha M. Khan et al.
preprint
A self-directed, 21-day digital course (Digital Intervention for Psychedelic Preparation, DIPP) was developed to help people prepare for psychedelic experiences. The course is based on a four-factor model of psychedelic preparedness: Knowledge-Expectation, Psychophysical-Readiness, Safety-Planning, and Intention-Preparation. It includes daily meditation, weekly exercises, and mood tracking. Development followed the UK Medical Research Council framework for complex interventions and used a person-centred, co-design approach. Interviews with 19 past retreat attendees and co-design workshops with 28 current retreat attendees shaped the intervention. DIPP offers a scalable, digital solution to enhance preparedness, aiming to limit adverse reactions and improve therapeutic benefits.
European Psychiatry
March 1, 2023
J. H. Shepherd, C.t.m. Baten, A. C. Klassen et al.
Serotonergic psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA significantly alter neural activation in several regions of the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia. Some effects are common across these drugs, while others are unique to each substance. This meta-analysis combined functional MRI studies of both clinical and healthy participants, using multilevel kernel density analysis with ensemble thresholding. The findings clarify the functional neuroanatomy associated with these drugs and may guide future research into their therapeutic and adverse effects, particularly for emerging psychiatric treatments.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
July 1, 2026
Caitlin Baten, Arielle S Keller, Chris H. Miller et al.
A quantitative whole-brain meta-analysis of 34 fMRI studies involving 700 individuals examined four meditation practices: focused attention, open monitoring, mantra, and loving-kindness. Consistent activation across practices appeared in the rolandic operculum, insula, superior temporal gyrus, supplementary motor area, and hippocampus. Functional decoding linked meditation engagement to self-monitoring, reappraisal, motivation, experience, and awareness states. Meta-analytic comparisons revealed distinct neural patterns unique to each practice. These findings provide the most robust scientific characterization of the neural mechanisms of meditative states to date, setting the stage for future research into advanced meditation and clearer phenomenological characterization.
Neuron
May 6, 2026
Matthew D. Sacchet, Jonathan M. Lieberman
Advanced meditation research, known as third wave meditation research, explores the states, stages, and endpoints of meditation practice that arise with greater expertise. This review examines current neuroscientific findings in this area, proposes future research directions, and discusses the broad implications of this emerging scientific subfield.
Journal of Psychiatric Research
December 1, 2022
David H Rosmarin, Caroline C Kaufman, Stephanie Friree Ford et al.
A systematic review of 18 studies that simultaneously examined spirituality/religion (S/R), mental health, and neurobiology found that most studies were of moderate to high methodological quality. The review highlights the need for more research in this area, particularly studies that use validated assessments of S/R. The findings address the neurobiological correlates of S/R in relation to depression, anxiety, alcohol/substance misuse, and psychosis, but the relationships across all three domains remain unclear.