Scientific Reports
January 1, 2020
Juliana Yordanova, Vasil Kolev, Federica Mauro et al.
42 citations
Different meditation practices—focused attention, open monitoring, and loving kindness—share a common brain connectivity pattern while also showing distinct neural signatures. Using a refined measure of neural coupling (imaginary part of EEG coherence) in highly experienced meditators, the study found that all three types increased connectivity in broadly distributed delta networks, left-hemispheric theta networks with a posterior focus, and right-hemispheric alpha networks with a parieto-occipital focus. Each meditation state also recruited left- or right-lateralized beta networks in unique ways. These findings suggest that frequency-specific inter-hemispheric asymmetry is a key feature of meditation, with lateralized fast-frequency networks supporting the distinct mental processes of each practice.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
October 6, 2017
Joseph Glicksohn, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Federica Mauro et al.
38 citations
Exposure to a monotonous sensory environment can alter time perception and subjective experience. Participants spent 20 minutes in a whole-body altered sensory chamber with white and colored light, relaxing with eyes closed. Before entering, they completed a time-production task; one group repeated it inside the chamber, another after exiting. The main effect of the sensory environment was a change in the intercept of the psychophysical function when produced time was plotted against target duration on a log-log scale. For participants reporting a marked change in time experience, such as the sensation of time disappearing, their time-production data could not be linearized on a log-log plot, suggesting a possible break in the psychophysical function.
Mindfulness
January 28, 2022
Valentina Nicolardi, Luca Simione, Domenico Scaringi et al.
28 citations
Pain arises from both bodily and mental factors, which can be regulated by meditation. Long-term meditators had higher pain thresholds than short-term meditators. In short-term meditators, focused attention and open monitoring meditation reduced pain, while all three meditation types (including loving kindness) reduced aversion and identification with pain. In long-term meditators, only loving kindness meditation reduced pain, and identification was reduced by all three forms, but aversion was unaffected. Pain was predicted to increase with meditation expertise, aversion, and identification. Causal analysis showed that aversion and pain, and aversion and identification, influenced each other, while identification causally influenced pain. The findings support the Buddhist model of the "second arrow of pain," where mental factors co-produce pain.
Scientific Reports
March 1, 2021
Juliana Yordanova, Vasil Kolev, Valentina Nicolardi et al.
Meditation practice engages cognitive control systems in the brain. Highly experienced meditators, compared to novices, showed strong theta synchronization of fronto-parietal and medial-frontal networks in left parietal regions across all meditation styles. Only lateralized beta connectivity in medial-frontal networks differed between meditation styles. Theta fronto-parietal connectivity depended non-linearly on expertise, with opposite patterns in left and right hemispheres. Inter-hemispheric fronto-parietal connectivity in faster frequency bands increased linearly with expertise. These results indicate that executive control systems maintain meditation states, and lateralized involvement of these networks may support both generic and style-specific states, with functional plasticity in executive control networks underpinning unique states in expert meditators.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2026
Federica Mauro
Well-being is proposed as a dynamically maintained viability corridor defined by hierarchically organized prior expectations about preferred affective and interoceptive states, rather than a fixed scalar quantity. Homeostasis maintains vital variables within viable bounds, while allostasis predictively achieves stability under changing conditions. Affective experience is described in information-theoretic terms: arousal as information gain from prediction error and prior uncertainty, valence following an inverted-U relationship. Health is reconceptualized as metastable attunement—a dynamic balance between stability and exploration. Happiness reflects regulation proceeding better than expected at acceptable energetic cost; eudaimonia emerges from alignment of action with identity-level priors; psychological richness reflects epistemic exploration expanding the generative model.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
May 4, 2011
Cristina Marzano, Michele Ferrara, Federica Mauro et al.
Dream recall after awakening is linked to specific brain oscillations that differ between REM and NREM sleep. After REM sleep, higher frontal theta activity (5-7 Hz) predicts successful dream recall, mirroring the brain activity seen when encoding episodic memories while awake. After stage 2 NREM sleep, lower alpha activity (8-12 Hz) in the right temporal area predicts successful recall. These findings suggest that the neurophysiological mechanisms for encoding and recalling episodic memories may be consistent across different states of consciousness.