After eight weeks of Taoist meditation training, beginners showed changes in resting-state brain activity and heart rate variability linked to sympathetic system activation compared to a control group that listened to audiobooks. However, no significant changes in central or autonomic nervous system activity occurred during the meditation sessions themselves in either group. This suggests that 16 hours of practice is insufficient for forming distinct individual strategies during meditation and casts doubt on the effectiveness of wearable biofeedback devices for tracking progress in novice meditators. Monitoring resting-state activity may be a better way to evaluate early changes from meditation practice.
Meditation is widely used for well-being, but it is unclear how quickly physiological changes appear in non-devoted practitioners. This work asks whether changes during meditation can be observed and used with biofeedback or neurofeedback to improve training outcomes.
During guided Taoist meditation, experienced meditators split into two subgroups with distinct physiological patterns. One subgroup showed general relaxation, with changes in heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and EEG activity. The other subgroup exhibited mind concentration patterns visible in EEG but no autonomic responses. Neither the duration or type of prior meditation experience nor baseline indicators explained this split. These results suggest two distinct meditation strategies may be used by experienced meditators, partly explaining inconsistent findings in earlier studies.