Virtual Reality–Guided Meditation for Chronic Pain in Patients With Cancer: Exploratory Analysis of Electroencephalograph Activity
JMIR Biomedical Engineering June 24, 2021 Henry Fu, Bernie Garrett, Gordon Tao et al.
In adults with chronic cancer pain, a virtual reality (VR)-guided meditation session produced detectable changes in brain electrical activity. Electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings showed increased beta and gamma wave power during meditation compared with before and after the session, along with changes in theta and alpha waves in frontal, central, and parietal brain regions. Coherence (synchronization) between frontal, parietal, and occipital areas also shifted. However, these brain changes were not associated with participants' pain scores. The findings demonstrate that VR-guided meditation alters neurophysiological signals but do not link those signals to pain reduction.