Spontaneous Visual Imagery During Meditation for Creating Visual Art: An EEG and Brain Stimulation Case Study
Caroline di Bernardi Luft, Никита Дрозд, Michael J. Banissy, Joydeep Bhattacharya
Frontiers in Psychology February 22, 2019 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00210 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case study Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | An artist who experiences strong visual imagery during meditation |
| Interventions | gamma (40 Hz) and sham |
| Duration | Seven meditation sessions for EEG recording plus three separate sessions under tACS |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Vision Mental image Cognitive psychology Electroencephalography Cognition |
| Citations | 22 |
| Key findings | Occipital gamma power increased during deep meditation and was higher during spontaneous visual imagery episodes, while alpha tACS sharpened and shortened the images but gamma and sham stimulation had no effect. |
Abstract
Experienced meditators often report spontaneous visual imagery during deep meditation in the form of lights or other types of visual images. These experiences are usually interpreted as an "encounters with light" and gain mystical meaning. Contrary to the well-studied intentional and controlled visual imagery, spontaneous imagery is poorly understood, yet it plays an important role in creativity of visual artists. The neural correlates of such experiences are indeed hard to capture in laboratory settings. In this case study we aimed to investigate the neural correlates of spontaneous visual imagery in an artist who experiences strong visual imagery during meditation. She uses these images to create visual art. We recorded her EEG during seven meditation sessions in which she experienced visual imagery episodes (visions). To examine the functional role of the neural oscillations we also conducted three separate meditation sessions under different transcranial alternating current (tACS) brain stimulation: alpha (10 Hz), gamma (40 Hz) and sham. We observed a robust increase in occipital gamma power (30-70 Hz) during the deepest stage of meditation across all sessions. This gamma increase was consistent with the experience of spontaneous visual imagery: higher during visions compared to no visions. Alpha tACS was found to affect the contents of her visual imagery, making them sharper, shorter and causing more visions to occur; the artist reported that these sharp images were too detailed to be used in her art. Interestingly, gamma and sham stimulation had no impact on the visual imagery contents. Our findings raise the hypothesis that occipital gamma might be a neural marker of spontaneous visual imagery, which emerges in certain meditation practices of experienced meditators.
Comparable studies
Other case reports and case series on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brain sources of EEG gamma frequency during volitionally meditation-induced, altered states of consciousness, and experience of the self Advanced meditator | 2001 | Case study | n = 1 |
| Mindfulness Meditation for Alcohol Relapse Prevention: A Feasibility Pilot Study Adult alcohol-dependent graduates of an intensive outpatient program | 2008 | Prospective case series | n = 19 |
| How does it feel to lack a sense of boundaries? A case study of a long-term mindfulness meditator. A single long-term mindfulness practitioner (S) with 40 years of practice in... | 2015 | Qualitative case study | n = 1 |
| Loving‐kindness meditation to enhance recovery from negative symptoms of schizophrenia Individuals suffering from schizophrenia-spectrum disorders with persistent negative... | 2009 | Case study | |
| Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Problem Gambling A female problem gambler | 2011 | Case study | n = 1 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Meditation Increases the Entropy of Brain Oscillatory Activity Neuroscience February 4, 2020
- Neural Correlates of the Shamanic State of Consciousness Frontiers in Human Neuroscience March 18, 2021
- A Critical Analysis on Characterizing the Meditation Experience Through the Electroencephalogram Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience August 7, 2020
- Dynamic Alterations of EEG Oscillations and Networks from Resting to Deep Meditation 2019 12th International Congress on Image and Signal Processing, BioMedical Engineering and Informatics October 1, 2019
Cites 12
- Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 8, 2004
- Guiding the study of brain dynamics by using first-person data: Synchrony patterns correlate with ongoing conscious states during a simple visual task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 22, 2002
- Mindfulness-induced changes in gamma band activity – Implications for the default mode network, self-reference and attention Clinical Neurophysiology September 21, 2011
- Brain sources of EEG gamma frequency during volitionally meditation-induced, altered states of consciousness, and experience of the self Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging November 1, 2001
- A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives Frontiers in Psychology 2014
and 7 more in the library