EEG oscillations reveal neuroplastic changes in pain processing associated with long-term meditation.
Juliana Yordanova, Valentina Nicolardi, Peter Malinowski, Luca Simione, Salvatore M. Aglioti, Antonino Raffone, Vasil Kolev
Scientific Reports March 27, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-94223-7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Highly experienced (long-term) meditators and non-experienced (short-term) meditators |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | EEG Pain-related oscillations |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key findings | Long-term meditators, compared to short-term meditators, show suppressed synchronization of pain-related oscillations in somatosensory regions within 200 ms of a noxious stimulus, predicted by increased pre-stimulus alpha activity, indicating proactive top-down inhibition of sensory pain processing. |
Abstract
The experience of pain is a combined product of bottom-up and top-down influences mediated by attentional and emotional factors. Meditation states and traits are characterized by enhanced attention/emotion regulation and expanded self-awareness that can be expected to modify pain processing. The main objective of the present study was to explore the effects of long-term meditation on neural mechanisms of pain processing. EEG pain-related oscillations (PROs) were analysed in highly experienced practitioners and novices during a non-meditative resting state with respect to (a) local frequency-specific and temporal synchronizing characteristics to reflect mainly bottom-up mechanisms, (b) spatial synchronizing patterns to reflect the neural communication of noxious information, (c) pre-stimulus oscillations to reflect top-down mechanisms during pain expectancy, and (d) the P3b component of the pain-related potential to compare the emotional/cognitive reappraisal of pain events by expert and novice meditators. Main results demonstrated that in experienced (long-term) meditators as compared to non-experienced (short-term) meditators (1) the temporal and spatial synchronizations of multispectral (from theta-alpha to gamma) PROs were substantially suppressed at primary and secondary somatosensory regions contra-lateral to pain stimulation within 200 ms after noxious stimulus; (2) pre-stimulus alpha activity was significantly increased at the same regions, which predicted the suppressed synchronization of PROs in long-term meditators; (3) the decrease of the P3b component was non-significant. These novel observations provide evidence that even when subjected to pain outside of meditation, experienced meditators exhibit a pro-active top-down inhibition of somatosensory areas resulting in suppressed processing and communication of sensory information at early stages of painful input. The emotional/cognitive appraisal of pain is reduced but remains preserved revealing a capacity of experienced meditators to dissociate pro-active and reactive top-down processes during pain control.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Differential Effects of Meditation States on Neural Pain Processing in Novice and Long-Term Meditators Mindfulness April 1, 2026
- Differential Effects of Meditation States and Traits on the Neural Mechanisms of Pain Processing bioRxiv Preprint Server May 20, 2025
- Investigating the Effect of the 6-Week Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Emerging Adults (EYL) on Stress Response, Brain Activity, and Self-Compassion Among Chinese University Students: An Electroencephalogram (EEG) Quasi-experimental Study Using Portable EEG Headband. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback April 21, 2026
Cites 32
- Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2012
- Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 28, 2007
- Neural mechanisms of attentional control in mindfulness meditation Frontiers in Neuroscience 2013
- Mindfulness meditation for the treatment of chronic low back pain in older adults: A randomized controlled pilot study ☆ Pain June 4, 2007
- Mindfulness meditation–based pain relief: a mechanistic account Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences June 1, 2016
and 27 more in the library