Electrophysiological evidence of the differential modulation of approach‐related processes toward attractive foods by immersive or mindful viewing conditions

Constanza Baquedano; Vladimir Lopez; Diego Cosmelli; Antoine Lutz

doi:10.1111/ejn.14632

Electrophysiological evidence of the differential modulation of approach‐related processes toward attractive foods by immersive or mindful viewing conditions

Constanza Baquedano, Vladimir Lopez, Diego Cosmelli, Antoine Lutz

European Journal of Neuroscience December 2, 2019 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14632 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract

Characteristics	Experimental study Peer reviewed
Population	Novices and experienced meditators
Interventions	mindful instruction immersed instruction
Topics	Meditation
Keywords	Mind-wandering Cognitive psychology Psychological intervention Cognition Psychotherapist
Citations	8
Key findings	Mindful instruction compared to immersed instruction modulated approach bias toward attractive food via early selective attention (N1 amplitude), and experienced meditators engaged in less late affective reappraisal during mindfulness.

Abstract

Awareness of mental events as mere representations rather than as accurate depictions of reality, also known as dereification, is one of the key features of mindfulness meditation. Dereification is juxtaposed to subjective realism, the process of being lost or totally immersed in the contents of one's mind. Excessive subjective realism is a hallmark of several psychiatric disorders. Here, we investigated whether a "mindful" (dereified) compared with an "immersed" (highly subjectively real) attitude, induced by instructions, differentially modulates approach-avoidance tendencies when processing visual stimuli. We presented novices and experienced meditators with neutral and attractive food images under both mindful and immersed states. Then, participants performed an approach-avoidance Task (AAT) during which we obtained behavioral data, salivary volume, EEG recordings, and self-report measures. The approach bias toward attractive food was correlated with N2 amplitude, a marker of response inhibition, and the regulation of this bias by the mindful instruction compared to the immersed instruction was associated with a modulation of the visual N1 amplitude, a marker of early selective attention. Individuals with more expertise in mindfulness meditation engaged in less late affective reappraisal during mindfulness than during immersion, as measured by lower amplitude in the late positive potential (LPP). Additionally, the ERPs sensitive to the AAT manipulation was also associated to self-report measures of subjective realism, food bias, and mindfulness meditation expertise but not to salivation measures. These findings provide novel insights into the mechanisms by which mindfulness-based interventions could be effective in a range of psychiatric conditions.

Comparable studies

Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.

Study	Year	Design
The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study)	2003	Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study
Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness.	2008	Controlled laboratory experiment
Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs.	2012	Two studies: correlational study and experimental study
Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence	2009	Experimental study
Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population	2006	Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition

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