Neural Effects of Meditation Following a Randomized Controlled Trial of the Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE).

Mindfulness training may help autistic individuals regulate emotions by altering brain activity patterns. In a randomized controlled trial, 39 autistic adults completed an affective attention task while wearing an EEG headset before and after either the Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE) program or an active control therapy. Machine learning classifiers distinguished the EASE group from the control group with 88% to 92% accuracy based on post-training EEG features. Changes in theta and beta brainwave power, particularly in response to rewarding versus unfavorable feedback, differed significantly between groups. These neural changes were most pronounced in autistic individuals who showed clinical improvement from the intervention, suggesting mindfulness-based programs can modulate brain systems supporting adaptive emotional responses.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mindfulness has promise for enhancing emotion regulation in autistic individuals. Electroencephalography (EEG) emerges as an ideal, objective measure of neural responses before and after mindfulness practice. In a study with 39 autistic individuals, EEG analysis assessed the impact of mindfulness in the participants in a randomized controlled clinical trial of the Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE) program compared to a control group. Participants completed an affective Posner Task while wearing an EEG headset during two visits. In between visits, each participant either received EASE or active control therapy. Using random forest classifiers over the Post-Visit EEG features baseline corrected by Pre-Visit, the study achieved 88.48% to 91.86% accuracy in distinguishing EASE and Control groups under distress, non-distress, and neutral conditions. Linear mixed-effects models applied across the full EEG feature set revealed significant Visit $\times $ Feedback $\times $ Group interactions in central theta and midline and occipital beta band power, with post-hoc analyses indicating these effects were primarily driven by differential neural responses to rewarding versus unfavorable feedback. The EASE group demonstrated distinct pre-to-post changes in these features relative to the Control group, suggesting intervention-related modulation of neural systems supporting adaptive responses to emotionally meaningful feedback. These findings underscore mindfulness' positive influence on emotion regulation potentially showing its effects as neural oscillations matching the results from existing literature. Subgroup analysis based on Clinical Global Impressions threshold scores identified responders and non-responders with LME analyses confirming greater intervention-related EEG changes in EASE responders compared to Control responders.Our findings provide valuable insights into potential benefits of mindfulness-based interventions for autistic people, highlighting the neurophysiological effects of such programs.