Impacts of Mindfulness Meditation on Episodic Memory: A Review of Recent Studies

A scoping review of 26 papers from 2010 to 2024 found that mindfulness practices moderately improve recall and recognition accuracy but can either increase or reduce false memories. Mindfulness may benefit memory in clinical populations like depression but not memory decline in aging. Some evidence indicates mindfulness meditation increases grey matter concentration and function in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus and enhances theta oscillatory communication among the frontal-parietal-medial temporal lobe memory network, suggesting mindfulness affects memory through brain networks underlying episodic memory. Further behavioral and brain imaging research is needed.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The primary aim of this review was to investigate the specific cognitive and neural effects of mindfulness practices on veridical and false episodic memory and the impact of these effects on memory in clinical populations. A scoping review was conducted to assess and synthesize this recent research, focusing on 26 papers from 2010 to 2024 on the topic of mindfulness and human episodic memory. Overall, findings suggest that mindfulness moderately improves recall and recognition accuracy but may either increase or reduce false memories. Although further research is needed to clarify which individuals benefit most from mindfulness interventions, mindfulness may be beneficial for improving memory in clinical populations, such as patients with depression, but may not be beneficial for memory decline in aging. In addition to these behavioral effects, some research suggests that mindfulness meditation may lead to increases in grey matter concentration and function in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus and increases in theta oscillatory communication among the frontal-parietal-medial temporal lobe memory network. These results suggest that mindfulness impacts memory by affecting the brain networks related to episodic memory. Although the research reviewed here has shown some promising effects of mindfulness on episodic memory, future research should be done to expand on these findings in behavioral studies, focusing more on standardized meditation lengths and practices. Increased use of brain imaging in studies is also needed to understand the mechanisms underlying these effects on episodic memory. This study is not preregistered.