Emotion Self-Regulation in Neurotic Students: A Pilot Mindfulness-Based Intervention to Assess Its Effectiveness through Brain Signals and Behavioral Data
Lila Iznita Izhar, Areej Babiker, Rizki Edmi Edison, Cheng‐Kai Lu, Mohammad Abdul Rahman
Sensors March 31, 2022 DOI: 10.3390/s22072703 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pre-post intervention study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Undergraduate neurotic students |
| Intervention | Breathing-based mindfulness intervention |
| Duration | 6-week intervention |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Keywords | Neuroticism Electroencephalography Intervention counseling Clinical psychology Personality |
| Citations | 21 |
| Key points | A 6-week breathing-based mindfulness intervention significantly reduced anxiety and stress levels and altered emotion regulation strategy use in neurotic students, with EEG changes indicating neural correlates. |
Abstract
Neuroticism has recently received increased attention in the psychology field due to the finding of high implications of neuroticism on an individual’s life and broader public health. This study aims to investigate the effect of a brief 6-week breathing-based mindfulness intervention (BMI) on undergraduate neurotic students’ emotion regulation. We acquired data of their psychological states, physiological changes, and electroencephalogram (EEG), before and after BMI, in resting states and tasks. Through behavioral analysis, we found the students’ anxiety and stress levels significantly reduced after BMI, with p-values of 0.013 and 0.027, respectively. Furthermore, a significant difference between students in emotion regulation strategy, that is, suppression, was also shown. The EEG analysis demonstrated significant differences between students before and after MI in resting states and tasks. Fp1 and O2 channels were identified as the most significant channels in evaluating the effect of BMI. The potential of these channels for classifying (single-channel-based) before and after BMI conditions during eyes-opened and eyes-closed baseline trials were displayed by a good performance in terms of accuracy (~77%), sensitivity (76–80%), specificity (73–77%), and area-under-the-curve (AUC) (0.66–0.8) obtained by k-nearest neighbor (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms. Mindfulness can thus improve the self-regulation of the emotional state of neurotic students based on the psychometric and electrophysiological analyses conducted in this study.
Comparable studies
Other non-randomized and open-label trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress, and Immune Parameters in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients Early-stage breast and prostate cancer patients | 2003 | Pre-post intervention study | n = 59 |
| Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Community sample | 2010 | Pre-post intervention study | |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers Psychological Distress In Medical Students Second-year medical students | 2003 | Prospective nonrandomized cohort-controlled study | n = 302 |
| Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Retreat participants and matched controls | 2011 | Controlled trial with wait-list control group | n = 60 |
| The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents Children aged 8-12 with ADHD and their parents | 2011 | Within-group waitlist controlled trial | n = 22 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- A Stratified Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Training on Endurance Performance: Moderating Role of Frontal Alpha Asymmetry Response to Distress Mindfulness April 22, 2026
- Changes in Mental Health and EEG Biomarkers of Undergraduates Under Different Patterns of Mindfulness. Brain Topography December 25, 2023
- A Pilot Study to Assess the Effects of Guided Voice-Synthesized Mindfulness Meditation on University Students through EEG Measurement 2023 IEEE Colombian Caribbean Conference November 22, 2023
- Mindfulness and Endurance Performance in Distance Runners: The Mediator Role of Prefrontal Resting-State Activity
Cites 24
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders American Journal of Psychiatry July 1, 1992
- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Neuroreport November 7, 2005
- Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences October 11, 2007
- A systematic review of the neurophysiology of mindfulness on EEG oscillations Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 2015
and 19 more in the library