Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials during Meditation
Shirley Telles, Singh Deepeshwar, Kalkuni Visweswaraiah Naveen, Subramanya Pailoor
Clinical EEG and Neuroscience October 1, 2015 DOI: 10.1177/1550059414544737 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Within-subjects experimental design Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 60 |
| Population | Male participants aged 18–31 years |
| Interventions | meditation random thinking nonmeditative focusing meditative focusing |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Meditation significantly decreased the peak latency of the P2 component, indicating faster auditory information processing. |
Abstract
The auditory sensory pathway has been studied in meditators, using midlatency and short latency auditory evoked potentials. The present study evaluated long latency auditory evoked potentials (LLAEPs) during meditation. Sixty male participants, aged between 18 and 31 years (group mean ± SD, 20.5 ± 3.8 years), were assessed in 4 mental states based on descriptions in the traditional texts. They were ( a) random thinking, ( b) nonmeditative focusing, ( c) meditative focusing, and ( d) meditation. The order of the sessions was randomly assigned. The LLAEP components studied were P1 (40-60 ms), N1 (75-115 ms), P2 (120-180 ms), and N2 (180-280 ms). For each component, the peak amplitude and peak latency were measured from the prestimulus baseline. There was significant decrease in the peak latency of the P2 component during and after meditation ( P < .001; analysis of variance and post hoc analysis with Bonferroni adjustment). The P1, P2, and N2 components showed a significant decrease in peak amplitudes during random thinking ( P < .01; P < .001; P < .01, respectively) and nonmeditative focused thinking ( P < .01; P < .01; P < .05, respectively). The results suggest that meditation facilitates the processing of information in the auditory association cortex, whereas the number of neurons recruited was smaller in random thinking and non-meditative focused thinking, at the level of the secondary auditory cortex, auditory association cortex and anterior cingulate cortex.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 8
- A selective review of dharana and dhyana in healthy participants Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine October 1, 2016
- Neurophysiological mechanisms of focused attention meditation: A scoping systematic review Imaging Neuroscience 2025
- Effect of one‐session focused attention meditation on the working memory capacity of meditation novices: A functional near‐infrared spectroscopy study Brain and Behavior August 1, 2021
- A Critical Analysis on Characterizing the Meditation Experience Through the Electroencephalogram Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience August 7, 2020
- P300 and Heart Rate Variability Recorded Simultaneously in Meditation Clinical EEG and Neuroscience May 1, 2019
and 3 more in the library
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and 1 more in the library