Closed-loop Digital Meditation Improves Sustained Attention in Young Adults

Six weeks of using a meditation-inspired, closed-loop mobile app called MediTrain improved sustained attention and working memory in healthy young adults. These cognitive gains were accompanied by positive changes in neural signatures of attentional control, specifically frontal theta inter-trial coherence and parietal P3b latency, as measured by electroencephalography. The findings suggest that delivering aspects of focused-attention meditation through a modern technology-based approach can enhance attention in a population where such improvement has proven difficult.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Attention is a fundamental cognitive process that is critical for essentially all aspects of higher-order cognition and real-world activities. Younger generations have deeply embraced information technology and multitasking in their personal lives, school and the workplace, creating myriad challenges to their attention. While improving sustained attention in healthy young adults would be beneficial, enhancing this ability has proven notoriously difficult in this age group. Here we show that 6 weeks of engagement with a meditation-inspired, closed-loop software program (MediTrain) delivered on mobile devices led to gains in both sustained attention and working memory in healthy young adults. These improvements were associated with positive changes in key neural signatures of attentional control (frontal theta inter-trial coherence and parietal P3b latency), as measured by electroencephalography. Our findings suggest the utility of delivering aspects of the ancient practice of focused-attention meditation in a modern, technology-based approach and its benefits on enhancing sustained attention. Ziegler et al. show that healthy young adults who used a meditation-inspired closed-loop app (MediTrain) for 6 weeks experienced gains in both sustained attention and working memory.