The Effect of Robot-Guided Meditation on Intra-Brain EEG Phase Synchronization

Practicing mindfulness meditation with a social robot, rather than listening to a lecture from the same robot, alters brain activity. Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings showed that the meditation group had significantly lower global phase synchrony in the beta frequency band compared to the control group. Lower beta synchrony has previously been linked to reduced cognitive processing and a mindful state in experienced meditators. The findings suggest that socially-assistive robots could be integrated into mental healthcare to deliver and monitor meditation interventions, and they introduce new measures for objectively tracking how human-robot interaction affects neurophysiological responses.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In this study, we examined the effect of mindfulness meditation facilitated by human-robot interaction (HRI) on brain activity. EEG signals were collected from two groups of participants; Meditation group who practiced mindfulness meditation with a social robot and Control group who only listened to a lecture by the robot. We compared brain functional connectivity between the two groups by computing EEG phase synchrony during HRI session. The results revealed a significantly lower global phase synchrony in beta frequency band of the Meditation group, which has been previously reported as an indication of reduced cognitive processing and achieving the mindful state in experienced meditators. Our findings demonstrate the potential of Socially-Assistive Robots (SAR) for integration in mental healthcare and optimization of the intervention effects. Additionally, our study puts forward new measures for objective monitoring of HRI effect on the user's neurophysiological responses.