Short-Term Effects of Meditation on Sustained Attention as Measured by fNIRS
M. Izzetoglu, P. Shewokis, Kathryn Tsai, Phillip Dantoin, Kathryn Sparango, Katherine Min
Brain Science September 1, 2020 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10090608 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA single session of loving-kindness meditation improved sustained attention in first-time meditators. Behavioral performance on the Stroop color word task showed significantly faster response times after meditation. Pulse pressure, a physiological measure, dropped significantly after the session. Functional near infrared spectroscopy revealed significant changes in oxygenated, deoxygenated, and total hemoglobin levels in the brain during task performance before and after meditation. The findings suggest that even a brief meditation practice can enhance cognitive, physiological, and behavioral outcomes in novices.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Pre-post intervention study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | First-time meditators |
| Duration | Short-term session |
| Keywords | Medicine Psychology |
| Key finding | Loving-kindness meditation significantly decreased response time and pulse pressure, and altered cerebral hemodynamics during sustained attention task performance in first-time meditators. |
Abstract
Cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, processing time, perception, and reasoning can be augmented using some type of intervention. Within the broad range of conventional and unconventional intervention methods used in cognitive enhancement, meditation is one of those that is safe, widely practiced by many since ancient times, and has been shown to reduce stress and improve psychological health and cognitive functioning. Various neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) have shown functional and structural changes due to meditation in different types of meditation practices and on various groups of meditators. Recently, a few studies on meditation have used functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study the effects of meditation on cerebral hemodynamics. In this study, we examined the short-term effects of loving-kindness (LK) meditation on sustained attention using behavioral performance measures, physiological outcomes, and cognitive activity as measured by fNIRS in first-time meditators during Stroop color word task (SCWT) performance. Our results indicated that behavioral outcomes, assessed mainly on response time (RT) during SCWT performance, showed a significant decrease after meditation. As expected, physiological measures, primarily pulse pressure (PP) measured after meditation dropped significantly as compared to the before meditation measurement. For the hemodynamic measures of oxygenated-hemoglobin (HbO2), deoxygenated-hemoglobin (Hb), and total-hemoglobin (HbT), our findings show significant differences in SCWT performance before and after meditation. Our results suggest that LK meditation can result in improvements in cognitive, physiological, and behavioral outcomes of first-time meditators after a short-term session.