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)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pre-post intervention study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | First-time meditators |
| Duration | Short-term session |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | 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.
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 11
- Effects of long-term mindfulness meditation training on attentional capacity in professional male fencer athletes. Scientific Reports April 15, 2025
- Novel machine learning-driven comparative analysis of CSP, STFT, and CSP-STFT fusion for EEG data classification across multiple meditation and non-meditation sessions in BCI pipeline Brain Informatics February 8, 2025
- Effect of Mind Sound Resonance Technique (MSRT) on Cognitive and Psychophysiological Functions in College Students: A Randomised Controlled Study. Annals of Neurosciences February 28, 2025
- Attention and meditative development: A review and synthesis of long-term meditators and outlook for the study of advanced meditation. Neuroimage November 19, 2025
- Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Sensory Perception and Emotional Evaluation of Mid-Air Touch on the Forearm IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing July 1, 2025
and 6 more in the library
Cites 10
- Review of the Neural Oscillations Underlying Meditation Frontiers in Neuroscience March 26, 2018
- The Meditative Mind: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis of MRI Studies BioMed Research International 2015
- Effects of psilocybin on functional connectivity measured with fNIRS: Insights from a single-subject pilot study Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) 2019
- Meditation and the brain - Neuronal correlates of mindfulness as assessed with near-infrared spectroscopy. Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging January 30, 2018
- Blood Pressure Response to Meditation and Yoga: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine September 2017
and 5 more in the library