Nonlinear EEG signatures of mind wandering during breath focus meditation.
Yiqing Lu, Julio Rodriguez-Larios
Current Research in Neurobiology 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.crneur.2022.100056 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Within-subjects experience sampling paradigm Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 25 |
| Population | Novice meditation practitioners |
| Intervention | breath focus meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Apen, approximate entropy Bf, breath focus Ctrl, control EEG, Electroencephalography Lzc, lempel-ziv complexity Mw, mind wandering Nonlinear analysis Sampen, sample entropy |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | EEG complexity was generally reduced during mind wandering relative to breath focus states. |
Abstract
In meditation practices that involve focused attention to a specific object, novice practitioners often experience moments of distraction (i.e., mind wandering). Previous studies have investigated the neural correlates of mind wandering during meditation practice through Electroencephalography (EEG) using linear metrics (e.g., oscillatory power). However, their results are not fully consistent. Since the brain is known to be a chaotic/nonlinear system, it is possible that linear metrics cannot fully capture complex dynamics present in the EEG signal. In this study, we assess whether nonlinear EEG signatures can be used to characterize mind wandering during breath focus meditation in novice practitioners. For that purpose, we adopted an experience sampling paradigm in which 25 participants were iteratively interrupted during meditation practice to report whether they were focusing on the breath or thinking about something else. We compared the complexity of EEG signals during mind wandering and breath focus states using three different algorithms: Higuchi's fractal dimension (HFD), Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC), and Sample entropy (SampEn). Our results showed that EEG complexity was generally reduced during mind wandering relative to breath focus states. We conclude that EEG complexity metrics are appropriate to disentangle mind wandering from breath focus states in novice meditation practitioners, and therefore, they could be used in future EEG neurofeedback protocols to facilitate meditation practice.
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 16
- Mindfulness meditation styles differently modulate source-level MEG microstate dynamics and complexity Frontiers in Neuroscience February 2, 2024
- Meditation and Complexity: a Systematic Review June 28, 2023
- Meditation and complexity: a review and synthesis of evidence. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2025
- Neurophysiological mechanisms of focused attention meditation: A scoping systematic review Imaging Neuroscience 2025
- Uncovering a stability signature of brain dynamics associated with meditation experience using massive time-series feature extraction. Neural Networks March 1, 2024
and 11 more in the library
Cites 22
- Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 23, 2011
- The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014
- REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics Pharmacological Reviews June 20, 2019
- Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering Psychological Science March 28, 2013
- Investigating the phenomenological matrix of mindfulness-related practices from a neurocognitive perspective. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
and 17 more in the library