Spectral power and functional connectivity changes during mindfulness meditation with eyes open: A magnetoencephalography (MEG) study in long-term meditators.
W P Wong, David A Camfield, W Woods, Jerome Sarris, A Pipingas
International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology October 1, 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.07.006 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 23 |
| Population | 11 long-term mindfulness meditators (>5 years experience) and 12 meditation-naïve controls |
| Topics | Default mode network Meditation |
| Keywords | Eyes-open resting state Functional connectivity Gamma power Magnetoencephalography meg Phase synchronisation Theta power |
| Key findings | Long-term meditators show greater theta band connectivity and lower gamma band connectivity during eyes-open rest and meditation compared to controls. |
Abstract
Whilst a number of previous studies have been conducted in order to investigate functional brain changes associated with eyes-closed meditation techniques, there is a relative scarcity in the literature with regards to changes occurring during eyes-open meditation. The current project used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate differences in spectral power and functional connectivity between 11 long-term mindfulness meditators (LTMMs) with >5 years of experience and 12 meditation-naïve control participants both during baseline eyes-open rest and eyes-open open-monitoring (OM) mindfulness meditation. During resting with eyes-open, prior to meditating, greater mean alpha power was observed for LTMMs in comparison to controls. However, during the course of OM meditation, a significantly greater increase in theta power was observed over a broad fronto-centro-parietal region for control participants in comparison to LTMMs. In contrast, whole-head mean connectivity was found to be significantly greater for long-term meditators in comparison to controls in the theta band both during rest as well as during meditation. Additionally, mean connectivity was significantly lower for long-term meditators in the low gamma band during rest and significantly lower in both low and high gamma bands during meditation; and the variance of low-gamma connectivity scores for long-term meditators was significantly decreased compared to the control group. The current study provides important new information as to the trait functional changes in brain activity associated with long-term mindfulness meditation, as well as the state changes specifically associated with eyes-open open monitoring meditation techniques.