A quantitative electroencephalographic study of meditation and binaural beat entrainment.
Christina F Lavallee, Stanley A. Koren, Michael A. Persinger
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine April 2011 DOI: 10.1089/acm.2009.0691 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Mixed design (between-subject and within-subject) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Novice and experienced meditators recruited from local meditation groups |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Experienced meditators showed increased left temporal lobe delta power with facilitative 7-Hz beats, while novices showed more gamma power with hindering 15-Hz beats and could not maintain occipital theta power. The authors argue experienced meditators have developed techniques to counter hindering stimuli. |
Abstract
The study objective was to determine the quantitative electroencephalographic correlates of meditation, as well as the effects of hindering (15 Hz) and facilitative (7 Hz) binaural beats on the meditative process. The study was a mixed design, with experience of the subject as the primary between-subject measure and power of the six classic frequency bands (δ, θ, low α, high α, β, γ), neocortical lobe (frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital), hemisphere (left, right), and condition (meditation only, meditation with 7-Hz beats, meditation with 15-Hz beats) as the within-subject measures. The study was conducted at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The subjects comprised novice (mean of 8 months experience) and experienced (mean of 18 years experience) meditators recruited from local meditation groups. Experimental manipulation included application of hindering and facilitative binaural beats to the meditative process. Experienced meditators displayed increased left temporal lobe δ power when the facilitative binaural beats were applied, whereas the effect was not observed for the novice subjects in this condition. When the hindering binaural beats were introduced, the novice subjects consistently displayed more γ power than the experienced subjects over the course of their meditation, relative to baseline. Based on the results of this study, novice meditators were not able to maintain certain levels of θ power in the occipital regions when hindering binaural beats were presented, whereas when the facilitative binaural beats were presented, the experienced meditators displayed increased θ power in the left temporal lobe. These results suggest that the experienced meditators have developed techniques over the course of their meditation practice to counter hindering environmental stimuli, whereas the novice meditators have not yet developed those techniques.
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 5
- Lightening the mind with audiovisual stimulation as an accessible alternative to breath-focused meditation for mood and cognitive enhancement. Scientific Reports October 26, 2024
- Effects of Binaural Beat Music and Esketamine for ECT in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 2025
- Lightening the Mind: Comparing Audiovisual Stimulation and Meditation for Mood and Cognition Enhancement Research Square March 14, 2024
- Intraoperative Meditation Music as an Adjunct to Subarachnoid Block for the Improvement of Postoperative Outcomes Following Cesarean Section: A Randomized Placebo-controlled Comparative Study. Anesthesia, essays and researches 2018
- Brain Responses to a 6-Hz Binaural Beat: Effects on General Theta Rhythm and Frontal Midline Theta Activity. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2017
Cites 6
- Transcendental Meditation and general meditation are associated with enhanced complex partial epileptic-like signs: evidence for "cognitive" kindling? Perceptual and Motor Skills February 1, 1993
- Occipital gamma activation during Vipassana meditation. Cognitive Processing December 16, 2009
- Binaural beat technology in humans: a pilot study to assess psychologic and physiologic effects. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2007
- Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies. Psychological Bulletin March 2006
- Impact of regular meditation practice on EEG activity at rest and during evoked negative emotions. International Journal of Neuroscience June 2005
and 1 more in the library