Meditation moves the signs but not the field: dissociation between marginal shape and joint structure in peripheral physiology
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) September 7, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22584488 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 15 |
| Population | Non-expert practitioners in the WESAD dataset |
| Intervention | Guided meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Guided meditation altered the distributional shape of individual peripheral signs (four of five with p < 0.05) but did not reorganize the statistical dependency among them; spectral integration (p = 0.72) and O-information (p = 0.60) were null, and the field discriminated conditions at chance (AUC = 0.58). |
Abstract
Meditation research has measured isolated physiological channels for decades, but the set of peripheral signs has rarely been treated as a field — a totality whose inter-channel dependency structure is itself the observable. We tested whether a guided meditation session moves the integrated peripheral field, or only the individual signs, in the public WESAD dataset (15 subjects; within-subject baseline and guided meditation; electrocardiography, electromyography, electrodermal activity, temperature, and respiration recorded simultaneously from chest-mounted sensors). Per 30-second epoch, we computed two observables of the five-channel totality: the von Neumann entropy of the correlation matrix (spectral integration) and non-parametric O-information (redundancy-synergy balance), each sign tested separately under its own ruler. The result is a dissociation between marginal shape and joint structure. Individual signs moved with the meditative axis robustly (four of five signs with p < 0.05; respiration d_z = +1.16, p = 0.0004; electrodermal activity d_z = +0.79; temperature d_z = -0.52; electrocardiography d_z = +0.35), and respiration alone discriminated the conditions with high accuracy (AUC = 0.89). But the integrated field did not move: spectral integration (p = 0.72, d_z = -0.20) and O-information (p = 0.60, d_z = -0.25) were robust nulls, and the field discriminated no better than chance (AUC = 0.58). Phase surrogates confirmed that the measured integration is second-order linear structure, with no non-linear excess in either condition. Short guided meditation in non-expert practitioners alters the distributional shape of each peripheral sign without reorganizing the statistical dependency among them. We propose that field-level integration tracks level transitions of consciousness rather than attentional axes of wakefulness, and discuss the measurement implications for integrative physiology.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |