The time scales of irreversibility in spontaneous brain activity are altered in obsessive compulsive disorder.
Davide Bernardi, David Shannahoff‐Khalsa, Jeff Sale, Jon A Wright, Luciano Fadiga, David Papo
Frontiers in Psychiatry 2023 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1158404 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational case-control study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | OCD patients and age/sex matched control subjects |
| Intervention | Kundalini Yoga meditation |
| Duration | 1-year of Kundalini Yoga meditation treatment |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Kundalini yoga Dynamical disease Obsessive-compulsive disorder Permutation entropy Spontaneous brain activity Time scales Time-reversal symmetry |
| Key findings | In OCD patients, brain resting-state irreversibility was concentrated at faster time scales and more uniformly distributed across channels within a hemisphere than in controls, and interhemispheric asymmetry between homologous areas differed markedly between groups. Some of these differences were reduced after one year of Kundalini Yoga meditation. The authors argue these results suggest OCD alters the brain's resting-state dynamic attractor. |
Abstract
We study how obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects the complexity and time-reversal symmetry-breaking (irreversibility) of the brain resting-state activity as measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG). Comparing MEG recordings from OCD patients and age/sex matched control subjects, we find that irreversibility is more concentrated at faster time scales and more uniformly distributed across different channels of the same hemisphere in OCD patients than in control subjects. Furthermore, the interhemispheric asymmetry between homologous areas of OCD patients and controls is also markedly different. Some of these differences were reduced by 1-year of Kundalini Yoga meditation treatment. Taken together, these results suggest that OCD alters the dynamic attractor of the brain's resting state and hint at a possible novel neurophysiological characterization of this psychiatric disorder and how this therapy can possibly modulate brain function.
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 |
Citations in the library
Cites 4
- Deep learning the arrow of time in brain activity: characterising brain-environment behavioural interactions in health and disease bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) July 4, 2021
- Temporal irreversibility of neural dynamics as a signature of consciousness bioRxiv Preprint Server September 2, 2021
- Nonlinear dynamical analysis of EEG and MEG: review of an emerging field. Clinical Neurophysiology October 1, 2005
- Randomized controlled trial of yogic meditation techniques for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. CNS Spectrums December 1999