Event-related potential and behavioural differences in affective self-referential processing in long-term meditators versus controls.
Sucharit Katyal, Greg Hajcak, Tamara Flora, Austin Bartlett, Philippe R. Goldin
Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience April 1, 2020 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00771-y (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Long-term meditators and age-matched meditation-naïve control participants |
| Measures | self-referential encoding task (SRET), event-related potentials (ERP), late-positive potential (LPP) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Brain Humans Electroencephalography Cross-sectional studies Emotions Affect Self concept Evoked potentials Adult Middle aged Female EEG Erp Self-reference Sret Late-positive potential |
| Key findings | Meditators endorsed more pleasant and fewer unpleasant words as self-referential than controls. Controls showed a larger early late-positive-potential response to unpleasant versus pleasant words, whereas meditators showed no difference between the two. The authors suggest long-term meditation training may support a more flexible and healthy relationship to the self. |
Abstract
Contemplative practices are thought to modify one's experience of self and fundamentally change self-referential processing. However, few studies have examined the brain correlates of self-referential processing in long-term meditators. Here, we used the self-referential encoding task (SRET) to examine event-related potentials (ERP) during assessment of pleasant and unpleasant self-views in long-term meditators versus age-matched meditation-naïve control participants. Compared with controls, meditators endorsed significantly more pleasant and fewer unpleasant words as self-referential. We also found a between-group difference in the early component of the late-positive-potential (LPP) of the ERP characterized by a larger response to unpleasant versus pleasant words in controls and no difference in meditators. A cross-sectional design, such as the one used in the present study, has certain caveats like self-selectivity bias. If such caveats did not affect our results, these findings suggest that a long-term contemplative lifestyle, of which meditation training is an integral part, alters self-referential processing towards a more adaptive view of self and neural equivalence towards pleasant and unpleasant self-views. These findings suggest that long-term meditation training may affect brain and behavioural mechanism that support a more flexible and healthy relationship to one's self.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- Exploring EEG as a Tool for Advancing Consciousness Studies: Principles, Methodologies, and Innovations 2025 6th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Control May 7, 2025
- Characteristics of Kundalini-Related Sensory, Motor, and Affective Experiences During Tantric Yoga Meditation. Frontiers in Psychology June 30, 2022
- Alpha and theta oscillations are inversely related to progressive levels of meditation depth Neuroscience of Consciousness November 1, 2021
- A Critical Analysis on Characterizing the Meditation Experience Through the Electroencephalogram Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience August 7, 2020
- Alpha and theta brain oscillations are inversely related to progressive levels of meditation depth
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- Investigating the phenomenological matrix of mindfulness-related practices from a neurocognitive perspective. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
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