The protective role of long-term meditation on the decline of the executive component of attention in aging: a preliminary cross-sectional study.
Marco Sperduti, Dominique Makowski, Pascale Piolino
Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition November 2016 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2016.1159652 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Older adults naive to meditation, age-matched older adults with long-term meditation practice, and young adults with no previous meditation experience |
| Intervention | Meditation |
| Measures | Attentional Network Task (ANT) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Aging Attention Conflict resolution Executive functions |
| Key findings | The efficiency of the executive (conflict resolution) component of attention declined in older adults with no meditation experience, but this decline was not observed in age-matched long-term meditators. The authors argue this pattern suggests meditation may protect against age-related decline in executive attention and could inform cognitive remediation in older populations. |
Abstract
Life expectancy is constantly increasing. However, a longer life not always corresponds to a healthier life. Indeed, even normal aging is associated with a decline in different cognitive functions. It has been proposed that a central mechanism that could contribute to this widespread cognitive decline is an ineffective inhibitory attentional control. Meditation, to the other hand, has been associated, in young adults, to enhancement of several attentional processes. Nevertheless, attention is not a unitary construct. An influent model proposed the distinction of three subsystems: the alerting (the ability to reach and maintain a vigilance state), the orienting (the capacity of focusing attention on a subset of stimuli), and the conflict resolution or executive component (the ability to resolve conflict or allocate limited resources between competing stimuli). Here, we investigated, employing the Attentional Network Task (ANT), the specific impact of age on these three subcomponents, and the protective role of long-term meditation testing a group of older adults naïve to meditation, a group of age-matched adults with long-term practice of meditation, and a group of young adults with no previous meditation experience. We reported a specific decline of the efficiency of the executive component in elderly that was not observed in age-matched meditators. Our results are encouraging for the investigation of the potential beneficial impact of meditation on other cognitive processes that decline in aging such as memory. Moreover, they could inform geriatric healthcare prevention and intervention strategies, proposing a new approach for cognitive remediation in elderly populations.
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 6
- Mindfulness Training: Can It Create Superheroes? Frontiers in Psychology March 26, 2019
- Cognitive Aging and Long-Term Maintenance of Attentional Improvements Following Meditation Training
- Attention and meditative development: A review and synthesis of long-term meditators and outlook for the study of advanced meditation. Neuroimage November 19, 2025
- Examining cognitive differences in expert meditators and non-meditators older adults. Scientific Reports May 15, 2025
- Impact of Long-Term Shaolin Zen Meditation on Emotional Processing in Aging: A Visual ERP Study. Behavioral Sciences June 19, 2023
and 1 more in the library
Cites 18
- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Neuroreport November 7, 2005
- Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences October 11, 2007
- Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 28, 2007
- Mental Training Affects Distribution of Limited Brain Resources PLoS Biology May 4, 2007
- Greater efficiency in attentional processing related to mindfulness meditation Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology September 29, 2009
and 13 more in the library