Mindfulness meditators do not show differences in electrophysiological measures of error processing
Neil W. Bailey, Kavya Raj, Gabrielle Freedman, Bernadette M. Fitzgibbon, Nigel C Rogasch, Nicholas T. van Dam, Paul Fitzgerald
bioRxiv October 13, 2018 preprint DOI: 10.1101/438622 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional comparison |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 42 |
| Population | 22 experienced meditators (mean 8 years of practice) and 20 healthy controls |
| Measures | error related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), post-error alpha suppression |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | No differences were found between experienced meditators and controls in the error related negativity, error positivity, or post-error alpha suppression (all p > 0.05). Bayes factor analysis indicated the null hypotheses were more than 3.5 times more likely than alternatives for the ERN and Pe, suggesting meditation may not alter neural activity related to error processing despite prior contrary findings. |
Abstract
Mindfulness meditation may improve attention and self-regulation. One component of attention and self-regulation that may allow these improvements is performance monitoring. Neural correlates of performance monitoring can be objectively measured with electroencephalogram (EEG) via the error related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe). Previous research assessing the ERN and Pe in meditators has resulted in inconsistent findings; some have reported alteration in peak amplitudes from both very brief meditation practice and long-term meditation practice, while others have failed to provide evidence for differences in the ERN or Pe. However, recently developed EEG analysis techniques allow for more rigorous analyses than have been used in past investigations. The current study measured the ERN and Pe, as well as post-error alpha suppression, during a Go/Nogo task, and emotional and colour Stroop tasks. The measures were compared between 22 experienced meditators (mean of 8 years of practice) and 20 healthy controls. The results suggested no differences in the ERN, Pe, or post-error alpha suppression (all p > 0.05), even when varying multiple analysis parameters. The study showed equivalent statistical power to previous research, and > 85% power to detect medium effect sizes present in previous research. Bayes Factor analysis indicated the null hypotheses were > 3.5 more likely than any of the alternative hypotheses for the ERN or Pe. These results suggest that meditation may not alter neural activity related to error processing, despite prior research suggesting that it does.
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 |