Objectives: Long-term meditation practice affects the brain's ability to sustain attention. However, how this occurs is not well understood. Electroencephalography (EEG) studies have found that during dichotic oddball listening tasks, experienced meditators displayed altered attention-related neural markers including theta phase synchronisation (TPS) and event-related potentials (ERP; P200 and P300) to target tones while meditating compared to resting, and compared to non-meditators after intensive meditation interventions. Research is yet to establish whether the changes in the aforementioned neural markers are trait changes which may be observable in meditators irrespective of practice setting. Method: The present study expanded on previous research by comparing EEG measures from a dichotic oddball task in a sample of community-based mindfulness meditators (n=22) to healthy controls with no meditation experience (n=22). To minimise state effects, neither group practiced meditation during / immediately prior to the EEG session. Results: No group differences were observed in behavioural performance or either the global amplitude or distribution of theta phase synchronisation, P200 or P300. Bayes Factor analysis suggested evidence against group differences for the P200 and P300. Conclusions: The results suggest that increased P200, P300 and TPS do not reflect trait-related changes in a community sample of mindfulness meditators. The present study used a larger sample size than previous research and power analayses suggested the study was suficiently powered to detect differences. These results add nuance to our understanding of which processes are affected by meditation and the amount of meditation required to generate differences in specific neural processes.

Objectives: Mindfulness meditation is associated with better attention function. Performance monitoring and error-processing are important aspects of attention. We investigated whether experienced meditators showed different neural activity related to performance monitoring and error-processing. Previous research has produced inconsistent results. This study used more rigorous analyses and a larger sample to resolve the inconsistencies. Methods: We used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) following correct and incorrect responses to a Go/Nogo task from 27 experienced meditators and 27 non-meditators. Results: No differences were found in the ERN (all p > 0.05). Meditators showed larger global field potentials (GFP) in the Pe after both correct responses and errors, indicating stronger neural responses (p = 0.0190, FDR-p = 0.152, np2 = 0.0951, BFincl = 2.691). This effect did not pass multiple comparison controls. However, single electrode analysis of the Pe did pass multiple comparison controls (p = 0.002, FDR-p = 0.016, np2 = 0.133, BFincl = 220.659). Meditators also showed a significantly larger Pe GFP for errors only, which would have passed multiple comparison controls, but was not a primary analysis (p = 0.0028, np2 = 0.1493, BF10 = 9.999). Conclusions: Meditation may strengthen neural responses related to performance monitoring (measured by the Pe), but not specifically to error monitoring (although measurements of the Pe after errors may be more sensitive to group differences). However, only the single electrode analysis passed multiple comparison controls, while analysis including all electrodes did not, so this conclusion remains tentative.

Objectives: Long-term meditation practice affects the brain's ability to sustain attention. However, how this occurs is not well understood. Electroencephalography (EEG) studies have found that during dichotic oddball listening tasks, experienced meditators displayed altered attention-related neural markers including theta phase synchronisation (TPS) and event-related potentials (ERP; P200 and P300) to target tones while meditating compared to resting, and compared to non-meditators after intensive meditation interventions. Research is yet to establish whether the changes in the aforementioned neural markers are trait changes which may be observable in meditators irrespective of practice setting. Method: The present study expanded on previous research by comparing EEG measures from a dichotic oddball task in a sample of community-based mindfulness meditators (n=22) to healthy controls with no meditation experience (n=22). To minimise state effects, neither group practiced meditation during / immediately prior to the EEG session. Results: No group differences were observed in behavioural performance or either the global amplitude or distribution of theta phase synchronisation, P200 or P300. Bayes Factor analysis suggested evidence against group differences for the P200 and P300. Conclusions: The results suggest that increased P200, P300 and TPS do not reflect trait-related changes in a community sample of mindfulness meditators. The present study used a larger sample size than previous research and power analayses suggested the study was suficiently powered to detect differences. These results add nuance to our understanding of which processes are affected by meditation and the amount of meditation required to generate differences in specific neural processes.

Objectives Mindfulness meditation is associated with better attention function. Performance monitoring and error-processing are important aspects of attention. We investigated whether experienced meditators showed different neural activity related to performance monitoring and error-processing. Previous research has produced inconsistent results. This study used more rigorous analyses and a larger sample to resolve the inconsistencies. Method We used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) following correct and incorrect responses to a Go/Nogo task from 27 experienced meditators and 27 non-meditators. Results No differences were found in the ERN (all p > 0.05). Meditators showed larger global field potentials (GFP) in the Pe after correct responses and errors, indicating stronger neural responses (p = 0.019, FDR-p = 0.152, np2 = 0.095, BFincl = 2.691). This effect did not pass multiple comparison controls. However, single-electrode analysis of the Pe did pass multiple comparison controls (p = 0.002, FDR-p = 0.016, np2 = 0.133, BFincl = 220.659). Meditators also showed a significantly larger Pe GFP for errors, which would have passed multiple comparison controls, but was not a primary analysis (p = 0.003, np2 = 0.149, BF10 = 9.999). Conclusions Meditation may strengthen neural responses related to performance monitoring. However, these strengthened neural responses were not specific to error monitoring (although the error-related Pe may be more sensitive to group differences than the correct response Pe). These conclusions remain tentative, because the single-electrode analysis passed multiple comparison controls, but the analysis including all electrodes did not. Preregistration This study was not preregistered.

Objectives: Mindfulness meditation (MM) is suggested to improve attention. Research has explored this using the 'attentional-blink' (AB) task, where stimuli are rapidly presented, and a second target stimulus (T2) is often missed if presented ~300ms after an initial target stimulus (T1). This research showed improved task-accuracy and altered neural activity after an intensive 3-month MM retreat. We tested whether these results replicated in a community sample of typical meditators. Methods: Thirty-one mindfulness meditators and 30 non-meditators completed an AB task while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Between-group comparisons were made for task-accuracy, event-related potential activity (posterior-N2 and P3b), theta and alpha oscillatory phase synchronisation to stimuli presentation, and alpha-power. Primary aims examined effects within time windows reported by previous research. Additional exploratory aims assessed effects across broader time windows. Results: No differences were detected in task-accuracy or neural activity within our primary hypotheses. However, exploratory analyses showed posterior-N2 and theta phase synchronisation effects indicating meditators prioritised attending to T2 stimuli (p < 0.01). Meditators also showed more alpha-phase synchronisation, and lower alpha-power when processing T2 stimuli (p < 0.025). Conclusions: Our results showed multiple differences in neural activity that suggested enhanced attention in meditators. The neural activity patterns in meditators aligned with theoretical perspectives on activity associated with enhanced cognitive performance. These include enhanced alpha 'gating' mechanisms, increased oscillatory synchronisation to stimuli, and more equal allocation of neural activity across stimuli. However, meditators did not show higher task-accuracy, nor did effects align with our primary hypotheses or previous research.