Meditation training modulates brain electric microstates and felt states of awareness

Abstract

Experiences of mindful awareness and mental quiescence are thought to pervade daily life with continued meditation practice, and ought to leave their imprint in the activity of distributed brain networks. Yet few studies have characterized the dynamics of resting brain activity following meditation-based training. In a longitudinal study, experienced meditators were randomly assigned to 3 months of intensive shamatha meditation training or to a waiting-list condition. Broad-band EEG collected at rest was segmented into a time series of transient microstate intervals based on data-driven clustering of topographic voltage patterns at the beginning, middle, and end of training. Individuals’ felt mindful awareness and mental quiescence was also assessed using a daily survey of their experiences over the study duration, and training participants further reported on the quality of their meditation practice based on four experiential dimensions involved in the practice of shamatha. Meditation training was associated with reductions in the strength and duration of EEG microstate intervals, while patterns of change in felt qualities of awareness corroborate contemplative phenomenological accounts of deepening mental calm and stability of attention that pervades daily life over time with training. Neural dynamics reflected in microstate parameters and sequence transitions were furthermore associated with training participants’ reported experience of mindful awareness and quiescence during the retreat. These findings connect experiential qualities of meditation practice and the activity of whole brain cortical EEG networks at rest.

Keyseg: adaptive segmentation for spontaneous electroencephalography map series into spatially defined microstates of musicians’ brain

“…In any case, we noticed non-statistical significantly increased occurrence of class D. Moreover, class B alterations have been accounted for in various normal, altered, and diseased states of consciousness. While class B diminishes altogether in all parameters were accounted for in light hypnosis [24], the duration was diminished in schizophrenic patients [29], [32], the coverage was increased in schizophrenic patients [25], occurrence and coverage were increased in believers in paranormal phenomena when contrasted with skeptics [20] and duration were increased in exceptionally experienced meditators during profound reflection [22], we discovered our Karawitan musicians' brains increased in class B occurrence which was the opposite direction of these previous concerns. Our reported findings appear to be more encouraging for the interpretation of increased class B occurrence corresponded with psychological execution or cognitive performance.…”

“…These parameters commonly contrast between various states and task conditions. Changes of the microstate parameters have been accounted for various microstate classes in normal states of consciousness including non-REM sleep-all classes [18], modalities of thinking-all classes [19], personality characteristics-classes B and C [20], self-related/unrelated thoughts, mental arithmeticclasses B, C and D [21], altered states of consciousness, for example, contemplation-class B [22], all classes [23], and hypnosis-classes A, C, and D [24], yet additionally disorders like schizophrenia-all classes [25]- [30], euthymic bipolar disorder-class A [31], and frontoparietal dementia-class C [32]. Accordingly, the microstate analysis appears to be particularly encouraging for recognizing contrasts in attention-related, mentation-related, and reality-testing-related processing.…”

Trait and state mindfulness modulate EEG microstates

“…The most broadly described variables accounting for each microstate are the frequency of occurrence (occurrence, s -1 ), the meantime of stability (duration, ms), the time percent of total explained signal it covers (coverage, %), and the percent of total variance it explains (GEV, %). The temporal parameters of microstates were investigated in a wide range of studies related to conscious processes such as states of alertness [Brodbeck et al, 2012; Comsa et al, 2019; Zanesco et al, 2021a], spontaneous phenomenal experiences [Lehmann et al, 2010; Pipinis et al, 2017], self-generated cognition [Bréchet et al, 2019; Milz et al, 2016; Seitzman et al, 2017], personality trait [Schiller et al, 2020; Zanesco et al, 2020], psychiatric disorders [Damborská et al, 2019; Grieder et al, 2016; Rieger et al, 2016], as well as psycho-behavioral practices [Bréchet et al, 2021; Faber et al, 2017; Katayama et al, 2007; Panda et al, 2016; Zanesco et al, 2021b].…”

“…In contrast, transcendental meditation, an FA-like meditation closer to OM practices [Travis and Parim, 2017], brings internally generated thoughts detachment which has been related to the lower occurrence of microstates A and C, linked to phonological and interoceptive processing respectively [Faber et al, 2017]. 3 months of full-time meditation training involving both FA and OM, resulted in attentiveness and serenity increases, as reported by participants, which have been associated with microstates duration reduction at rest [Zanesco et al, 2021b].…”

“…In line with previous studies, we expected to reveal the four to seven classical microstates. We hypothesized that (1) trained meditators should show different temporal characteristics of microstates compared to non-meditators [Zanesco et al, 2021b]. In particular, OM should induce microstate C temporal parameters to decrease compared to the rest [Faber et al, 2017].…”