Review Article: Neurophysiological Effects of Meditation Based On Evoked and Event Related Potential Recordings
Review Article: Neurophysiological Effects of Meditation Based On Evoked and Event Related Potential Recordings
Review Article: Neurophysiological Effects of Meditation Based On Evoked and Event Related Potential Recordings
Review Article
Neurophysiological Effects of Meditation Based on
Evoked and Event Related Potential Recordings
Nilkamal Singh and Shirley Telles
Patanjali Research Foundation, Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar, Uttarakhand 249405, India
Correspondence should be addressed to Shirley Telles; shirleytelles@gmail.com
Received 28 November 2014; Revised 28 January 2015; Accepted 8 February 2015
Academic Editor: Carlo Miniussi
Copyright 2015 N. Singh and S. Telles. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Evoked potentials (EPs) are a relatively noninvasive method to assess the integrity of sensory pathways. As the neural generators for
most of the components are relatively well worked out, EPs have been used to understand the changes occurring during meditation.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) yield useful information about the response to tasks, usually assessing attention. A brief review of
the literature yielded eleven studies on EPs and seventeen on ERPs from 1978 to 2014. The EP studies covered short, mid, and
long latency EPs, using both auditory and visual modalities. ERP studies reported the effects of meditation on tasks such as the
auditory oddball paradigm, the attentional blink task, mismatched negativity, and affective picture viewing among others. Both EP
and ERPs were recorded in several meditations detailed in the review. Maximum changes occurred in mid latency (auditory) EPs
suggesting that maximum changes occur in the corresponding neural generators in the thalamus, thalamic radiations, and primary
auditory cortical areas. ERP studies showed meditation can increase attention and enhance efficiency of brain resource allocation
with greater emotional control.
1. Introduction
Meditation has been described as a training in awareness
which over long periods of time produces definite changes
in perception, attention, and cognition. The neurophysiological correlates of meditation have been determined by
electrophysiological recordings (from the 1960s to the present
time) and more recently by neuroimaging studies (from
the 1980s till the present time). Among electrophysiological
variables sensory evoked potentials (EPs) provide a relatively
noninvasive way of studying changes in specific sensory
pathways during meditation [1]. It is believed that meditation
alters cortical functioning and corticofugal controls which
may significantly modify the processing of information at
brainstem and thalamic levels [24]. Hence short, mid, and
long latency EPs would be expected to help map changes from
the brainstem up to the association or secondary cortical
areas [5]. The present review was undertaken to determine
which modalities and latencies of EPs were recorded in
meditation and the conclusions derived.
EPs are evoked spontaneously with repetitive sensory stimulation and can provide information about brain
2. Methods
2.1. Search Strategy for Meditation and Evoked Potential
Studies. The database searched was PubMed using the search
words Meditation, Evoked Potentials. Fifty-eight citations
were obtained from PubMed. To be included in this review
articles had to be written in English (8 articles were excluded
as they were written in other languages). Articles were
excluded from the review if (i) they reported event-related
potentials (ERPs) rather than EPs (19 articles were excluded
for this reason) and (ii) they did not deal directly with
the subject of meditation (5 articles were excluded for this
reason), (iii) the articles were not experimental studies but
2
were review articles or descriptive (5 articles were excluded
for this reason), and (iv) the study recorded variables other
than EPs such as EEG, MRI, and spectroscopy studies
(10 articles were excluded for this reason). Eleven articles
reported evoked potential changes in different meditations
and are reviewed here for their study design, method of
meditation, and conclusions derived.
2.2. Search Strategy for Meditation and Event-Related Potential
Studies. The databases searched were PubMed using the
search words Meditation, Event-Related Potentials. Sixty
citations were obtained from PubMed. To be included in this
review articles had to be written in English (8 articles were
excluded as they were written in other languages). Articles
were excluded from the review if (i) they reported evoked
potentials (EPs) rather than event-related potentials (ERPs)
(15 articles were excluded for this reason) and (ii) they did
not deal directly with the subject of meditation (3 articles
were excluded for this reason), (iii) the articles were not
experimental studies but were review articles or descriptive
(5 articles were excluded for this reason), and (iv) the study
recorded variables other than ERPs such as EEG, MRI,
and spectroscopy studies (11 articles were excluded for this
reason). Details of one study were not available. Seventeen
articles reported event-related potential changes in different
meditations and are reviewed here for their study design,
method of meditation, and conclusions derived.
2.3. Method of Review. The whole papers were obtained and
the details related to (i) stimulus modality for EPs or nature
of the ERP, (ii) sweep width or latency of the EPs, (iii) type of
meditation, (iv) study design, and (v) changes (if any) in EP
or ERP components and the corresponding changes in the
neural generators were noted.
3. Results
3.1. Details of the Evoked Potential Studies. Out of the eleven
studies 10 used auditory stimuli while one used visual stimuli.
With regard to sweep width out of the nine studies two
reported short latency EPs, four mid latency EPs, two long
latency EPs, and one long latency visual evoked potential
(LLVEP) and there were also two combinations of (i) short
latency and mid latency auditory EPs and (ii) short, mid, and
long latency auditory EPs. Details about the components of
EPs are given in Table 1.
The meditation techniques studied were all eyes closed
practices; two were transcendental meditation (TM), two
Qigong, five meditations on the Sanskrit syllable OM, one a
moving meditation called cyclic meditation, and one Sahaja
yoga meditation. Apart from the moving meditation the other
eight techniques directed the thoughts in a fixed pattern for
all practitioners towards either a single syllable or phrase
or a set of thoughts. In the moving meditation as well, the
sequence of thoughts was fixed and played on a CD [9].
Hence in all the studies the meditation techniques
involved directing the attention in a specific way in all
practitioners. The next point considered was the study design
which included the controls used.
3
Table 1: Neural generators of evoked potential components.
S. number
Name of the
components
Latencies
(msec)
Wave I
1.9
Wave II
3.6
Wave III
Wave IV
Wave V
Na
Pa
4.2
5.2
5.8
1419
2532
Nb
3565
N1
P1
4060 ms
80115 ms
N2
P2
Neural generators
Auditory portion of the eighth cranial nerve
Near or at the cochlear nucleus. A portion from the eighth nerve fibers
around the cochlear nucleus
The lower pons through the superior olive and trapezoid body
The upper pons or lower midbrain, in the lateral lemniscus and the inferior
colliculus; a contralateral brainstem generator for wave V is suggested
Medial geniculate body
Superior temporal gyrus
Dorso-posterior-medial part of Heschls gyrus that is the primary auditory
cortex
Secondary auditory cortex in the lateral Heschls gyrus
Bilateral parts of the auditory superior cortex
Auditory
BAEP
MLAEP
Auditory
Mid latency
Appl
Psychophysiol
Biofeedback. 2000,
25 (1): 112 [17]
Clin EEG
Neurosci. 2009, 40
(3): 190195 [5]
648 months
Not experienced
= 10
Sahaja yoga in which the participants
(Sahaja yoga group),
make certain mental assertions by placing
= 10
the hand on different parts of the body. (mimicking exercise
group), and = 12
(control group)
520 years
Auditory
Middle latency evoked
potentials
10 years
Auditory
Middle latency evoked
potentials
Int J Neurosci.
1994; 76 (1-2):
8793 [18]
Visual
Cortical evoked potentials
Am J Chin Med.
1993, 21 (3-4):
243249 [16]
1 to 20 years
6 to 9 years
Transcendental meditation
Auditory
Short latency
18 months to 6 years
Meditation
experience, duration
Transcendental meditation
Type of meditation
Auditory
Long latency
Modality auditory/visual/somatosensory
and latency
Auditory
Short latency, middle
latency, and long latency
Electroencephalogr
Clin Neurophysiol.
1978, 45 (5):
671673 [1]
Intern J
Neuroscience.
1980, 10 (2-3):
165170 [14]
Reference
Am J Chin Med.
1990, 18 (3-4):
95103 [15]
S. number
Single group
Randomized controlled
study
No significant change
4
BioMed Research International
Type of meditation
Auditory
Mid latency
Auditory
Long Latency
Clin EEG
Neurosci. 2012, 43
(2): 15460 [12]
Clin EEG
Neurosci. 2014, pii:
1550059414544737
[13]
10
11
Modality auditory/visual/somatosensory
and latency
Reference
S. number
Table 2: Continued.
660 months
660 months
6 months
Meditation
experience, duration
Self as control
Auditory oddball
task with two tones
(standard and target)
Stroop task
A visual A-X
continuous
performance task
Healthy experienced
meditators and
nonmeditators
Healthy experienced
meditators aged
2061 years
Healthy Vipassana
meditators Exp. =
2.540 years
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Healthy individuals
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Neuroscience. 2014,
281C: 195201 [31]
Int J Psychophysiol.
2013, 90 (2): 207214 [32]
Open monitoring
meditation
Two-group study
Two-group study
Emotional load of
stimuli (IAPS
pictures)
Anticipatory and
pain-evoked ERPs
Two-group study
Two-group study
Meditators showed greater executive control (i.e., fewer errors), a higher error related negativity
(ERN), and more emotional acceptance than controls.
Meditation compared to control condition had decreased evoked delta (24 Hz) power to
distracter stimuli concomitantly with a greater event-related reduction of late (500900 ms)
alpha-1 (810 Hz) activity, which indexed altered dynamics of attentional engagement to
distracters. Additionally, standard stimuli were associated with increased early event-related
alpha phase synchrony (intertrial coherence) and evoked theta (48 Hz) phase synchrony,
suggesting enhanced processing of the habituated standard background stimuli. Finally, during
meditation, there was a greater differential early-evoked gamma power to the different stimulus
classes. Correlation analysis indicated that this effect stemmed from a meditation state-related
increase in early distracter-evoked gamma power and phase synchrony specific to longer-term
expert practitioners. The findings suggest that Vipassana meditation evokes a brain state of
enhanced perceptual clarity and decreased automated reactivity.
Meditators showed an enhanced processing of target level information. In contrast with control
group, which showed a local target selection effect only in the P1 and a global target selection
effect in the P3 component, meditators showed effects of local information processing in the P1,
N2, and P3 and of global processing for the N1, N2, and P3. Thus, meditators seem to display
enhanced depth of processing.
In the longitudinal experiment, meditation modulates attention already after a 4-day meditation
retreat. Together, these results suggest that practicing meditation enhances the speed with which
attention can be allocated and relocated, thus increasing the depth of information processing and
reducing response latency
The Vipassana experts showed greater P3b amplitudes to the target tone after meditation than
they did both before meditation and after the no-meditation session. These results suggest that
expert Vipassana meditators showed increased attentional engagement after meditation.
Findings
Meditative Mindfulness
Induction (MMI) and
non-MMI control group
No intervention was given
but this study compared
with experienced meditators
and nonmeditators
No intervention was given
but this study compared
with experienced meditators
and nonmeditators;
meditators were from
different traditions
The result showed different emotional processing in meditation practitioners: at high levels of
processing meditators are less affected by stimuli with adverse emotional load, while processing
of positive stimuli remains unaltered
MMI subjects were significantly more accurate than control subjects and they produced
significantly larger P300 amplitudes than control subjects at Cz and PO7
Mindfulness based cognitive MBCT in bipolar disorder improved attentional readiness and attenuated activation of
therapy (MBCT)
nonrelevant information processing during attentional processes
Comparison between
meditators and
nonmeditators, meditators
are from various traditions
Two-group study
Two-group study
Intervention
No intervention was given
but this study compared
between long-term
experienced Sahaja yoga
meditators and
nonmeditators
Design
Row/column speller
task
Global-to-local
target task
Three-stimulus
auditory oddball task
Affective picture
viewing
Participants
Citation
S. number
6
BioMed Research International
Participants
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Meditators and
nonmeditators
Healthy experienced
meditators
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Healthy individuals
Healthy meditators
and nonmeditators
Citation
J Neurosci. 2009, 29
(42): 1341813427 [37]
Int J Psychophysiol.
2009, 72 (1): 5160. [33]
Neuroreport. 2007, 18
(16): 17091712. [39]
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
S. number
Cyclic meditation
Auditory oddball
task with two tones
(standard and target)
The auditory
mismatch negativity
(MMN) and P300
Musical meditation
Vipassana
Two-group study
Vipassana
Meditation
Two-group study
The mismatch
negativity (MMN)
paradigm
Auditory oddball
task with two tones
(standard and target)
Two-group study
Two-group study
Discrimination of
the imaginative hand
movement and the
idle state
Two-group study
Intervention
Design
Table 3: Continued.
Nature of the ERP
task
MMN amplitudes in the trained children were larger than those in the control group. In
addition, the MMN amplitudes were identical in attend and ignore conditions for both groups.
There was reduction in the peak latencies of P300 after cyclic meditation at Fz, Cz, and Pz
compared to the pre values. The P300 peak amplitudes after CM were higher at Fz, Cz, and Pz
sites compared to the pre values.
During meditation N1 amplitude from the distracter was reduced frontally; P2 amplitudes from
both the distracter and oddball stimuli were somewhat reduced; P3a amplitude from the
distracter was reduced. The meditation-induced reduction in P3a amplitude had a positive
correlation with the quality and experience of meditation
Theta phase locking in conscious target perception and suggest that after mental training the
cognitive system is more rapidly available to process new target information. Mental training was
not associated with changes in the amplitude of T2-induced responses or oscillatory activity
before task onset
Meditators were found to have larger MMN amplitudes than nonmeditators. The meditators also
exhibited significantly increased MMN amplitudes immediately after meditation suggesting
transient state changes owing to meditation.
Three months of intensive mental training resulted in a smaller attentional blink and reduced
brain-resource allocation to the first target, as reflected by a smaller T1-elicited P3b, a
brain-potential index of resource allocation. Those individuals that showed the largest decrease
in brain-resource allocation to T1 generally showed the greatest reduction in attentional blink
size. These observations provide novel support for the view that the ability to accurately identify
T2 depends upon the efficient deployment of resources to T1. The results also demonstrate that
mental training can result in increased control over the distribution of limited brain resources.
The meditation practice can improve the classification accuracy of EEG patterns. The average
classification accuracy was 88.73% in the meditation group, while it was 70.28% in the control
group. An accuracy as high as 98.0% was achieved in the meditation group.
Findings
8
evoked potentials changes occurred in brainstem evoked
potentials only in Qigong [15], not in transcendental meditation [14], in Sahaja yoga [17], or in OM meditation [11]. With
respect to mid latency auditory evoked potentials assessed in
four meditations changes were seen in all four meditations
[5, 12, 15, 1719], that is, Qigong, Sahaja yoga, meditation on
OM, and cyclic meditation. This suggests that meditation
modifies neural generators at the level of specific thalamic
nuclei, thalamic radiation, and primary sensory cortices
irrespective of the meditation techniques. Long latency AEPs
changed in two out of the three meditations in which they
were recorded. Hence there were changes during Qigong and
OM meditation but not during TM.
3.4.3. Visual Evoked Potentials. Visual evoked potentials were
recorded in a single study on Qigong meditators [16]. There
was a significant increase in peak-to-peak amplitude of
N80-P115-N150 and N150-P200-N280 waves during Qigong
meditation. The authors suggest that N80-P115-N150-P200
recorded may have corresponded to N70-P100-N130-P170
reported by Vaughan in 1996 [30]. The first positive component is believed to be generated within thalamocortical radiations; the subsequent negative component is generated in
lamina IV cb. The next positive component reflects inhibitory
activity within this lamina and the later positive component
reflects extra striate cortex activity. This suggests that Qigong
meditation increases the activity in the visual pathway from
thalamocortical radiations up to the extra striate cortex with
all the relay centers in between being included.
3.5. Results of ERPs. Healthy experienced Sahaja yoga meditators and nonmeditators were assessed in a two-group
study using an affective picture viewing task [31]. In this
comparison between long-term Sahaja yoga meditators and
nonmeditators, mid latency ERPs were attenuated for both
positive and negative pictures and a stronger ERP negativity
between 200 and 300 ms was found in meditators regardless
of picture valence.
There were two separate studies on healthy experienced
Vipassana practitioners using an auditory oddball task [32,
33]. In both the studies the groups were assessed in two
separate conditions (the self as control design), that is,
Vipassana meditation and random thinking. In one of the
studies Vipassana practitioners showed greater P3b amplitudes to the target tone after meditation than they did both
before meditation and after the nonmeditation session [32].
The other study reported changes in multiple components in
response to the standard and target stimuli; the meditationinduced reduction in P3a amplitude had a positive correlation
with the quality and experience of meditation [33].
In another study healthy Vipassana meditators were given
a three-stimulus auditory oddball task [34]. The group was
assessed in two separate conditions, that is, Vipassana meditation and instructed mind wandering. Meditation compared
to the control condition had decreased evoked delta power to
distracter stimuli concomitantly with a greater event-related
reduction of late (500900 ms) alpha-1 (810 Hz) activity,
suggestive of a modification of attentional engagement to
distracters. Additionally, standard stimuli were associated
9
showed increased attentional engagement after meditation,
enhanced perceptual clarity, decreased automated reactivity,
increased efficiency in distribution of limited brain resources,
and switching attention [3237]. Similar findings were
reported in studies done on open monitoring meditation,
Sudarshan Kriya yoga, musical meditation, and meditative
mindfulness and cyclic meditation [3843]. Meditators were
also reported to have greater emotional acceptance, were
less affected by stimuli with an adverse emotional load, and
reduced the anticipation and negative appraisal of pain [45
47]. Hence meditation can induce a mental state which
is characterized by efficient brain resource allocation with
greater emotional control.
10
[10] S. Telles and T. Desiraju, Autonomic changes in Brahmakumaris Raja yoga meditation, International Journal of Psychophysiology, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 147152, 1993.
The present study has shown that EPs are useful in localizing
changes in meditation to areas such as the brainstem, thalamus, thalamocortical radiations, primary sensory cortices,
and association cortical areas and ERPs can provide useful
information about neurocognitive processing of attention
and brain resource allocation. Most of the studies are limited
by small sample sizes, lack of proper controls, no objective
way of assessing the quality of meditation, and a wide range of
variation in the practitioners sampled. This can be corrected
in future studies. Also studies can be specifically designed
to verify whether the findings of EP studies which suggest
that changes occur in the thalamus, thalamocortical connections, and primary relays and enhancement in attention and
increased efficiency of brain resource allocation as suggested
by ERP studies are indeed correct. To verify these results more
rigorous studies with a better design, larger sample size and
studies of EPs and ERPs in combination with neuroimaging
during meditation are recommended.
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests
regarding the publication of this paper.
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