1. Meditation and attention: A controlled study on long-term meditators in behavioral performance and event-related potentials of attentional control
- Author
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Han-Gue Jo, Michael Markowiak, Stefan Schmidt, Thilo Hinterberger, and Elisa Inacker
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,P3 amplitude ,Time Factors ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Context (language use) ,Electroencephalography ,050105 experimental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Event-related potential ,Physiology (medical) ,Reaction Time ,medicine ,Humans ,Attention ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Meditation ,Evoked Potentials ,media_common ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,General Neuroscience ,05 social sciences ,Attentional control ,Middle Aged ,Term (time) ,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology ,Behavioral data ,Female ,Psychology ,Photic Stimulation ,Psychomotor Performance ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Meditation practice involves attention regulation, and thus is thought to facilitate attention control mechanisms. Studies on meditation techniques using a behavioral measurement of the Attention Network Test (ANT) have shown enhanced attention control, but neural features remain unknown. In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral data from twenty long-term meditators were examined, compared to data obtained from twenty matched controls. Results showed that meditators made fewer error responses than controls, especially during the incongruent target condition, suggesting higher accuracy in executive attention control among meditators. The P3 amplitude in the parietal area remained constant in the congruent and incongruent target conditions among meditators, indicating a higher parietal P3 amplitude during the incongruent target condition relative to matched controls. The findings that meditators exhibited fewer error responses on the ANT and a lack of parietal P3 modulation irrespective of reaction time are discussed in the context of attentional resource allocation.
- Published
- 2016
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