MINDFULNESS AND THE COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF ATTENTION AND AWARENESS
Zygon December 3, 2025 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2010.01118.x via DOAJ
Summary
Mindfulness is the ability to focus on the present moment with open awareness, originating from eastern spiritual traditions. It can be cultivated through meditation, enhancing qualities like awareness and compassion. The article discusses the connections between mindfulness, meditation, and cognitive neuroscience, highlighting how mindful awareness relates to attention, consciousness, and self-awareness. An integrated neurocognitive model is proposed, emphasizing the prefrontal cortex's role.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | An integrated neurocognitive model of mindfulness, attention, and awareness emphasizes the key role of the prefrontal cortex. |
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Abstract
Mindfulness can be understood as the mental ability to focus on the direct and immediate perception or monitoring of the present moment with a state of open and nonjudgmental awareness. Descriptions of mindfulness and methods for cultivating it originated in eastern spiritual traditions. These suggest that mindfulness can be developed through meditation practice to increase positive qualities such as awareness, insight, wisdom, and compassion. In this article we focus on the relationships between mindfulness, with associated meditation practices, and the cognitive neuroscience of attention and awareness. Mindful awareness is related to distributed attention, phenomenal consciousness, and momentary self‐awareness, as characterized by recent findings in cognitive psychology and neuroscience as well as in influential consciousness models. Finally, we outline an integrated neurocognitive model of mindfulness, attention, and awareness, with a key role of prefrontal cortex.