Conscious experience feels continuous but actually consists of brief, discrete brain states lasting 60–120 milliseconds, called EEG microstates. These stable scalp electric field patterns, measured with high temporal resolution, may represent the basic building blocks of thought. Altered states of consciousness—including sleep, anesthesia, meditation, and psychiatric conditions—change the dynamics of these microstates. This perspective argues that studying EEG microstates can reveal underlying features of self-consciousness, summarizing recent findings on microstate alterations during mind-wandering, meditation, sleep, and anesthesia.
Focused-attention meditation on the breath reorganizes large-scale brain dynamics by reducing activity in neural networks linked to self-referential and memory-based processing while increasing activity in networks supporting attentional stability and internal monitoring. In 22 experienced practitioners, high-density EEG microstate analysis identified five canonical brain states. Meditation robustly reduced Microstate C, generated in medial and lateral temporal regions including the hippocampus, and increased Microstates D and E, generated in posterior midline regions and frontoparietal networks respectively. These changes suggest that focused-attention meditation downregulates self-referential processing and enhances neural states for attention and internal awareness.