Cortical and autonomic responses during staged Taoist meditation: two distinct meditation strategies
bioRxiv Preprint Server November 8, 2021 Maria Volodina, Nikolai Smetanin, Mikhail Lebedev et al. preprint
During guided Taoist meditation, experienced meditators split into two subgroups with distinct physiological patterns. One subgroup showed general relaxation, with changes in heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and EEG activity. The other subgroup exhibited mind concentration patterns visible in EEG but no autonomic responses. Neither the duration or type of prior meditation experience nor baseline indicators explained this split. These results suggest two distinct meditation strategies may be used by experienced meditators, partly explaining inconsistent findings in earlier studies.