Distinct Neural Activity Associated with Focused-Attention Meditation and Loving-Kindness Meditation
PLoS ONE August 15, 2012 Tatia M. C. Lee, Mei-Kei Leung, Wai-Kai Hou et al. 163 citations
Focused-attention meditation (FAM) and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) produce distinct patterns of brain activity during cognitive and emotional tasks. In a study of 44 male Chinese meditators, FAM practice was linked to expertise-related improvements in attention task performance and corresponding neural activation differences, while LKM did not carry over to attention performance. Both forms of meditation affected neural responses to affective pictures: during viewing of sad faces, FAM practitioners showed activation consistent with attention-related processing, whereas LKM experts showed responses more aligned with differentiating emotional contagion from compassion or emotional regulation. These findings provide the first report of distinct neural activity associated with these meditation forms during sustained attention and emotion processing.