Imaging Neuroscience
January 1, 2025
Jonathan M. Lieberman, Patrick A. McConnell, Mar Estarellas et al.
9 citations
Focused attention meditation (FA) involves concentrating on a specific object, like the breath, while letting go of distractions. This scoping systematic review examined EEG and MEG studies on FA to clarify how these studies are designed and what they found about brain activity. The review found that participant characteristics varied widely across studies, which may explain inconsistent results, while the types of meditation tasks and control conditions used were fairly similar. Consistent neurophysiological trends show that FA is linked to increased brainwave power in alpha, beta, and gamma bands, along with higher neural complexity and reduced criticality. The review recommends methodological improvements and notes gaps, such as limited MEG use and a lack of longitudinal studies.
Imaging Neuroscience
April 16, 2025
Lorenzo Pasquini, Alexander J. Simon, Courtney L. Gallen et al.
1 citation
DMT rapidly induces a short-lasting altered state of consciousness marked by physical transcendence, vivid auditory distortions, and visual imagery. Using simultaneous fMRI and EKG data from 14 healthy volunteers before, during, and after intravenous DMT or placebo, a brain substate emerged immediately after DMT injection, characterized by deactivations in the hippocampus and medial parietal cortex and increased activity in the superior temporal lobe. Hippocampal and medial parietal deactivations correlated with altered sense of time, space, and self-referential processes, reflecting a deconstruction of ordinary consciousness. Superior temporal lobe activations correlated with audio/visual hallucinations and the experience of "entities.
Imaging Neuroscience
January 1, 2026
Hagar Tal, Winson F. Z. Yang, Matthew D. Sacchet
Neurofeedback (NF) has been proposed as a tool to support meditation practice, but a systematic review mapping the field across clinical and non-clinical contexts reveals that most studies are proof-of-concept and vary widely in design, implementation, and outcome measures. While NF consistently modulates neural activity, evidence for corresponding improvements in behavior, phenomenology, or transferable meditative skills remains limited. The review concludes that additional research is essential to determine whether NF can help practitioners overcome common meditative barriers, such as anxiety and self-doubt, and accelerate meditative development from novice to advanced meditators.
Imaging Neuroscience
January 1, 2025
Sacha Haudry, Sophie Dautricourt, Julie Gonneaud et al.
An 18-month meditation training in healthy older adults altered resting-state brain dynamics. Participants who meditated showed more frequent transitions between different brain connectivity states and spent less time in a weakly connected state and more time in a strongly connected state, patterns associated with lower and higher dementia risk, respectively. However, only the increase in transitions was significantly different from a non-native language training group. The small effect sizes and lack of group differences for time spent in states limit the conclusions.