International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
June 14, 2025
Alexander T Duda, Adam R Clarke, Robert J Barry et al.
3 citations
Mindfulness of breathing meditation reduces alpha brainwave activity (8-13 Hz) compared to resting, likely reflecting enhanced attentional engagement rather than a change in physiological arousal. In 42 young adults, electroencephalography and skin conductance were recorded during rest and meditation before and after six weeks of daily 15-minute mindfulness or music (active-control) practice. Post-training, the mindfulness group showed a smaller alpha reduction during meditation, particularly in frontal/posterior regions, suggesting a possible trait effect. Skin conductance decreased in both groups post-training, indicating reduced arousal, but no significant link was found between skin conductance and alpha amplitude. These findings support mindfulness meditation as a state of relaxed alertness and highlight alpha band activity's role in attentional control, which may contribute to health benefits like improved emotional regulation and cognitive functioning.
International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
June 1, 2023
Sarah Diezig, Melissa Spaar, Simone Denzer et al.
The ability to organize self-generated thought into coherent, meaningful semantic representations is a central aspect of human cognition and undergoes regular alterations throughout the day. To investigate whether changes in semantic processing might explain the loss of coherence, logic, and voluntary control over thinking typically accompanying the transition to sleep, N400 evoked potentials were recorded from 44 healthy subjects. Auditory word pairs with varying semantic distance were presented while subjects were allowed to fall asleep. Semantic distance reliably elicited an N400, and lower wakefulness levels were associated with increased frontal negativity. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, the results showed an increased N400 effect with decreasing wakefulness, suggesting that semantic processes alone may not explain diminished thought control during sleep onset.
International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
November 1, 2022
S V Medvedev, J A Boytsova, Y A Bubeev et al.
During Buddhist meditations that involve one-pointed concentration, analytical meditation on bodhicitta and emptiness, and tantric visualizations, auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in 115 Buddhist monks show decreased mismatch negativity amplitudes, decreased N1 and P2 amplitudes to deviant stimuli, and decreased P3a amplitudes to novel stimuli compared to a control state of relaxed wakefulness. These outcomes suggest that such meditations are accompanied by a reduction in the physiological processes responsible for maintaining attention on the outside world and recognizing changes in sensory stimuli.
International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
May 1, 2016
Georg Northoff
A theory is proposed that slow cortical potentials (SCPs), a type of low-frequency brain fluctuation, are a neural predisposition of consciousness. SCPs integrate stimuli from different brain regions into one converging region due to their long phase duration. The hypothesis suggests that SCPs encode statistically based temporal differences between discrete time points rather than the points themselves, enabling a "local temporal continuity" of neural activity. This local continuity is linked to the phenomenal experience of time, specifically the "width of present" described by Husserl—the extension of the present moment beyond a single discrete point, as when hearing a melody. The degree of this width is proposed to depend on the encoded temporal differences, positioning SCPs as a neural predisposition for consciousness, distinct from a neural correlate.