Meditation and neurofeedback: A systematic scoping review, synthesis, and future directions

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Neurofeedback (NF) has been proposed as a tool to support and expand access to meditation practice. Despite growing interest, no comprehensive review has examined neurofeedback for meditation-based interventions (NF-MED) across the full spectrum of practices. Here, we conducted a scoping systematic review according to PRISMA guidelines, mapping the NF-MED field across both clinical and non-clinical contexts, with three aims: (1) assess the current state of NF-MED studies, (2) evaluate how NF-MED meditative constructs and whether neural modulation shows evidence of transfer to behavioral or phenomenological outcomes, and (3) provide methodological recommendations for future work. Our analysis shows that the field is dominated by proof-of-concept studies and marked by substantial heterogeneity in design, implementation, and outcome measures, which hampers the assessment of efficacy and applicability of NF-MED. While NF-MED has been shown to consistently modulate neural activity, evidence for corresponding improvements in behavior, phenomenology, or transferable meditative skills remains limited. Additional research is thus essential for determining whether NF-MED can help practitioners overcome common meditative barriers, such as anxiety and self-doubt, and whether NF-MED can accelerate meditative development across the training spectrum from novice to advanced meditators.