Neurophysiological mechanisms of focused attention meditation: A scoping systematic review

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Focused attention meditation (FA) is a foundational and widely studied practice that cultivates sustained concentration by focusing on a specific object, such as the breath, while disengaging from distractions. Numerous studies have investigated the neurophysiological mechanisms of FA, examining aspects such as spectral power, connectivity patterns, and neural entropy. However, despite this extensive research, clarity regarding the methodological approaches and key findings in this field remains limited. This scoping systematic review aimed to collate and interpret key information from electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies on FA, with a focus on study population composition, experimental design, and neurophysiological outcomes. Our findings revealed substantial heterogeneity in participant characteristics, potentially contributing to variability in neurophysiological results, while the choice of FA tasks and control conditions was relatively consistent. In terms of neurophysiological outcomes, consistent trends indicate that FA is associated with increased power in the alpha, beta, and gamma bandwidths, as well as heightened complexity and reduced criticality measures. Based on the findings of this review, we propose several methodological recommendations to improve the quality of future research. Additionally, we identified significant evidence gaps when considering the whole body of research, including the limited use of MEG and a lack of longitudinal studies, pointing to areas for future investigation. Overall, this review provides a firm grounding for the study of the neurophysiology of FA, as well as the study of advanced meditation and neuroscience-informed meditative development.