Researchers have found that mindfulness meditation practitioners exhibit distinct patterns of brain activity compared to non-meditators, even during rest. Using advanced electroencephalography (EEG) techniques, the study published in Mindfulness found that meditators demonstrated differences in brain wave activity across theta, alpha, and gamma frequency bands. These differences, seen in both the strength and distribution of brain activity, suggest that long-term meditation practice leads to enduring changes in neural processes, potentially underpinning the cognitive and emotional benefits associated with mindfulness.
Mindfulness meditation has grown in popularity as a tool for managing stress, improving emotional well-being, and enhancing cognitive function. . It involves maintaining focused, non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. While previous studies have linked mindfulness to various benefits, researchers are keen to understand the underlying neural mechanisms.
“We were interested in the topic because mindfulness meditation has been associated with improved mental health and cognitive performance, but the neurophysiological changes that enable those improvements are not fully characterized,” said study author Neil Bailey, a senior research fellow at the School of Medicine and Psychology at Australian National University.
“While research has shown that the brain activity of experienced meditators differs while they’re completing a cognitive task or while they are meditating, there wasn’t so much research testing whether their brain activity also differs while they are at rest. Additionally, most previous research looking at brain activity in meditators has used measures that aren’t sensitive to whether the differences between meditators and non-meditators is produced by differences in the amplitude of brain waves (rhythmic shifts in voltages detected by electroencephalography; EEG), or whether the differences might be due to brain activity that is not rhythmic (voltage shifts detected in EEG data that are less repetitive and wouldn’t be defined as ‘brain waves’).”
“Similarly, previous research has used measures that don’t distinguish between the amplitude of brain waves and how frequently the brain shows those brain waves,” Bailey explained. “Our aim was to more comprehensively characterise differences in brain activity in experienced meditators, by using measures that could differentiate between brain waves and non-wave activity, as well as measures that could differentiate between differences in the amplitude of brain waves and differences in how often brain waves are present in the EEG data. Finally, we also used measures that could tell us whether the differences might be specific to particular regions of the brain, or whether they might reflect overall differences across all brain regions (or both).”
For their study, the researchers recruited 92 participants, including 48 meditators with at least six months of consistent mindfulness practice and 44 non-meditators with minimal or no meditation experience. The groups were matched on demographic factors like age and gender to reduce potential confounding variables. To ensure mental health stability, participants were screened for neurological or psychiatric conditions and substance use.
The researchers used electroencephalography (EEG), a non-invasive method that measures electrical activity in the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp. A 64-channel EEG cap captured neural oscillations while participants rested with their eyes open and closed. To ensure participants were in a natural resting state, they were instructed not to engage in meditation or deliberate mental control during the recording. This approach aimed to capture enduring “trait” changes in brain activity rather than temporary effects associated with active meditation.
EEG data were preprocessed to remove artifacts caused by eye movements, muscle activity, or other noise. The researchers applied advanced algorithms to isolate true oscillatory activity, focusing on four key frequency bands: theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (12–25 Hz), and gamma (>25 Hz). Importantly, they used a novel method to separate oscillatory activity from non-oscillatory background noise, ensuring that their findings reflected genuine differences in neural oscillations rather than unrelated factors.
The results showed significant differences between meditators and non-meditators in three of the four frequency bands studied: theta, alpha, and gamma. “These larger amplitudes are present when measured globally (across all brain regions), but also when we examined the distribution of these brain waves across the head,” Bailey told PsyPost.
Theta activity, associated with attention and working memory, was higher in meditators compared to non-meditators. This increase was most prominent in posterior brain regions, suggesting enhanced neural processes related to focus and information processing in experienced meditators.
For alpha activity, meditators displayed greater overall power as well as a distinctive distribution pattern. While non-meditators showed stronger alpha activity primarily in posterior regions, meditators exhibited higher alpha activity in frontal regions relative to the rest of the brain. This shift in distribution may reflect greater inhibitory control over irrelevant or distracting thoughts, a cognitive function often enhanced through mindfulness practice.
Gamma activity, linked to higher-order cognitive functions and neural integration, was also higher in meditators. The increase was particularly pronounced in frontal regions, indicating potential neuroplastic changes associated with prolonged meditation practice. Gamma waves are thought to play a role in attention and the integration of sensory information, suggesting that meditation might strengthen these capacities over time.
“Since these results were obtained while participants were simply resting (not performing any task), it is not obvious what cognitive processes these differences in brain activity reflect,” Bailey explained. “However, each of these brain waves have been associated with specific neural processes – theta brain waves have been associated with the direction of attention and selection of a specific thing to focus on when distractions are present, alpha brain waves have been associated with the engagement of top-down neural activity to inhibit brain regions that aren’t relevant to the task at hand, and gamma brain waves have been associated with energy intensive processing of sensory information as well as higher order cognitive functions and working memory. The fact that meditators show increased amplitude of each of these brain activities might suggest that they can engage these brain activities more strongly when needed, perhaps providing a potential mechanism underpinning the improved cognitive function associated with long-term practice of mindfulness meditation.”
Interestingly, the study found no significant differences in beta activity, associated with alertness and arousal, or in the 1/f slope, a measure of non-rhythmic brain activity reflecting the balance of neural excitation and inhibition. This suggests that the observed changes were specific to theta, alpha, and gamma frequencies and not indicative of a general increase in brain activity across all frequency bands.
“We were a bit surprised that there were no differences in the non-rhythmic measures of brain activity, as these measures have been associated with an altered excitation/inhibition balance within the brain, where some neural synapses form inhibitory connections while others form excitatory connections, and the strength of the overall number of each of these connection types determines a balance that is specific to each individual,” Bailey said. “This result suggests that meditation doesn’t alter the relative number or strength of excitatory or inhibitory connections, but perhaps alters the strength of connections between neuronal populations that determine the strength of theta, alpha and gamma brain waves.”
But the study, like all research, includes some caveats. Its cross-sectional design means it cannot establish causality—whether the observed brain differences were caused by meditation or whether individuals with these neural patterns are more inclined to practice mindfulness.
“It may be that individuals who are drawn to practicing mindfulness meditation already show these differences in neural activity,” Bailey noted. “However, many other longitudinal studies have shown that meditation does change brain activity, so it seems likely that the effects we detected are related to the meditation practice.”
Still, the findings contribute to a growing body of evidence linking mindfulness meditation with lasting changes in brain function. By identifying specific alterations in theta, alpha, and gamma oscillations, the study provides insight into the potential neural mechanisms behind the cognitive and emotional benefits of mindfulness.
“We are interested in understanding how meditation changes the brain to provide mental health benefits,” Bailey said. “This understanding could be used to improve our understanding of the brain more generally, or our results might be translated to help develop more effective treatments for mental illnesses.”
“We have used the same dataset to examine how brain waves travel through the cortex,” he added. “This study showed that meditators produce stronger forwards travelling waves, which are associated with the processing of sensory information. They also show weaker backwards travelling waves, but only while resting (they show the same backwards wave strength when performing a cognitive task that requires the top-down direction of attention).”
“Backwards travelling waves are associated with predictions about sensory experience, as well as thoughts about the past and future. This may indicate that meditators place increased emphasis on being aware of their sensations, and do not project their thoughts into the past or future as much while just resting with their eyes closed. These results are aligned with the practice of meditation, and may provide a mechanism underlying the reduction in rumination that is suggested as one of the causal factors by which meditation can improve mental health.”
The study, “The Mindful Brain at Rest: Neural Oscillations and Aperiodic Activity in Experienced Meditators,” was authored by Brittany McQueen, Oscar W. Murphy, Paul B. Fitzgerald, and Neil W. Bailey.
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