Meditation-Induced States, Vagal Tone, and Breathing Activity Are Related to Changes in Auditory Temporal Integration

Abstract

This study is based on the relationship between meditation, the present moment, and psychophysiology. We employed the metronome task to operationalize the extension of the present moment. A pre-post longitudinal study was conducted. The performance in the metronome task was compared before and after the interventions (meditation, story). The aim was to assess whether physiological changes (heart, breathing) during meditation influence the temporal-integration (TI) of metronome beats. Mindfulness meditators either meditated (n = 41) or listened to a story (n = 43). The heart and breathing activity were recorded during the intervention and compared to a resting-state condition. By applying path analyses we found that meditation led to an increase of the duration of integration intervals at the slowest metronome frequency (inter-stimulus interval, ISI = 3 s). After meditation, the higher the heart-rate variability (i.e., the root mean square of successive differences, RMSSD), the longer the duration of integration intervals at the fastest frequency (ISI = 0.33 s). Moreover, the higher the breathing rate during meditation, the greater the integration of intervals at ISI = 1 s. These findings add evidence to meditation-induced changes on the TI of metronome beats and the concept of the embodiment of mental functioning.

The phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience of experienced temporality

“…Within this extended present moment our experience exemplifies a complex temporal structure, the parts of which are temporally ordered (Kiverstein and Arstila 2013), such as when one hears the ticktock of a clock or when one rhythmically groups musical beats into auditory temporal gestalts of 1-2-3, 1-2-3, etc. (Szelag et al 1996, Linares et al 2019.…”

Mindfulness Meditation and Fantasy Relaxation in a Group Setting Leads to a Diminished Sense of Self and an Increased Present Orientation

“…Individuals had stronger experiences that are typically found in meditative states at t2 than at t1. The decrease of the sense of self, as well as a stronger sense of presence (at the expense of the past and future orientation) is a typically sign of altered states of consciousness in different relaxation techniques [13,15,24]. Individuals get more absorbed in the ‘here and now’ and show less rumination towards past and future events.…”

“…A substantial amount of research has also investigated the long-term effects of MMTs and MBIs on basic psychological functions and processes, such as executive functions [8], attention regulation, cognitive flexibility [9], bistable imagery [10], and time perception [11,12,13,14,15,16]. An interesting research branch has begun focusing on the short-term effects of meditation MMTs and MBISs and underlying trait characteristics.…”

“…The two induction methods are different in how attention is directed either to the body (meditation) or to an imagined world (fantasy-relaxation). Since the senses of self, time, and space have been shown to be modulated during meditative practice [13,15,24], we hypothesized that these aspects of conscious awareness should be more strongly affected after a meditation, as compared to fantasy relaxation.…”

Meditation Experience and Mindfulness Are Associated with Reduced Self-Reported Mind-Wandering in Meditators—A German Version of the Daydreaming Frequency Scale

“…After filling in the questionnaires, individuals from both samples performed a large array of tasks (i.e., sample C: metronome task, Necker cube task and visual asynchrony task; sample D: ball drawing test) and were subjected to electrophysiological measures (i.e., heart rate and breathing rate recordings). Details concerning the procedures used can be found elsewhere (sample C in Linares Gutiérrez et al, (submitted) [42]; sample D in Schmidt et al, (2019) [43]). In all samples, the accomplished psychophysiological tasks, electrophysiological recordings, and interventions were not relevant for the aims of the present study (i.e., the validation of the German translation).…”