Mindfulness meditation alters neural activity underpinning working memory during tactile distraction

Abstract

Evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation (MM) improves selective attention and reduces distractibility by enhancing top-down neural modulation. Altered P300 and alpha neural activity from MM have been identified and may reflect the neural changes that underpin these improvements. Given the proposed role of alpha activity in supressing processing of task-irrelevant information, it is theorised that altered alpha activity may underlie increased availability of neural resources in meditators. The present study investigated attentional function in meditators using a cross-modal study design, examining the P300 during working memory (WM) and alpha activity during concurrent distracting tactile stimuli. Thirty-three meditators and 27 healthy controls participated in the study. Meditators showed a more frontal distribution of P300 neural activity following WM stimuli (p = 0.005, η² = 0.060) and more modulation of alpha activity at parietal-occipital regions between single (tactile stimulation only) and dual task demands (tactile stimulation plus WM task) (p < 0.001, η² = 0.065). Additionally, meditators performed more accurately than controls (p = 0.038, η² = 0.067). The altered distribution of neural activity concurrent with improved WM performance suggests greater attentional resources dedicated to task related functions such as WM in meditators. Thus, meditation-related neural changes are likely multi-faceted involving both altered distribution and also amplitudes of brain activity, enhancing attentional processes depending on task requirements.

Mindfulness meditators show enhanced working memory performance concurrent with different brain region engagement patterns during recall

“…More frontal distributions of the P3 have also been found in our previous research in meditators (N. W. Bailey et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2019), and we have previously suggested these alterations reflect enhanced attention.…”

“…Our research has also demonstrated reduced overall neural response strength concurrent with increased behavioural performance in meditators (N. W. Bailey et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2019).…”

“…This is because our developing view of how the brain performs the function that we have labelled “attention” is that it modulates neural activity as best it can in whatever manner is necessary to meet task demands. For example, variation in attentional ability might be reflected by increased ability to generate fronto-midline theta to resolve conflicts between different neural processes in a Stroop or Go Nogo task, or modulate alpha activity to inhibit distracting information being processed in a non-task-relevant brain region in a task with a tactile distractor (Wang et al, 2019), or in the current study, earlier temporal activation in the recall period. While research suggests that attention is related to frontal and parietal activity to maintain focus, we suspect activity in these regions reflects only part of the story and may not even be active in all attention modulations.…”

“…Prior to the modified Sternberg WM task, participants completed a Go/Nogo task (N. W. Bailey et al, 2019), colour Stroop task, emotional Stroop task (Marcu et al in preparation), and Nback task (Wang et al, 2019), which took approximately one hour to complete in total including breaks within and between tasks.…”

“…Research by our lab using other cognitive tasks has shown that mindfulness meditators showed altered distributions of neural activity, typically with more frontal distributions (N. W. Bailey et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2019). Our research has also demonstrated reduced overall neural response strength concurrent with increased behavioural performance in meditators (N.…”