Psychophysiology of duration estimation in experienced mindfulness meditators and matched controls

Abstract

Recent research suggests that bodily signals and interoception are strongly related to our sense of time. Mindfulness meditators train to be aware of their body states and therefore could be more accurate at interval timing. In this study, n = 22 experienced mindfulness meditators and n = 22 matched controls performed both, an acoustic and a visual duration reproduction task of 8, 14, and 20 s intervals, while heart rate and skin conductance were continuously assessed. In addition, participants accomplished a heart beat perception task and two selective attention tasks. Results revealed no differences between meditators and controls with respect to performance in duration reproduction or attentional capacities. Additionally no group difference in heart beat perception scores was found. Across all subjects, correlational analyses revealed several associations between performance in the duration reproduction tasks and psychophysiological changes, the latter being also related to heart beat perception scores. Furthermore, former findings of linearly increasing cardiac periods and decreasing skin conductance levels during the auditory duration estimation task (Meissner and Wittmann, 2011) could be replicated, and these changes could also be observed during a visual duration reproduction task. In contrast to our earlier findings, the heart beat perception test was not related with timing performance. Overall, although experienced meditators did not differ from matched controls with respect to duration reproduction and interoceptive awareness, this study adds significantly to the emerging view that time perception is related to autonomic regulation and awareness of body states.

Awareness of the passage of time and self‐consciousness: What do meditators report?

“…We thus lose our sense of time when we meditate. We talk about “timelessness.” The phenomenon of timelessness has been described in numerous other studies on meditation with highly experienced meditators (Berkovich‐Ohana, Dor‐Ziderman, Glicksohn, & Goldstein, ; Otten et al, ; Schötz et al, ; Thönes & Wittmann, ; Wittmann et al, , ). However, does this feeling of being outside of time (timelessness) with a meditation exercise necessary indicate a disruption/stop of the processing of physical durations in all conditions when meditators practice meditation?…”

Multichannel Investigation of Interoception: Sensitivity Is Not a Generalizable Feature

“…There are cases, on the other hand, where the investigation of a single channel does not appear an appropriate practice. For example, although meditation is assumed to improve the sensation of bodily signals, several studies using heartbeat perception task did not show differences between meditators and non- meditators (Nielsen and Kaszniak, 2006 ; Khalsa et al, 2008 ; Melloni et al, 2013 ; Otten et al, 2015 ), while one study using respiratory task led to mixed results (Daubenmier et al, 2013 ).…”

Embodied time: Time production in advanced Quadrato and Aikido practitioners

“…It should be noted that possible conclusions that can be drawn from our study are rather limited. Future studies should directly examine bodily awareness, divided attention, and bodily arousal as possible modulators that could represent the links between MM and time perception, during both the training and TP task (Otten et al, ). Such experiments may shed more light on the specific underlying mechanisms of time perception and test the predictions of an embodied theory of time perception.…”