The effect of short-term meditation on brain oscillation, mismatch negativity and autonomic activity

• Main Authors: Zsofia Samodai, 商若飛
• Other Authors: Yung-Yang Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/93258443058384244181

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 腦科學研究所 === 103 === Background: Meditation is a practice to induce a state of consciousness that is suggested to improve attention, emotional regulation and overall well-being. Studies on long-term meditation practitioners have shown a change in heart rate variability and brain oscillation frequency pattern during meditative state. However, the underlying neurophysiological mechanism remains unknown. The present research aims to study whether short-term meditation affects autonomic activity, brain oscillation, and the magnetic counterpart of mismatch negativity (MMNm) in novice practitioners. Materials and methods: Twenty healthy subjects without neurological, psychiatric or cardiac disease were recruited. Magnetoencephalographic and simultaneous electrocardiographic recordings were obtained in resting state before and in meditative state after the subjects received a 4-day short-term meditation training. An auditory Oddball paradigm MEG recording was also carried out in both conditions. All of our subjects were required to complete a meditation efficiency questionnaire. In the questionnaire, subjects were asked to evaluate their own success of entering meditative state on a 1 to 10 scale ranging from inability to meditate (score = 1) to complete meditation success (score = 10). Changes in variables of heart rate variability, magnetic counterpart of mismatch negativity and cortical oscillation were evaluated. Results: Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test performed on the data obtained from the subjects with self-evaluation meditation score above or equal to 6 resulted in significant oscillatory power increase in the gamma1 (30-59 Hz) and gamma2 (60-90 Hz) frequency bands. Spearman`s Rank Correlation Coefficient calculated for all subjects yielded a significant correlation between self-assessment meditation score and both gamma1 and gamma2 oscillatory power change from resting to meditation. Wilcoxon Test carried out on subjects’ data with meditation depth of score 5 or above, showed a significant reduction of MMNm peak latency in auditory Oddball paradigm during meditation compared to the resting condition. Conclusions: Significant physiological changes are observable after only 4 days of meditation practice in novice subjects. The first physiological measure of mindfulness meditation appears to be the increase of gamma power activity on the right hemisphere that might be the signature of successful meditation. Moreover, the short term medication affects the peak latendy of MMNm but not the peak amplitude of MMNm nor heart rate variability.