New Metrics to Measure Meditation’s Impact

A study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience expands the research on the measurement of attention and emotions during meditation, taking us a step closer to scientifically assessing the practice’s benefits to health and well-being.    

Researchers from four universities—University of Texas at Austin, University of Toronto, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of California, San Francisco—developed a framework based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify mental states during meditation, including focus on breath and mind wandering.  While meditation practice is used to promote attention to bodily sensation, the extent to which it impacts mental states has not been clear due to lack of objective measurement tools.  

Sixteen adults, aged 25 to 65, participated in the study. Eight were experienced meditators, along with a control group of eight novices. Brain patterns were determined for five modes of attention—attention to breath, mind wandering, and self-referential processing, with control states of attention to feet and to sounds.

For all participants, the five states were significantly recognized above chance, while at the individual level, states were recognized in 87.5% of participants. A ten-minute session of breath meditation showed that participants spent more time focusing on breath than mind wandering or self-referential processing.  

The researchers concluded that the study helped make invisible processes quantifiable and opens the door to further studies to rigorously test how meditation impacts attention and emotions.