Meditation States and Traits

EEG, ERP, and Neuroimaging Studies

Cahn, B. Rael
Polich, John

¹Department of Neurosciences and Medical School, University of California, San Diego, California
²Laboratory for Psychopharmacology and Brain Imaging, University of Zurich Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich, Switzerland
³Department of Neuropharmacology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California

⁴Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to John Polich, Cognitive Electrophysiology Laboratory, Department of Neuropharmacology TPC-10, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037. E-mail: [email protected].

This work was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grants DA14115, DA18262, and 3P50AA06420 to John Polich. B. Rael Cahn was supported in part by the Heffter Institute, the Fetzer Institute, and National Institute of General Medical Sciences Medical Scientist Training Grant T32 GM07198.This paper is 16434-NP from The Scripps Research Institute. We thank Arnaud Delorme and Lee Schroeder for helpful comments, and gratefully acknowledge the support and guidance of Mark Geyer and Franz Vollenweider.

Received August 16, 2004; Revised July 15, 2005; Accepted August 2, 2005

Psychological Bulletin 132(2):p 180-211, March 2006.

Neuroelectric and imaging studies of meditation are reviewed. Electroencephalographic measures indicate an overall slowing subsequent to meditation, with theta and alpha activation related to proficiency of practice. Sensory evoked potential assessment of concentrative meditation yields amplitude and latency changes for some components and practices. Cognitive event-related potential evaluation of meditation implies that practice changes attentional allocation. Neuroimaging studies indicate increased regional cerebral blood flow measures during meditation. Taken together, meditation appears to reflect changes in anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal areas. Neurophysiological meditative state and trait effects are variable but are beginning to demonstrate consistent outcomes for research and clinical applications. Psychological and clinical effects of meditation are summarized, integrated, and discussed with respect to neuroimaging data.