Recent survey results: Scientific Reports Highlighting how an eight-week Taoist meditation course can change brain function and autonomic nervous system activity, the study found that this particular type of meditation training altered resting brain activity and sympathetic responses, but meditation by itself did not produce the same effects.
The primary motivation behind this study stems from the widely acknowledged benefits of meditation, including enhanced attention, improved emotional stability, and positive effects on physical health. Previous studies have shown that skilled meditators exhibit unique brain activity patterns, with reduced activity in areas associated with prosaic thinking and increased activity in areas associated with response inhibition and attention. Additionally, meditation has been shown to improve cardiovascular function and modulate gene expression associated with inflammation and aging.
However, despite these benefits, challenges remain in defining clear success criteria for meditation training and understanding the trajectory of changes in brain and autonomic nervous system activity during meditation. Most studies have focused on average measures of brain and autonomic nervous system activity, leaving gaps in knowledge about the specific changes that occur during meditation and how these changes vary among individuals, particularly novices. This study aimed to fill these gaps by examining the effects of Taoist meditation training on both brain activity and autonomic responses in novices.
“My interest in studying meditation arose from my personal experiences with meditation and from the observations of friends and acquaintances. In my friendship circle I have met many people who are engaged in different spiritual practices,” said study author Maria Borodina from HSE University.
“Traditional meditation teachings often incorporate mental imagery to facilitate entering a desired meditative state, such as visualizing a glowing orb on a joint or imagining being suspended by a silver thread from the top of the head. If these mental imagery can help different individuals achieve specific states, it makes sense that evoking the corresponding imagery in the mind and body should produce measurable physiological changes, including changes in brain activity, heart rate, and breathing.”
“If this is true, then the use of biofeedback devices to track these changes, in conjunction with or instead of mental imagery, could speed up the process of achieving a desired meditative state. This concept forms the basis of the widespread use of biofeedback devices in meditation today,” Volodina explained.
The study involved 25 participants, split into two groups: a meditation group and a control group. The meditation group underwent 16 Taoist meditation training sessions over the course of eight weeks, while the control group took part in audiobook listening sessions. None of the participants had any prior experience with meditation, ensuring that any observed effects were due to the training itself.
During the training, the meditation group practiced audio-guided Taoist meditation, including stages of relaxation, body scan, stopping inner dialogue, visualization, and directed breathing. The sessions were designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to meditation, under the guidance of an experienced instructor, ensuring proper technique and reducing the risk of side effects.
To evaluate the effects of the training, the researchers measured various physiological and brain activity indicators before and after the intervention. This included electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor brain activity, photoplethysmography (PPG) to evaluate autonomic nervous system activity, galvanic skin response (GSR), and respiration measurements. During these test sessions, the researchers recorded data at rest (both eyes open and eyes closed) and during audio-guided meditation practices.
Interestingly, the researchers did not observe any significant changes in brain activity or autonomic responses during the actual meditation sessions. Although a profile of EEG power changes was observed during meditation, there were no significant differences between pre- and post-intervention measurements.
“In the study, a group of participants undergoing meditation training were guided by the same instructor. The aim was to observe how the dynamics of physiological indicators changed after the course as participants became more immersed in meditation,” Volodina told PsyPost.
“If the hypothesis about the existence of an innate tendency towards certain strategies were confirmed, we would expect to find a division among participants in the experimental group, similar to what was observed in previous studies with experienced meditators. Unfortunately, the duration of the experiment turned out to be insufficient to notice statistically significant changes during the process of immersion in meditation.”
However, the researchers did find significant changes in the meditation group’s resting brain activity. Specifically, theta and alpha brainwave power increased in various regions of the brain. Theta brainwave power increased in the occipital-parietal regions with the eyes open, and in the frontal, right parietal, and occipital regions with the eyes closed. Alpha brainwave power also increased in the frontal and mid-frontal regions with both eyes open and closed.
Increased theta and alpha power was associated with a relaxed state of alertness and inner alertness, suggesting that meditation training helped participants achieve a more calm, focused state while resting.
With regard to autonomic nervous system activity, the meditation group showed significant changes in the autonomic balance index, stress index, and autonomic rhythm index while resting with eyes open, which indicate increased sympathetic nervous activity associated with heightened alertness and stress response.
“We did not expect that 16 hours of class time over eight weeks (we specifically asked participants not to practice at home) would change baseline levels of physiological indicators,” Borodina says. “And, somewhat unexpectedly, we found that participants’ resting sympathetic nervous activity increased, which is typically considered an indicator of stress.”
“In reality, it doesn’t necessarily represent ‘bad stress,’ but rather reflects arousal levels. Such changes could therefore indicate that learning to meditate in the early stages can be quite stressful, like learning any new skill, or that participants may become more ‘alive’ and alert.”
Although this study provides valuable insights into the effects of Taoist meditation training, there are some limitations that should be considered. First, the sample size was relatively small, which may affect the generalizability of the results. Larger studies are needed to confirm these results and to investigate potential variability in responses between different individuals.
Additionally, this study only looked at the effects of one type of meditation. Future studies should examine whether other meditation techniques produce similar changes, and how different types of meditation affect brain and autonomic nervous system activity.
“Our data do not provide conclusive evidence as to whether the use of a biofeedback-based meditation device is beneficial in the early stages of meditation and whether the state people enter using such a device corresponds to traditional meditation,” Borodina said. “Now we have decided to approach the same problem from a slightly different angle and are studying the effects of body awareness training using a biofeedback system.”
“During the training, participants are asked to focus on the sensations in their hands and their pulse. We are investigating how this type of interoceptive training affects participants’ psycho-emotional state, their level of empathy and their response to emotional stimuli.”
The study, “Short-term meditation training alters brain activity and sympathetic responses at rest but not during meditation,” was authored by Anna Rusinova, Maria Borodina and Alexei Osach.
