Increased Gamma Brainwave Amplitude Compared to Control in Three Different Meditation Traditions

Claire Braboszcz, B Rael Cahn, Jonathan Levy, Manuel Fernandez, Arnaud Delorme, Claire Braboszcz, B Rael Cahn, Jonathan Levy, Manuel Fernandez, Arnaud Delorme

Abstract

Despite decades of research, effects of different types of meditation on electroencephalographic (EEG) activity are still being defined. We compared practitioners of three different meditation traditions (Vipassana, Himalayan Yoga and Isha Shoonya) with a control group during a meditative and instructed mind-wandering (IMW) block. All meditators showed higher parieto-occipital 60-110 Hz gamma amplitude than control subjects as a trait effect observed during meditation and when considering meditation and IMW periods together. Moreover, this gamma power was positively correlated with participants meditation experience. Independent component analysis was used to show that gamma activity did not originate in eye or muscle artifacts. In addition, we observed higher 7-11 Hz alpha activity in the Vipassana group compared to all the other groups during both meditation and instructed mind wandering and lower 10-11 Hz activity in the Himalayan yoga group during meditation only. We showed that meditation practice is correlated to changes in the EEG gamma frequency range that are common to a variety of meditation practices.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1. The continuum of attentional engagement,…
Fig 1. The continuum of attentional engagement, from the high level of focused attention to more diffuse“open monitoring” or “open awareness” meditation.
The three meditation traditions we chose to include in our study can be placed along this continuum, each corresponding to a different focus of attention. Himalayan Yoga tradition uses a mantra to maintain the attentional focus, Vipassana tradition is primarily an open monitoring practice but the specific form assayed (as taught by S. N. Goenka) incorporates loose focus on the somatosensory awareness aspect and the Shoonya practice as taught in the Isha Yoga tradition is an open awareness meditation practice with no specific object to focus on.
Fig 2. Experimental protocol.
Fig 2. Experimental protocol.
The first 10 minutes of the meditation block (MED) are considered a preparatory period helping to relax for the meditation practice. Meditators then switched to their specific meditation practice for the last 10 minutes of the block. Control subjects practiced breath watching throughout the whole MED block. For the sake of consistency, we kept the length of the instructed mind-wandering block (IMW) equal to the length of the meditation block. When analyzing the data we compared the last 10 minutes of the MED block to the last 10 minutes of the IMW block. Half the subjects passed the blocks in the order presented on panel A, the other half passed the blocks as shown on panel B.
Fig 3. Spectral decomposition for occipital electrode…
Fig 3. Spectral decomposition for occipital electrode Oz during the meditation condition in all 4 groups of subjects (CTR is the Control group; HYT is the Himalayan Yoga Tradition group; ISY is the Isha Shoonya Yoga group; VIP is the Vipassana group).
Shaded regions indicate the standard error of the mean. The grey shaded area indicates the region of statistical differences between the groups after correction for multiple comparisons (see Material and Methods). The region around 50 Hz has been blanked out on the plot as it corresponds to line noise and has been excluded from analysis.
Fig 4
Fig 4
A. Spectral differences in the 60–110 Hz range between the control group and each of the meditator groups with MED and IMW conditions combined. A black dot at a given electrode site indicates significance at p

Fig 5

A. Average scalp topography of…

Fig 5

A. Average scalp topography of independent components’ activity corresponding to eye related artifacts.…

Fig 5
A. Average scalp topography of independent components’ activity corresponding to eye related artifacts. B. Average scalp topographies of independent components’ activity for left and right temporal muscle activity. C. No difference was observed between groups for eye movement independent components’ spectral activity in the meditation condition. D. Pooled left and right muscle ICA components spectral activity for the meditation condition indicate no significant difference between the 4 groups of subjects. E. There is a positive correlation between the 60–110 Hz activity in the components of eye related artifacts and the 60–110 Hz activity recorded over the parieto-occipital electrodes in combined MED and IMW conditions (skipped Pearson’ s r = 0.33, CI = [0.10 0.56]). F. The 60–110 Hz activity in the artifactual components related to eye artifacts do not correlate with meditation experience (skipped Pearson’s r = −0.006, CI = [-0.29 0.30]). In both panels C and D the shaded area around the curves represents the standard error to the mean. In panels E and F the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (CI).

Fig 6

A. Spectral differences in the…

Fig 6

A. Spectral differences in the 7–11 Hz range between the Vipassana group and…

Fig 6
A. Spectral differences in the 7–11 Hz range between the Vipassana group and the control, the Himalayan Yoga and the Isha Yoga groups. A black dot indicates significance at p
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This work was supported by BIAL foundation (grant 162/08, https://www.bial.com/en/bial_foundation.11/grants.18/grants_for_scientific_research_.a38.html) to AD, Mind and Life Institute Varela grant 2009 (https://www.mindandlife.org/varela-awards/) to BRC, Centre Nationale pour la Recherche Scientifique PhD grant to CB, and Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM) PhD extension grant to CB. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Fig 5
Fig 5
A. Average scalp topography of independent components’ activity corresponding to eye related artifacts. B. Average scalp topographies of independent components’ activity for left and right temporal muscle activity. C. No difference was observed between groups for eye movement independent components’ spectral activity in the meditation condition. D. Pooled left and right muscle ICA components spectral activity for the meditation condition indicate no significant difference between the 4 groups of subjects. E. There is a positive correlation between the 60–110 Hz activity in the components of eye related artifacts and the 60–110 Hz activity recorded over the parieto-occipital electrodes in combined MED and IMW conditions (skipped Pearson’ s r = 0.33, CI = [0.10 0.56]). F. The 60–110 Hz activity in the artifactual components related to eye artifacts do not correlate with meditation experience (skipped Pearson’s r = −0.006, CI = [-0.29 0.30]). In both panels C and D the shaded area around the curves represents the standard error to the mean. In panels E and F the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (CI).
Fig 6
Fig 6
A. Spectral differences in the 7–11 Hz range between the Vipassana group and the control, the Himalayan Yoga and the Isha Yoga groups. A black dot indicates significance at p

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