Mental training enhances attentional stability: Neural and behavioral evidence
Open accessAbstract
The capacity to stabilize the content of attention over time varies among individuals, and its impairment is a hallmark of several mental illnesses. Impairments in sustained attention in patients with attention disorders have been associated with increased trial-to-trial variability in reaction time and event-related potential deficits during attention tasks. At present, it is unclear whether the ability to sustain attention and its underlying brain circuitry are transformable through training. Here, we show, with dichotic listening task performance and electroencephalography, that training attention, as cultivated by meditation, can improve the ability to sustain attention. Three months of intensive meditation training reduced variability in attentional processing of target tones, as indicated by both enhanced theta-band phase consistency of oscillatory neural responses over anterior brain areas and reduced reaction time variability. Furthermore, those individuals who showed the greatest increase in neural response consistency showed the largest decrease in behavioral response variability. Notably, we also observed reduced variability in neural processing, in particular in low-frequency bands, regardless of whether the deviant tone was attended or unattended. Focused attention meditation may thus affect both distracter and target processing, perhaps by enhancing entrainment of neuronal oscillations to sensory input rhythms, a mechanism important for controlling the content of attention. These novel findings highlight the mechanisms underlying focused attention meditation and support the notion that mental training can significantly affect attention and brain function.
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Mindfulness meditation has been independently found to improve attention, self-judgment, and clinical symptoms (the three psychological barriers).
“Mindfulness meditation has been independently found to improve all three of these psychological barriers.”
From Effects of Mindfulness Training on Body Awareness to Sexual Stimuli: Implications for Female Sexual Dysfunction (2011) · cites this paper as [26]
The Discussion’s Summary/Conclusions reports that three months of focused-attention meditation enhanced attentional stability. The paper does not report improvements in self-judgment or clinical symptoms; its Materials and Methods > Participants section says participants had no history of mental or neurological illness. Thus it supports the attention component, not all three barriers. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSome, but not all, meditation practices result in increases in theta power.
“For example, some, but not all, meditation practices result in increases in theta power (Lutz, et al., 2009).”
From Brain oscillations, hypnosis, and hypnotizability (2015) · cites this paper as Lutz, et al., 2009
The Results section reports increased theta-band phase locking after focused-attention meditation, not increased theta power. The power analysis reported there concerns alpha, and our copy does not establish which meditation practices do or do not increase theta power (searched: theta power, theta-band power, meditation practices). No page number was provided. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThis work converges with findings from the meditation literature showing improved attentional processing and increased activity in brain regions involved in empathy and compassion related to practice.
“This work also converges with findings from the meditation literature showing improved attentional processing (Lutz et al., 2009; Slatger et al., 2007) and increased activity in brain regions involved in empathy and compassion related to practice (Lutz, Brefczynski-Lewis, Johnstone, & Davidson, 2008).”
From Mindfulness for Teachers: A Pilot Study to Assess Effects on Stress, Burnout, and Teaching Efficacy (2013) · cites this paper as Lutz et al., 2009
Attention training is an important part of meditation and has proven to augment the ability to sustain attention.
“Attention training is an important part of meditation, and has proven to augment the ability to sustain attention [1].”
From A Cloud-Based Virtual Reality App for a Novel Telemindfulness Service: Rationale, Design and Feasibility Evaluation (2017) · cites this paper as [1]
A group attending mindfulness sessions showed increased activation in prefrontal regions as identified by functional MRI and attenuated their emotional arousals more easily compared to a control group.
“The authors reported that the group, in attending mindfulness sessions, showed increased activation in prefrontal regions as identified by functional MRI and, therefore, this group attenuated their emotional arousals more easily compared to the control group [1].”
From A Cloud-Based Virtual Reality App for a Novel Telemindfulness Service: Rationale, Design and Feasibility Evaluation (2017) · cites this paper as [1]
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“Meditation training is associated with better performance on a wide range of prefrontally mediated attention tasks (Valentine and Sweet, 1999; Wenk-Sormaz, 2005; Brefczynski-Lewis et al., 2007; Chan and Woollacott, 2007; Jha et al., 2007; Pagnoni and Cekic, 2007; Slagter et al., 2007; Srinivasan and Baijal, 2007; Tang…”
BackgroundHemodynamic responses on prefrontal cortex related to meditation and attentional task
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On Mind Wandering, Attention, Brain Networks, and Meditation
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- Authors
- Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Rawlings, N. B., Francis, A. D., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Warneford Hospital (GB)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2009-10-21
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 42
- Pages
- 13418-13427
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC2789281
- OpenAlex
- W2145637681
- Cited by
- 489
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 38 · 2014: 43 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 36
- FWCI
- 28.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5u01at002114-03)
- National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH069315)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (U01-AT002114, P01AT004952)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- attention stability, sustained attention, meditation training, focused attention meditation, mental training, neural oscillations, reaction time variability, dichotic listening, event-related potentials, attentional control
- MeSH terms
- Acoustic Stimulation, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Attention, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Auditory Perception, Contingent Negative Variation, Dichotic Listening Tests, Electroencephalography, Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Reaction Time, Case-Control Studies, Meditation, Young Adult
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