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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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“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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“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]
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“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
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“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
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“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]
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Metadata
- 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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