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Mental training enhances attentional stability: Neural and behavioral evidence| old_uid | 7327 |
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| title | Mental training enhances attentional stability: Neural and behavioral evidence |
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| start_date | 2009/09/07 |
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| schedule | 11h30 |
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| online | no |
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| summary | 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 (ERP) 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 (EEG), 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. 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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| responsibles | Béranger |
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