Enhanced Correlation between Arousal and Infra-Slow Brain Activity in Experienced Meditators

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Meditation induces changes in the nervous system, which presumably underpin positive psychological and physiological effects. Such neural changes include alterations in the arousal fluctuation, as well as in infraslow brain activity (ISA, <0.1 Hz). Furthermore, it is known that fluctuations of arousal over time correlate with the oscillatory phase of ISA. However, whether this arousal–ISA correlation changes after meditation practices remains unanswered.; Methods: The present study aims to address this question by analyzing a publicly available electroencephalogram (EEG) dataset recorded during meditation sessions in the groups of experienced meditators and novices. The arousal fluctuation is measured by galvanic skin responses (GSR), and arousal–ISA correlations are measured by phase synchronization between GSR and EEG ISAs.; Results: While both groups exhibit arousal–ISA correlations, experienced meditators display higher correlations than novices. These increased arousal–ISA correlations in experienced meditators manifest more clearly when oscillatory phase differences between GSR and EEG ISAs are either 0 or π radians. As such, we further investigate the characteristics of these phase differences with respect to spatial distribution over the brain. We found that brain regions with the phase difference of either 0 or π radians form distinct spatial clusters, and that these clusters are spatially correlated with functional organization estimated by the principal gradient, based on functional connectivity.; Conclusions: Since increased arousal–ISA correlations reflect enhanced global organization of the central and autonomic nervous systems, our findings imply that the positive effects of meditation might be mediated by enhanced global organization of the nervous system.

Keywords

• arousal
• EEG
• GSR
• infraslow activity
• meditation
• phase synchronization