International Journal of Psychophysiology最新文献

Mindfulness meditation is linked to a broad range of psychological and physical health benefits, potentially mediated by changes in neural oscillations. This study explored changes in neural oscillations associated with both immediate and regular mindfulness meditation practice. Electroencephalographic (EEG) data were collected from 40 healthy young adults (M_age = 20.8, 24 females) during eyes-closed resting and mindfulness meditation states in two separate recording sessions, six weeks apart. Participants were novice meditators, and following the first recording session, were randomly assigned to either a daily mindfulness meditation practice or classical music listening as an active control, which they completed until the second recording session. Traditional bands of delta (1.0-3.5 Hz), theta (4.0-7.5 Hz), alpha (8.0-13.0 Hz), beta (13.5-30.0 Hz), and gamma (30.5-45.0 Hz) were used to explore changes in global EEG spectral amplitude. A significant increase in theta between sessions was observed in both groups and states. Alpha decreased significantly during meditation compared with rest, and a three-way interaction indicated a smaller reduction during meditation between sessions in the mindfulness group. There was a similar interaction in beta, which remained stable between sessions during both rest and meditation in the mindfulness group while varying in the classical music listening group. No significant effects were observed in global delta or gamma amplitudes. These findings suggest that changes in neural oscillations associated with breath-focused mindfulness meditation may be related to processes underlying attention and awareness. Further research is necessary to consolidate these findings, particularly in relation to the associated health benefits.

Sadness is commonly perceived as an affective state with negative valence. However, studies on the psychological and physiological effects of sadness have yielded mixed results. We proposed a systematic analysis of sadness, taking into account an additional dimension - the intensity of approach motivation, understood as an urge to move toward. We induced low and high approach motivation sadness while measuring electrical brain activity (EEG). We predicted that low approach motivation sadness and high approach sadness would evoke different patterns of frontal alpha activity. In our study, 41 participants were randomly assigned to a low or high approach motivation sadness induction. A significant interaction was observed when comparing low and high approach motivation sadness across the presented stories, as measured by the frontal alpha asymmetry index. To furtherly explore this effect, we conducted cluster-based permutation analysis on individual alpha peak-centered spectra, which revealed a more centrally diffused effect over the frontal areas in both hemispheres as well a significant activation over the occipital region. Low approach motivation sadness was associated with reduced alpha power over frontal areas, while high approach motivation sadness was associated with increased alpha power in the same region, both in comparison to neutral condition. These results might reflect Default Mode Network activation or the projection from occipital area. Based on these results, we propose a new perspective on sadness as a heterogeneous state that should be evaluated based on the intensity of approach motivation, rather than solely on its valence.