Occipital gamma activation during Vipassana meditation

摘要

Long-term Vipassana meditators sat in medi-tation vs. a control rest (mind-wandering) state for 21 minin a counterbalanced design with spontaneous EEG recor-ded. Meditation state dynamics were measured with spec-tral decomposition of the last 6 min of the eyes-closedsilent meditation compared to control state. Meditation wasassociated with a decrease in frontal delta (1-4 Hz) power,especially pronounced in those participants not reportingdrowsiness during meditation. Relative increase in frontaltheta (4-8 Hz) power was observed during meditation, aswell as significantly increased parieto-occipital gamma(35-45 Hz) power, but no other state effects were found forthe theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), or beta (12-25 Hz)bands. Alpha power was sensitive to condition order, andmore experienced meditators exhibited no tendency towardenhanced alpha during meditation relative to the control task. All participants tended to exhibit decreased alpha inassociation with reported drowsiness. Cross-experimentalsession occipital gamma power was the greatest in medi-tators with a daily practice of 10+ years, and the medita-tion-related gamma power increase was similarly thestrongest in such advanced practitioners. The findingssuggest that long-term Vipassana meditation contributes toincreased occipital gamma power related to long-termmeditational expertise and enhanced sensory awareness