title: Meditation-induced cognitive-control states regulate response-conflict adaptation: Evidence from trial-to-trial adjustments in the Simon task.
abstract: Here we consider the possibility that meditation has an immediate impact on information processing. Moreover, we were interested to see whether this impact affects attentional input control, as previous observations suggest, or the handling of response conflict. Healthy adults underwent a brief single session of either focused attention meditation (FAM), which is assumed to increase top-down control, or open monitoring meditation (OMM), which is assumed to weaken top-down control, before performing a Simon task-which assesses conflict-resolution efficiency. While the size of the Simon effect (reflecting the efficiency of handling response conflict) was unaffected by type of meditation, the amount of dynamic behavioral adjustments (i.e., trial-to-trial variability of the Simon effect: the Gratton effect) was considerably smaller after OMM than after FAM. Our findings suggest that engaging in meditation instantly creates a cognitive-control state that has a specific impact on conflict-driven control adaptations.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Psychological Research, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address: colzato@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.
authors.forename: Lorenza S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Colzato
authors.affiliation: Institute for Psychological Research, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sellaro
authors.affiliation: Institute for Psychological Research, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Iliana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Samara
authors.affiliation: Institute for Psychological Research, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hommel
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Focused Attention meditation (FAM); Gratton effect; Open Monitoring meditation (OMM); Response conflict; Simon effect