Ahne, Emily

Mindfulness is known to positively impact behavioral and electrophysiological outcomes of inhibitory executive control following long-term practice. For example, increased accuracy and decreased reaction time, as well as neural markers of increased inhibitory processing. More evidence is emerging demonstrating increased inhibitory control following shorter-term interventions ranging from 3 days to less than 8 weeks. However, findings following single, brief (>1 hour) remain mixed. The current study measured behavioral and EEG changes on a Stroop task in 40 college students following either a 30-minute guided mindfulness meditation or audiobook listening. A breath-counting task (objective measure of mindfulness) was administered to capture the effectiveness of the intervention. Results showed the mindfulness group had trending increased accuracy on the breath-counting task post-intervention compared to controls. Equivalent performance was seen across all Stroop trial conditions regardless of group. Regarding the EEG findings, a between-group effect emerged for congruent N2 voltage at P4 and incongruent N2 voltages at FC1 indicating the mindfulness group had reduced negative voltages across both time points. There was a within-subjects x group interaction for incongruent P3b voltage at Pz; MG increased while controls decreased (opposite of what was expected). This study provides partial evidence for a single, 30-min mindfulness induction in producing a more mindful awareness compared to an audiobook control group. Findings regarding enhanced inhibitory processing following the mindfulness intervention are mixed. Contrary to expectations, our findings implicate the effectiveness of a 30-min mindfulness induction in increased resource recruitment for evaluating incongruent words in absence of behavioral effects.

When practiced over long periods of time (>16 weeks), mindfulness positively impacts inhibitory processing, in that as mindfulness exposure and experience increases, inhibitory processing is enhanced. Similarly, long-term mindfulness practice diminishes the impact of emotionally-valanced scenes. However recently, more work is underway on how brief mindfulness inductions impact these same outcomes. Across two online pilot studies (behavioral outcomes only) and one in-person experiment (behavioral and neuronal outcomes), how a brief focused-breathing induction impacts response inhibition and the perception of affective words was explored. Findings demonstrate that a 30-minute mindfulness induction produced a diminished Simon Effect, as well as faster processing of neutral and positive words (faster LPP latencies) and less-effortful processing of negative words (reduced LPP amplitudes). How brief mindfulness inductions may impact resting frontal alpha asymmetry were also explored.