Enhanced response inhibition and reduced midfrontal theta activity in experienced Vipassana meditators.

Response inhibition - the ability to suppress inappropriate thoughts and actions - is a fundamental aspect of cognitive control. Recent research suggests that mental training by meditation may improve cognitive control. Yet, it is still unclear if and how, at the neural level, long-term meditation practice may affect (emotional) response inhibition. The present study aimed to address this outstanding question, and used an emotional Go/Nogo task and electroencephalography (EEG) to examine possible differences in behavioral and electrophysiological indices of response inhibition between Vipassana meditators and an experience-matched active control group (athletes). Behaviorally, meditators made significantly less errors than controls on the emotional Go/Nogo task, independent of the emotional context, while being equally fast. This improvement in response inhibition at the behavioral level was accompanied by a decrease in midfrontal theta activity in Nogo vs. Go trials in the meditators compared to controls. Yet, no changes in ERP indices of response inhibition, as indexed by the amplitude of the N2 and P3 components, were observed. Finally, the meditators subjectively evaluated the emotional pictures lower in valence and arousal. Collectively, these results suggest that meditation may improve response inhibition and control over emotional reactivity.

Effects of a brief mindfulness-meditation intervention on neural measures of response inhibition in cigarette smokers.

Research suggests that mindfulness-practices may aid smoking cessation. Yet, the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of mindfulness-practices on smoking are unclear. Response inhibition is a main deficit in addiction, is associated with relapse, and could therefore be a candidate target for mindfulness-based practices. The current study hence investigated the effects of a brief mindfulness-practice on response inhibition in smokers using behavioral and electroencephalography (EEG) measures. Fifty participants (33 females, mean age 20 years old) underwent a protocol of cigarette exposure to induce craving (cue-exposure) and were then randomly assigned to a group receiving mindfulness-instructions or control-instructions (for 15 minutes approximately). Immediately after this, they performed a smoking Go/NoGo task, while their brain activity was recorded. At the behavioral level, no group differences were observed. However, EEG analyses revealed a decrease in P3 amplitude during NoGo vs. Go trials in the mindfulness versus control group. The lower P3 amplitude might indicate less-effortful response inhibition after the mindfulness-practice, and suggest that enhanced response inhibition underlies observed positive effects of mindfulness on smoking behavior.

Cue-elicited heart rate variability and attentional bias predict alcohol relapse following treatment.

RATIONALE: Identification of malleable neurocognitive predictors of relapse among alcohol-dependent individuals is important for the optimization of health care delivery and clinical services. OBJECTIVES: Given that alcohol cue-reactivity can predict relapse, we evaluated cue-elicited high-frequency heart rate variability (HFHRV) and alcohol attentional bias (AB) as potential relapse risk indices. METHOD: Alcohol-dependent patients in long-term residential treatment who had participated in mindfulness-oriented therapy or an addiction support group completed a spatial cueing task as a measure of alcohol AB and an affect-modulated alcohol cue-reactivity protocol while HFHRV was assessed. RESULTS: Post-treatment HFHRV cue-reactivity and alcohol AB significantly predicted the occurrence and timing of relapse by 6-month follow-up, independent of treatment condition and after controlling for alcohol dependence severity. Alcohol-dependent patients who relapsed exhibited a significantly greater HFHRV reactivity to stress-primed alcohol cues than patients who did not relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Cue-elicited HFHRV and alcohol AB can presage relapse and may therefore hold promise as prognostic indicators in clinical settings.