[The Influence of Long-Term Meditation Practice on Early Emotional Processing in the Brain: an ERP Study].

Abstract

The main aim was to study effects of long-term meditation practice on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during affective picture viewing. The meditators' (N = 20), contrary to control (N = 20), did not demonstrate arousal-related increases in the mid-latency (200-400 ms) ERP positivity over the right hemisphere. We also found in the same time window stronger ERP negativity for meditators over central regions, regardless of picture valence. We assume that long-term meditation practice enhances frontal top-down control over fast automatic detection of stimulus salience.