Yordanova, J, Nicolardi, V, Malinowski, P, Simione, L, Aglioti, SM, Raffone, A and Kolev, V (2025) EEG oscillations reveal neuroplastic changes in pain processing associated with long-term meditation. Scientific Reports, 15 (1).

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Abstract

The experience of pain is a combined product of bottom-up and top-down influences mediated by attentional and emotional factors. Meditation states and traits are characterized by enhanced attention/emotion regulation and expanded self-awareness that can be expected to modify pain processing. The main objective of the present study was to explore the effects of long-term meditation on neural mechanisms of pain processing. EEG pain-related oscillations (PROs) were analysed in highly experienced practitioners and novices during a non-meditative resting state with respect to (a) local frequency-specific and temporal synchronizing characteristics to reflect mainly bottom-up mechanisms, (b) spatial synchronizing patterns to reflect the neural communication of noxious information, (c) pre-stimulus oscillations to reflect top-down mechanisms during pain expectancy, and (d) the P3b component of the pain-related potential to compare the emotional/cognitive reappraisal of pain events by expert and novice meditators. Main results demonstrated that in experienced (long-term) meditators as compared to non-experienced (short-term) meditators (1) the temporal and spatial synchronizations of multispectral (from theta-alpha to gamma) PROs were substantially suppressed at primary and secondary somatosensory regions contra-lateral to pain stimulation within 200 ms after noxious stimulus; (2) pre-stimulus alpha activity was significantly increased at the same regions, which predicted the suppressed synchronization of PROs in long-term meditators; (3) the decrease of the P3b component was non-significant. These novel observations provide evidence that even when subjected to pain outside of meditation, experienced meditators exhibit a pro-active top-down inhibition of somatosensory areas resulting in suppressed processing and communication of sensory information at early stages of painful input. The emotional/cognitive appraisal of pain is reduced but remains preserved revealing a capacity of experienced meditators to dissociate pro-active and reactive top-down processes during pain control.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	Nature Research
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	31 Mar 2025 11:03
Last Modified:	31 Mar 2025 11:03
DOI or ID number:	10.1038/s41598-025-94223-7
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26047

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