The Neuroscience of Attention,

Emotion, & Meditation: Implications

for Education

Alfred W. Kaszniak
Department of Psychology
University of Arizona

Goal-Directed vs. Stimulus-Driven Attention

& The Brain

ACC

One system (bilateral intraparietal &

superior frontal cortices) - preparing &
applying goal-directed (top-down)
selection for stimuli & responses
Other (temporoparietal & inferior frontal
cortices, right lateralized) - detection of
behaviorally-relevant stimuli
(particularly salient or unexpected)
Anterior cingulate cortex (& adjacent
VMPFC)- conflict detection, error
monitoring & attention switching

Corbetta, M., & Shulman, G.L. (2002). Control of goal-directed and stimulusdriven attention in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3, 201-215.
Wager, T.D., Jonides, J., Smith, E.E., & Nichols, T.E. (2005). Toward a
taxonomy of attention shifting: Individual differences in fMRI during multiple
shift types. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 5, 122-143.

Stress Disrupts Attention Control and

Prefrontal Cortical Processing

In young adults, 1mo. of

the stress of preparation for
a major exam reversibly
disrupted prefrontal cortex
functional connectivity and
performance while
performing an attentionshifting task.

Liston, C., McEwen, B.S., & Casey, B.J. (2009).

Psychosocial stress reversibly disrupts prefrontal
processing and attentional control. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Science, 106, 912-917.

Childrens Stress
National

Kids Poll surveyed 875 children, ages 9

13:
Top 3 sources of stress: School & homework
(36%); Family (32%); Friends, peers, gossip, &
teasing (21%)
Top 3 coping strategies: Play or do something
active (52%); Listen to music (44%); Watch TV
or play video game (42%)
Cited in Lantieri, L. (2008). Building emotional intelligence. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, p.12.

Kaiser Family Foundation Study (2005)

On

average, a sample of 700 young persons, age 8

- 18, stated that 26 % of the time while using one
medium they were also doing something else
media-related at the same time.
30% either talk on the phone, instant message,
watch TV, listen to music, or surf the web for fun
most of the time they are doing homework;
Another 31% say they do so some of the time.
Rideout, V., Roberts, D.F., & Foehr, V.G. (2005). Generation M: Media in the
Lives of 8-18 Year-olds. Kaiser Family Foundation.
<http://www.kff.org/entmedia/7251.cfm>

Attention in a Multitasking World

Our attention capacity is limited, and multitasking
demands rapid task switching.
The rapid switching between multiple tasks is costly in
time and accuracy.
Switch cost increases with task complexity and
unfamiliarity.
In switching from one task to another, the two
complementary executive control stages of goal
shifting and rule activation each take time.

Rubinstein, J. S., Meyer, D. E., & Evans, J. E. (2001). Executive control of

cognitive processes in task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Human Perception and Performance, 27, 763-797.

Cognitive Control in Task Switching

Has a long Developmental Curve

Davidson, M.C., Amso, D., Anderson, L.., & Diamond, A.(2006). Development of cognitive
control and executive funtions from 4 to 13 years: Evidence from manipulations of memory,
inhibition, and task switching. Neuropsychologia, 44, 2037-2078.

The Myth of Multitasking Expertise

Examined differences in information processing
styles between heavy and light media multitaskers
Results from standard cognitive control tasks
showed that heavy media multitaskers are more
susceptible to interference from irrelevant
environmental stimuli and irrelevant
representations in memory, and also performed
worse on a test of task-switching (likely due to
reduced ability to filter interference from the
irrelevant task set)

Ophir, E., Nass, C, & Wagner, A.D. (2009). Cognitive control in media multitaskers. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Science, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0903620106.

Cognitive-Affective Nature of Executive Control

Executive control circuit contains

traditional control areas, such as the
anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and
the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC),
in addition to other areas commonly
linked to affect (amygdala) and
motivation (nucleus accumbens).
Diffuse, modulatory effects are
shown in green and originate from
dopamine-rich neurons from the
ventral tegmental area (VTA).

Pessoa, L. (2008). On the relationship between emotion and cognition. Nature Reviews
Neuroscience, 9, 148-158.

Emotion Regulation
Reappraising the meaning &
personal relevance of emotional
images reduces facial expressive
autonomic physiological, & brain
(amygdala) responses
Such emotion regulation has been
shown to be dependent upon regions
in the medial frontal cortex.

CorrugatorEMG(zscores)

0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1s

2s

3s

4s

5s

6s

Time
Reappraise

Suppress

Watch

Gross, J.J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation:

Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 224-237.
Menchola, M., Kaszniak, A.W., & Burton, K.W. (2008). Interaction between
habitual and voluntary emotion regulation and the chronometry of affective
responses. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for
Psychophysiological Research.

Adolescence, Limbic & PFC

Development, and Risky Behavior

Casey, B.J., Jones, R.M., & Hare, T.A. (2008). The adolescent brain. Annals of the New York Academy
of Sciences, 1124, 111-126

The Voluntary Control of Attention

The

faculty of voluntarily bringing back a

wandering attention, over and over again, is the
very root of judgment, character, and will. No one
is compos sui if he have it not. An education which
should improve this faculty would be the education
par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal
than to give practical directions for bringing it
about.
James, W. (1890/1981). The principles of psychology.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 401.

Does Meditation Provide Such

Education?

What is Meditation?
Two

modes of attention:

Focused

Attention Meditation
Open Monitoring Meditation
Lutz, A., Dunne, J. & Davidson, R. (2007). Meditation and the neuroscience of
consciousness. In P. Zelazo, M. Moscovitch & E. Thompson, eds., The Cambridge
Handbook of Consciousness, Cambridge University Press.
Lutz, A., Slagter, H.A., Dunne, J.D., & Davidson, R.J. (2008). Attention regulation and
monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 163-169.

Attention & Meditation Practice

Jha, et al. (2007) studied
17 participants in 8-week
MBSR training, 17 FAmeditation-experienced
participants on monthlong retreat, & 17
nonmeditating controls.
Administered Attention
Network Test (ANT) pre& post training/retreat.

Fan, J., McCandliss, B., Sommer, T., Raz, A., & Posner, M. (2002).
Testing the efficiency and independence of attentional networks.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 143, 340-347.

Jha, A., Krimpinger, J., & Baime, M.J. (2007). Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention.
Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience 7, 109-119,

Attention & Meditation Practice

Participants in
MBSR course
improved ability to
endogenously
orient attention
Retreat
participation
facilitated receptive
attention skills,
which improved
exogenous alertingrelated process.

Jha, A., Krimpinger, J., & Baime, M.J. (2007). Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of
attention. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience 7, 109-119.

Intensive Meditation Training &

Attentional Blink

Studied 17 participants at
beginning & end of 3-mo.
Vipassana (FA & OM)
meditation retreat, & 23
novices who meditated 20
min. daily for 1 wk prior
to each experimental
session
Administered the
attentional blink task

Slagter, H.A., Lutz, A.,, Greischar, L.L., Francis, A. Nieuwenhuis,, S., Davis, J.M., &
Davidson, R.J. (2007). Mental training affects distribution of limited brain resources. PLoS
Biology, 5 (6), e138. Doi:10.1317/journal.pbio.0050138.

Attentional Blink & ERP Results

Intensive retreat practitioners
showed smaller attentional blink
for T2 (2nd session, after
retreat)
This was associated with ERP
evidence for reduction in brainresource allocation to T1
Consistent with reduced
distracter (T1) interference in
meditation practitioners

Slagter, H.A., Lutz, A.,, Greischar, L.L., Francis, A. Nieuwenhuis,, S., Davis, J.M., & Davidson, R.J.
(2007). Mental training affects distribution of limited brain resources. PLoS Biology, 5 (6), e138.
Doi:10.1317/journal.pbio.005013

Zen & Concept Proliferation

Compared participants with 3+
yrs daily Zazen practice to
meditation nave persons
All did simple breath attention
meditation while words &
nonwords were flashed
Zen meditators showed faster
return to baseline in brain
default network activity
associated with conceptual
thought & sense of self

Pagnoni, G., Cekic, M., & Guo, Y. (2008). Thinking about not-thinking: Neural correlates of conceptual
processing during Zen meditation. PLoS ONE 3 (9): e3083. Doc10.1371/journal_pone.00-3083

EEG Phase Synchrony

More widespread gamma frequency (2080 Hz) EEG synchrony is found for
upright than inverted or scrambled
Mooney (ambiguous) faces.
Interpreted as reflecting integration of the
computations of different, spatially
distributed feature processing regions in
the brain (conscious perceptual binding).

Rodriguez E, George N, Lachaux JP, Martinerie J, Renault B, Varela FJ. (1999).

Perceptions shadow: long-distance synchronization of human brain activity. Nature,
397,430433.
Trujillo, L.T., Peterson, M.A., Kaszniak, A.W., & Allen, J.A. (2005). EEG phase synchrony
differences across visual perception conditions may depend on recording and analysis
methods Clinical Neurophysiology 116 172 189

Brain Electrical Synchrony & Nonreferential

Compassion Meditation

128-channel EEG recorded in

8 long-term Tibetan Buddhist
practitioners & 10 student
volunteers.

Increased synchronous gamma activity

over lateral fronto-parietal areas
during non-referential compassion
meditation.
Suggests precise temporal
synchronization of massive distributed
neural assemblies.

Lutz, A., Greischer, L.L., Rawlings, N.B., Ricard, M., &

Davidson, R.J. (2004). Long-term meditators self-induce high
amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Science, 101, 16369-16373.

Phenomenal Clarity & Gamma

Oscillations During Meditation

High-amplitude gamma
oscillations emerge over a
time-course of several dozens
of seconds and correlate with
the clarity (phenomenal
intensity and vividness) of
meditative experience as
verbally reported

clarity of the mind =

phenomenal intensity and
vividness during meditation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
V2

Example: Adept 1

300
250
200

Lutz, A. et al. (2006). Changes in the tonic

high-amplitude gamma oscillations during
meditation correlate with long-term
practitioners verbal reports. Poster
presented at the Association for the Scientific
Study of Consciousness Annual Meeting,.

150
100
50
0

Self-report (rating 1-9);

Gamma activity

Emotion in Long-Term Zen & Vipassana Meditators

Long-term Meditators (>10

years)
Report higher emotional
clarity
Those reporting higher
clarity show lower
physiological &
experienced arousal, &
greater subtle positive
facial expression in
response to masked
emotional pictures,
consistent with regulation
of emotion early in the
emotion process.

Clarity
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2

Controls

StMeds

LtMeds

Nielsen, L., & Kaszniak, A.W. (2006).

Awareness of subtle emotional feelings: A
comparison of long-term meditators and nonmeditators. Emotion, 6, 392-405.

Brief Meditation Training, Emotion, &

Immune Response
Studied 25 work environment
participants in 8-week MBSR
training & 16 wait-list controls
Following training, meditators
showed decreased trait
anxiety, left anterior brain
activation (associated with
positive affect), & increases in
antibody titers to influenza
vaccine (correlated with left
brain activation)

Davidson, R. et al. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness
meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564-570.

Empathy for Pain

Brain Areas Activated by both Experiencing & Observing Pain

Observing

facial expression
of another in pain activates
areas involved in ones own
affective response to pain
(anterior insula, anterior
medial cingulate)

Lamm, C., Batson, C.D., & Decety, J. (2007). The neural substrate of human
empathy: Effects of perspective-taking and cognitive appraisal. Journal of Cognitive
Neuroscience, 19, 42-58.

Compassion Meditation in Expert Meditators Alters

Activity in Empathy-Related Brain Areas

Expert Vajrayana Buddhist

meditators, compared to
novices, showed greater
activation to emotional distress
vocalizations in insula cortex
during nonrerential
compassion meditation.
Strength of insula activation
was correlated with selfreported intensity of the
meditation

Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R.J. (2008). Regulation of the
neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: Effects of meditative expertise.
PLoS ONE, 3(3), e1897. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.00011897.

Contemplative Education
Although

feasibility studies and initial

evaluative data have been reported,
empirical studies on contemplative
practice with children in educational
settings are few in number and often
have methodological limitations.
Many questions remain, and claims of
effectiveness are presently premature.
Roeser, R.W., & Peck, S.C. (2009). An education in awareness: Self, motivation, and self-regulated
learning in contemplative perspective. Educational Psychologist, 44, 119-136.

Thank You