Neurofeedback Training Facilitates Awareness and Enhances Emotional Well-being Associated with Real-World Meditation Practice: A 7-T MRI Study.

Résumé

OBJECTIVES: Novice meditators often struggle to recognise and intentionally disengage from self-referential thought during meditation. We investigated whether personalised high-precision neurofeedback (NF) training improves volitional disengagement from self-referential thought during meditation and enhances meditation's outcomes.METHOD: In a single-blind, controlled study, novices received 2 days of veridical ( = 20) or sham ( = 20) 7-T fMRI NF targeting posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) deactivation during meditation. After NF training, at-home meditation practice was monitored for 1 week, followed by an in-lab behavioural assessment.RESULTS: Both groups reported similar perceptions of NF contingency, performance, and expectancy ( > 0.05), suggesting effective participant blinding. PCC deactivation during NF-guided meditation was comparable across groups ( > 0.05). Veridical NF group showed significantly stronger negative functional coupling ( = 0.59) between PCC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), significantly greater mindful awareness ( = 0.41) and emotional well-being ( = 0.40) associated with 1-week practice, and significant correlation ( = 0.71,