Meditation training is proposed to enhance mental well-being by modulating neural activity, particularly alpha and theta brain oscillations, and autonomic activity. Although such enhancement also depends on the quality of meditation, little is known about how these neural and physiological changes relate to meditation quality. One model characterizes meditation quality as five increasing levels of 'depth': hindrances, relaxation, concentration, transpersonal qualities and nonduality. We investigated the neural oscillatory (theta, alpha, beta and gamma) and physiological (respiration rate, heart rate and heart rate variability) correlates of the self-reported meditation depth in long-term meditators (LTMs) and meditation-naïve controls (CTLs). To determine the neural and physiological correlates of meditation depth, we modelled the change in the slope of the relationship between self-reported experiential degree at each of the five depth levels and the multiple neural and physiological measures. CTLs reported experiencing more 'hindrances' than LTMs, while LTMs reported more 'transpersonal qualities' and 'nonduality' compared to CTLs, confirming the experiential manipulation of meditation depth. We found that in both groups, theta (4-6 Hz) and alpha (7-13 Hz) oscillations were related to meditation depth in a precisely opposite manner. The theta amplitude positively correlated with 'hindrances' and increasingly negatively correlated with increasing meditation depth levels. Alpha amplitude negatively correlated with 'hindrances' and increasingly positively with increasing depth levels. The increase in the inverse association between theta and meditation depth occurred over different scalp locations in the two groups-frontal midline in LTMs and frontal lateral in CTLs-possibly reflecting the downregulation of two different aspects of executive processing-monitoring and attention regulation, respectively-during deep meditation. These results suggest a functional dissociation of the two classical neural signatures of meditation training, namely, alpha and theta oscillations. Moreover, while essential for overcoming 'hindrances', executive neural processing appears to be downregulated during deeper meditation experiences.

中文翻译：

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阿尔法和西塔振荡与冥想深度的渐进水平成反比。

冥想训练被提议通过调节神经活动，特别是 alpha 和 theta 大脑振荡以及自主神经活动来增强心理健康。虽然这种增强也取决于冥想的质量，但人们对这些神经和生理变化与冥想质量的关系知之甚少。一个模型将冥想质量描述为五个递增的“深度”级别：障碍、放松、专注、超个人品质和非二元性。我们调查了长期冥想者 (LTM) 和未进行冥想的对照 (CTL) 中自我报告的冥想深度的神经振荡（θ、α、β 和 γ）和生理（呼吸率、心率和心率变异性）相关性）。为了确定冥想深度的神经和生理相关性，我们模拟了五个深度级别中每个级别的自我报告体验程度与多种神经和生理测量之间关系的斜率变化。CTLs 报告比 LTMs 经历更多的“障碍”，而 LTMs 与 CTLs 相比报告了更多的“超个人品质”和“非二元性”，证实了冥想深度的经验操纵。我们发现，在两组中，θ（4-6 Hz）和 alpha（7-13 Hz）振荡与冥想深度的相关性正好相反。Theta 振幅与“障碍”呈正相关，与冥想深度水平的增加呈负相关。Alpha 振幅与“障碍”呈负相关，随着深度水平的增加而呈正相关。两组中不同头皮位置的 theta 和冥想深度之间的负相关增加 - LTM 中的额中线和 CTL 中的额侧 - 可能分别反映了执行处理 - 监控和注意力调节的两个不同方面的下调 -在深度冥想中。这些结果表明冥想训练的两种经典神经特征的功能分离，即 alpha 和 theta 振荡。此外，虽然对于克服“障碍”至关重要，但在更深层次的冥想体验中，执行神经处理似乎被下调。