Meditation is a self-regulatory process practiced primarily to reduce stress, manage emotions and mental health. The objective of this work is to study the information exchange between electrodes within and across the hemispheres during meditation using functional connectivity (FC) measures. We investigate the changes in the coherence between EEG electrode pairs during the meditation with open eyes practiced by long-term Brahmakumaris Rajyoga meditators and during listening to music by controls as the comparable task. FC derived from coherency, pairwise phase consistency (PPC) is used to study the changes in intra and interhemispheric coherence. Integrating connectivity (IC) derived from node degree strength has also been analyzed. Meditators show increased PPC in higher theta and alpha bands both within and across hemispheres. However, the control subjects with no knowledge of meditation show no change in theta band during the music session. Further, during baseline conditions, higher interhemispheric anterior to posterior IC is found in meditators in higher beta and slow gamma bands than controls. Distinct patterns of changes are observed with the PPC and IC measures in different frequency bands during meditation in the meditators and music-listening session in the control subjects indicating varied information processing between the right and left hemispheres. Increased IC is found between the frontal electrodes implying increased self-awareness in meditators. The PPC between the occipital electrodes in meditators is less than the controls in baseline condition indicating a possible modified visual information processing in Rajyoga meditators due to the long-term practice of meditation with open eyes. Overall, the changes in PPC and associated IC indicate increased functional integration during meditation supporting the hypothesis of communication through coherence and cortical integration theory during the non-ordinary state of consciousness induced by meditation.

冥想是一种自我调节过程，主要是为了减轻压力、管理情绪和心理健康。这项工作的目的是使用功能连接（FC）测量来研究冥想期间半球内部和跨半球电极之间的信息交换。我们研究了长期 Brahmakumaris Rajyoga 冥想者练习睁眼冥想期间和对照任务听音乐期间脑电图电极对之间一致性的变化。FC源自相干性，成对相位一致性（PPC）用于研究半球内和半球间相干性的变化。还分析了从节点度强度得出的集成连通性（IC）。冥想者在半球内部和跨半球的较高 θ 和 α 频带中显示出 PPC 增加。然而，没有冥想知识的对照组受试者在音乐过程中没有表现出 θ 波带的变化。此外，在基线条件下，与对照组相比，冥想者在较高的 β 和较慢的 γ 波段中发现了较高的半球间前部到后部 IC。在冥想者冥想期间和对照受试者听音乐期间，不同频段的 PPC 和 IC 测量值观察到明显的变化模式，表明左右半球之间的信息处理存在差异。额叶电极之间的 IC 增加，这意味着冥想者的自我意识增强。冥想者枕骨电极之间的 PPC 低于基线条件下的对照，表明由于长期睁眼冥想练习，Rajyoga 冥想者的视觉信息处理可能发生了变化。总体而言，PPC 和相关 IC 的变化表明冥想期间功能整合的增加，支持在冥想引起的非正常意识状态期间通过连贯性和皮质整合理论进行沟通的假设。