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...ay, rather than the total number of hours of meditative practice over their lifetime, was correlated with attention performance [71]. The meditation state clearly differs from the resting state, particularly in the early stages, in that it involves effort. However, it is not yet clear whether the resting state changes as a result of meditation training. Studies indicate that meditation training may change the resting state, but different directions of change have been reported: two studies found increased resting state activity [72,73], whereas two others showed reduced resting state activity [74,75]. Plausible explanations for these conflicting results include the following: (i) the differences are due to the form of meditation used in the studies, (ii) differences between studies arise because the participants are in different stages of meditation involving varying amounts of effort, or (iii) differences may be due to varying numbers of persons achieving the meditation state during testing following the training. More research will be needed to resolve these inconsistencies. Neural correlates of brain state control Following earlier proposals [76,77], we hypothesize that the control of ...

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...trongly in the body, without trying to change it in any way. Whenever attention has wandered to something else, the meditator gently but firmly brings it back to the physical sensation of the breath (=-=Brewer et al., 2011-=-). Important aims of the practice are to quickly detect mind wandering and maintain attention more stably on the breath, eventually needing less effort in the task, and over time reducing emotional re...

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...l networks become relatively more active or quiet down. For instance, what do regions of the brain implicated in self-referential processing (the “me” centers) do when we pay attention to our breath (=-=Brewer et al. 2011-=-)? For example, Fig. 1a shows brain activity monitored by real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging in a novice meditator who was given the instruction to: “Pay attention to the physical sensati...

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...icative of state and trait decreases in the tendency toward both stimulus-induced and baseline self-narrative-generating cognitive processes are growing at an accelerating pace (Pagnoni et al., 2008; =-=Brewer et al., 2011-=-; Taylor et al., 2011; Hasenkamp and Barsalou, 2012; Hasenkamp et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2012). In addition, in relation with affective processes, it has been demonstrated that meditative training ...

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...al time neurofeedback from the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a brain region previously found to be activated during self-related thinking (Buckner et al., 2008) and deactivated during meditation (=-=Brewer et al., 2011-=-). Moreover, they were able to use what they had learned about the subjective qualities of meditation that related to feedback in order to volitionally deactivate the PCC. However, because the PCC has...

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...indicated stronger coupling between brain regions implicated in self-monitoring, cognitive control, and attention in experienced meditators compared to subjects with less or no meditation experience (=-=Brewer et al., 2011-=-; Jang et al., 2011; Hasenkamp and Barsalou, 2012; Taylor et al., 2012). However, little is known on the longitudinal effects of meditation training on emotional reactivity when participants are in an...

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...hy (EEG) studies have demonstrated different activation patterns and differences in resting state networks between meditators and controls (Davidson et al., 2003; Lutz et al., 2004; Tei et al., 2009; =-=Brewer et al., 2011-=-; Jang et al., 2011; Xue et al., 2011; Berkovich-Ohana et al., 2012; Keune et al., 2013). Interestingly, many of these studies have observed effects of meditation on the brain that were not expressed ...

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... or related to test anxiety (see Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007). Mind-wandering, especially containing worry and rumination engage executive processes and consume cognitive resources (see Smallwood & Schooler, 2006; Watkins & Brown, 2002). When they are reduced, the resources are released and can be used in relevant tasks. This effect should be particularly observed under stress conditions or in the case of persons with a high chronic level of mental absorption (Eysenck et al., 2007). Results of several studies suggest reduced mind-wandering related to mindfulness. In two of them (Brewer et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2013), participants with meditational experience (relative to novices), showed decreased activity of the default mode network related to spontaneous mind-wandering (Christoff, Gordon, Smallwood, Smith, & Schooler, 2009). In two other studies Mrazek with colleagues found significant relation between dispositional mindfulness and four different measures of mind-wandering (Mrazek, Smallwood, & Schooler, 2012). Results showed that reduced mind-wandering mediated relation between two-weeks mindfulness training and improvements in cognitive performance. The preliminary results of ou...

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...ave been reported: two studies found increased resting state activity (Travis et al., 2010; Jang et al., 2011), whereas two others showed reduced resting state activity (Berkovich-Ohana et al., 2011; =-=Brewer et al., 2011-=-). Plausible explanations for these conflicting results include the following: (i) the differences are due to the form of meditation used in the studies, (ii) differences between studies arise because...

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...ation. Specifically, mindfulness-induced reduction in activity was found in anterior and posterior midline DMN regions, including the mPFC, PCC and precuneus (Farb et al., 2007; Pagnoni et al., 2008; =-=Brewer et al., 2011-=-; Ives-Deliperi et al., 2011), which are particularly linked with spontaneous selfgenerated mental activity, i.e. streams of thoughts, episodic memory, mind wandering and self-related processing (Gusn...