An EEG based quantitative analysis of absorbed meditative state

Abstract

—Meditation is a mental practice to achieve focus of mind and emotional clarity. Meditation has been used for cognitive enhancement, rehabilitation and reducing stress and anxiety. In the present study, we are doing a comparative analysis between various levels of meditators based on EEG as psychophysiological indicator; and possibility of EEG as a neurofeedback for meditators. An analytical experiment on three categories of subjects (A: an expert meditator, B: five moderate meditators and C: five non-meditators) was done. Each subject was guided to perform two visual tasks; first to sit relaxed with eyes closed (REC) and second to gaze on a dot on screen (RDOT); supplied, EEG being recorded in parallel. The first subject was recorded with absorbed state of meditation (Samādhi). For psychophysiological analysis, wavelet transform based features from each recording of EEG was evaluated. Topographical mapping of brain functioning based on features were plotted and analyzed. It was observed that theta, alpha and beta were comparatively higher for expert meditator in frontal and central region during REC and RDOT. Also, during absorbed meditative state, the alpha and beta are higher at midline central region (Cz) and theta is higher at C3 and C4.