The mindful eye: Smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements in meditators and non-meditators

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Kumari, V., Antonova, E., Wright, B. ORCID: 0000-0003-1256-5503, Hamid, A., Hernandez, E.M., Schmechtig, A. and Ettinger, U., 2017. The mindful eye: Smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements in meditators and non-meditators. Consciousness and Cognition, 48, pp. 66-75. ISSN 1053-8100

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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2016.10.008

Abstract

Background:
This study examined the effects of cultivated (i.e. developed through training) and dispositional (trait) mindfulness on smooth pursuit (SPEM) and antisaccade (AS) tasks known to engage the fronto-parietal network implicated in attentional and motion detection processes, and the fronto-striatal network implicated in cognitive control, respectively.
Methods:
Sixty healthy men (19–59 years), of whom 30 were experienced mindfulness practitioners and 30 meditation-naïve, underwent infrared oculographic assessment of SPEM and AS performance. Trait mindfulness was assessed using the self-report Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ).
Results:
Meditators, relative to meditation-naïve individuals, made significantly fewer catch-up and anticipatory saccades during the SPEM task, and had significantly lower intra-individual variability in gain and spatial error during the AS task. No SPEM or AS measure correlated significantly with FFMQ scores in meditation-naïve individuals.
Conclusions:
Cultivated, but not dispositional, mindfulness is associated with improved attention and sensorimotor control as indexed by SPEM and AS tasks.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

Consciousness and Cognition

Creators:

Kumari, V., Antonova, E., Wright, B., Hamid, A., Hernandez, E.M., Schmechtig, A. and Ettinger, U.

Publisher:

Elsevier

Date:

February 2017

Volume:

ISSN: