Temporal Changes in the State Effect of Meditation on Response Inhibition Processes

Objectives: A single session of brief focused attention meditation (FAM) has a state effect, which temporarily enhances response inhibition processes. However, previous research has two unanswered questions: (i) How long does the state effect last? (ii) How does effort toward FAM relate to the resulting state effect? Method: Thirty-nine healthy participants participated in two sessions: FAM and sham meditation (SHAM). The participants conducted each meditation for 10 min. The state effect on response inhibition processes was observed as Stroop task performance immediately before and after each meditation, and 20, 40, and 60 min after each meditation. In addition, the subjective effort toward meditation was evaluated using a questionnaire immediately after each meditation. Results: An analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction between session and time. In the post-hoc analysis, FAM showed significantly better Stroop task performance than the SHAM 60 min after meditation. Furthermore, using correlational analysis, we found that at 60 min, the higher the subjective effort, the better Stroop task performance. Conclusions: In contrast to previous findings, the state effect was not found immediately after FAM but instead 60 min after. The results can be partially explained by cognitive fatigue; that is, the FAM may have the state effect of preventing cognitive fatigue. This state effect is greater when the subjective effort is greater.