Meditation and complexity: a review and synthesis of evidence
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Published version
Author(s)
Atad, Daniel A
Mediano, Pedro AM
Rosas, Fernando E
Berkovich-Ohana, Aviva
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Recent years have seen growing interest in the use of metrics inspired by complexity science for the study of consciousness. Work in this field has shown remarkable results in discerning conscious from unconscious states, and in characterizing states of altered conscious experience following psychedelic intake as involving enhanced complexity. Here, we study the relationship between complexity and a different kind of altered state of consciousness: meditation. We provide a scoping review of the growing literature studying the complexity of neural activity in meditation, disentangling different families of measures, short-term (state) from long-term (trait) effects, and meditation styles. Beyond families of measures used, our review uncovers a convergence toward identifying higher complexity during the meditative state when compared to waking rest or mind-wandering and decreased baseline complexity as a trait following regular meditation practice. In doing so, this review contributes to guide current debates and provides a framework for understanding the complexity of neural activity in meditation, while suggesting practical guidelines for future research.
Date Issued
2025-05-28
Date Acceptance
2025-04-14
Citation
Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2025, 2025 (1)
ISSN
2057-2107
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Journal / Book Title
Neuroscience of Consciousness
Volume
2025
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
10.1093/nc/niaf013
Subjects
meditation
consciousness
complexity
entropy
fractal dimension
predictive processing
neuroimaging
literature review
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
niaf013
Date Publish Online
2025-05-28