Investigating the effect of Integral Meditation: the impact of an original mindfulness-based intervention on psychological and neuropsychological outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: Research on mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) has constantly reported beneficial effects on psychological well-being associated with mindfulness meditation training. Onthe other hand, neurophysiological changes associated with MBIs are less clear. The Integral Meditation (IM) is an original MBI developed by our research team and previously associated with positive effects on several psychological domains. AIM: This study aimed to assess the effects of the IM training, on young adults. The assessment included psychological factors, such as dispositional mindfulness, interoceptive sensibility, interoceptive accuracy, state anxiety and trait anxiety, and neurophysiological measures derivedfrom the electroencephalography (EEG) alpha frequency band activity. The associations betweenthe changes in those two domains were also explored. METHODS: Participants (N=89) were recruited in the city of Pavia, Italy and randomized inintervention and control groups. Participants completed four self-report measures, a laboratory task (Heartbeat Tracking Task) and underwent a conventional eye-closed resting-state EEG recording atthe two timepoints. The intervention group participated to the IM intervention while the control group did not engage in any intervention. Statistical analyses were performed to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. RESULTS: Significant changes were found in the intervention group for dispositional mindfulnessand interoceptive sensibility, and their subdomains. Analysis of EEG alpha activity revealed that the effect of the intervention on the Individual Alpha Peak power changes to participants’ individual characteristics. Exploratory analysis showed that the effect of the intervention on the alpha activityvaries also among different brain regions, highlighting the role of the individual differences. Correlation analysis indicates several bidirectional associations between the changes in the psychological measures and the changes in EEG alpha activity.CONCLUSIONS: This study on IM among healthy young adults revealed significantimprovements in dispositional mindfulness and interoceptive sensibility, despite no discernible impact on anxiety. The findings emphasize the need for personalized mindfulness interventions,recognizing individual variations in response for optimal effectiveness. The study is affected by several limitations such as the reduced sample size, due to the high dropout. Future studies on IM should explore the effects in alpha sub-bands as well as in other EEG frequency bands.