Functional MRI brain mechanisms of focused attention meditation - current state and future scope

Meditation trains the mind to focus attention towards an object or experience. Among different meditation techniques, focused attention meditation is considered foundational for more advanced practices. Presently, there is no unified neurocognitive model of focused attention meditation developed via quantitative synthesis of contemporary literature. Hence, we performed a quantitative systematic review and meta-analysis of all functional MRI studies examining focused attention meditation. Following PRISMA guidelines, 28 studies (721 participants) were included, and 10 studies (200 participants) were also amenable to an objective meta-analysis. We found that regions comprising three key functional brain networks i.e., Default-mode, Salience, and Executive Control, were consistently implicated in focused attention meditation. Furthermore, meditation expertise, mindfulness levels and attentional skills were found to significantly influence the magnitude, but not regional extent, of activity and functional coupling in these networks. Aggregating all evidence, we present a unified neurocognitive brain-network model of focused attention meditation. We also invite collaborations for the first large-scale international repository of meditation neuroimaging data, that would facilitate comprehensive analyses and robust conclusions regarding the brain mechanisms underpinning meditation.