Abstract
Objectives
This study aims to investigate the effect of a short-term mindfulness training program on participants’ performance on response inhibition and identify the neural correlates of the error-related event-related potential (ERP) during the task.
Method
A total of 61 participants were included in the statistical analyses. Three types of 15-min short-term interventions over 5 days were employed: (1) mindfulness practice (mindfulness group), (2) relaxation guidance (active control group), and (3) neutral materials (control group). Response inhibition performance was measured by stop-signal task (SST) before and after each intervention and concurrent neural activity was assessed at the post-program phase.
Results
A significant interaction between the assessment and intervention on the stop-signal reaction time was indicated (F(2, 58)=5.14, p=0.009, \({\eta}_{\textrm{partial}}^2\)=0.15). Specifically, participants in the control group showed significantly worse performance in SST while those in the mindfulness group showed a marginally significant better performance in SST after the intervention. The event-related potentials during post-program stop-signal task were analyzed with 53 participants and revealed significant differences in error positivity amplitude (Pe) of the no-go errors in SST between the groups (F(2,50)=3.72, p=0.031, \({\eta}_{\textrm{partial}}^2\)=0.13). Post-hoc t-tests indicated that the mindfulness group’s Pe amplitude was marginally higher than that of the other two groups.
Conclusions
The present work indicates that the short-term mindfulness training had a positive effect on response inhibition, and the changes in error-related ERP (Pe) following errors may be associated with this positive effect. The results provide insight into the association between mindfulness and response inhibition.
Preregistration
This study is not preregistered.
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Data Availability
Data can be obtained from the first author upon an email request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Yanming Wang for his contribution in the intervention recordings. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing.
Funding
The project was supported by Open Research Fund of College of Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University (grant number jykf20022) and the funding of “Mindfulness Training and Happiness,” the horizontal cooperation project between Zhejiang Normal University and Xin foundation (grant number KYH06Y19110), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81971245).
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Ming Zheng: conceptualization, methodology, data collection, data analyses, writing—original draft preparation and editing. Xiaolan Song: supervision, conceptualization, methodology, writing—reviewing and editing. Huiwen Zhao: conceptualization, data collection. Yuzheng Hu: writing—reviewing and editing. Qiangui Liao, Wenwen Hu, and Jia Zhou: data collection.
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The research procedure was performed in accordance with the ethical principles of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Organisation), and it was approved by Zhejiang Normal University Research Ethics Committee.
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All participants provided informed consent to participate in the study.
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Zheng, M., Song, X., Zhao, H. et al. Can Short-term Mindfulness Training Improve Response Inhibition: A Pilot ERP Study. Mindfulness 14, 1259–1270 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02134-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02134-3