Influence of long-term Sahaja Yoga meditation practice on emotional processing in the brain: An ERP study

•ERPs were obtained in meditators and controls during affective picture viewing.•Mid-latency ERP positivity for positive and negative stimuli was attenuated in meditators.•Long-term meditation practice influences processes of the fast automatic salience detection.•Attentional top-down control is more effective in meditators.

Despite growing interest in meditation as a tool for alternative therapy of stress-related and psychosomatic diseases, brain mechanisms of beneficial influences of meditation practice on health and quality of life are still unclear. We propose that the key point is a persistent change in emotional functioning, specifically the modulation of the early appraisal of motivational significance of events. The main aim was to study the effects of long-term meditation practice on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during affective picture viewing. ERPs were recorded in 20 long-term Sahaja Yoga meditators and 20 control subjects without prior experience in meditation. The meditators' mid-latency (140-400 ms) ERPs were attenuated for both positive and negative pictures (i.e. there were no arousal-related increases in ERP positivity) and this effect was more prominent over the right hemisphere. However, we found no differences in the long latency (400-800 ms) responses to emotional images, associated with meditation practice. In addition we found stronger ERP negativity in the time window 200-300 ms for meditators compared to the controls, regardless of picture valence. We assume that long-term meditation practice enhances frontal top-down control over fast automatic salience detection, based on amygdala functions.