The effect of meditation on awareness and regulation of internal body states

Most meditation traditions incorporate attention to internal body sensations as a component of the practice, and many traditions state that this practice results in increased awareness of internal body sensations. Meditation is also thought to induce physiologically quiescent states, even in the context of increases in physiological arousal. The idea that a meditation practice would lead to enhanced bodily awareness and/or an ability to regulate increased levels of physiological arousal is certainly plausible, but there has been limited scientific evidence to support these claims. These knowledge gaps were addressed through a series of cross sectional studies examining interoceptive awareness and the ability to regulate interoceptive body states. The first study used the standard method for assessing interoceptive awareness, heartbeat detection, in two groups of experienced meditators (Kundalini and Tibetan Buddhist) and a matched group of nonmeditators. This approach yielded a negative outcome. However, only a minority of participants in each group were accurate heartbeat detectors, a limitation common to heartbeat detection tasks at rest. In a second study, a novel method for inducing and assessing interoceptive awareness was developed, using bolus isoproterenol infusions. This study addressed limitations of the first study, as all participants demonstrated increased awareness of heartbeat sensations. Using this new method, the third study examined whether a group of Vipassana meditators displayed increased awareness of heartbeat and breathing sensations as compared to an individually matched group of nonmeditators. There was no evidence that meditators displayed greater awareness of isoproterenol induced interoceptive sensations, although there was a trend for meditators to rate changes in intensity of sensations sooner than nonmeditators. The final experiment assessed the impact of the meditation practice on the cardiovascular response to isoproterenol. There was no evidence at the group or individual level that meditation was capable of reducing the cardiovascular response. These studies do not rule out the possibility that meditation can enhance bodily attention, but they do reveal that meditation is not associated with objectively increased awareness and/or regulation of internal (cardiorespiratory) body states. This work advances the field by questioning some basic assumptions about the effects of the meditation practice.