The Effects of Mindfulness on Mind-Wandering and ERP Measures of Attention

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine whether a brief mindfulness breathing exercise would reduce the amount of mind-wandering and used the P300 portion of the ERP peak as a neural measure of attention. Participants (N = 24) listened to a brief recording designed to elicit mindfulness or a control recording and then completed a sustained attention task while EEG was recorded.. Though mindful breathing reduced self-reported mind-wandering, P300 peaks to stimuli were not affected by mindfulness or mind-wandering. Future studies should further examine these questions with a larger sample size.