EFFECTS OF NEUROFEEDBACK-ASSISTED MINDFULNESS PRACTICE ON EMOTION AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING

Abstract

Neurofeedback assistance has been proposed as a potential technological aid to enhance the effects of mindfulness. Theoretically, access to neurofeedback data can be helpful as it can affirm successful engagement with mindfulness states and inform practitioners when their attention wanders off from the intended object of attention (e.g., the breath). This laboratory study aims to investigate the effects of a brief EEG-based, neurofeedback- assisted mindfulness induction on several emotion and attention outcomes, namely emotional reactivity, cognitive interference, and distress tolerance. Eighty-eight university students were recruited and randomly assigned to one of three conditions: neurofeedback-assisted mindfulness practice, traditional mindfulness practice (without neurofeedback), or mind-wandering instructions (control condition). Participants were instructed to engage in two 10-minute mindfulness (or mind wandering) inductions. The first induction was followed by administration of the colour-word Stroop task, whereas the second induction was followed by an affective picture rating task and a distress tolerance task. Results showed that there were no between-condition differences on emotional reactivity or Stroop interference from pre- to post-induction. Contrary to expectation, participants in the control condition tolerated more distressing pictures compared to the other conditions. Possible explanations, implications, and future directions were discussed in consideration of these results.