Psychological and psychophysiological mechanisms underlying the effects of meditation during moderate-intensity exercise

The present experiment sought to further understanding of the psychological and psychophysiological mechanisms underlying the effects of a single session of audio-guided meditation during moderate-intensity cycling exercise. Twenty-four healthy participants were recruited. A portable EEG device was employed to investigate the cerebral responses associated with the effects of meditation on exercise. Psychological measures were administered at three timepoints during the exercise bout. Two experimental conditions (endurance meditation [EM] and catastrophic meditation [CM]) and a control condition (CO) were administered. Participants were asked to exercise for 8 min (2 min of warm-up performed at 20% below the first ventilatory threshold + 6 min of exercise performed at the first ventilatory threshold) at 60 rpm. The EEG signal from frontal electrode sites was decomposed using Morlet Complex Wavelets, and event-related perturbation was calculated to investigate changes in beta frequency associated with the cycling phase. The results indicate that EM was sufficiently potent to ameliorate exertion and enhance affect to a greater degree than CO and CM. The neural mechanisms underlying the effects of EM appear to be associated with increased beta activity in the right frontal regions. The results of this study also indicate that exertional fatigue can be modulated through an alternative route that is not reliant upon the use of dissociative thoughts and does not require motivation to be up-regulated