Cortical plasticity, contingent negative variation, and transcendent experiences during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique

This study investigated effects of transcendent experiences on contingent n egative variation (CNV) amplitude, CNV rebound, and distraction effects. Th ree groups of age-matched subjects with few (<1 per year), more frequent (1 0-20 per year), or daily self-reported transcendent experiences received 31 simple RT trials (flash (S-1)/tone (S-2)/button press) followed by 31 divi ded-attention trials - randomly intermixed trials with or without a three-l etter memory task in the S-1-S-2 interval). Late CNV amplitudes in the simp le trials were smallest in the group with fewest, and largest in the group with most frequent transcendent experiences. Conversely, CNV distraction ef fects were largest in the group with fewest and smallest in the group with most frequent transcendent experiences (the second group's values were in t he middle in each case). These data suggest culminative effects of transcen dent experiences on cortical preparatory response (heightened late CNV ampl itude in simple trials) and executive functioning (diminished distraction e ffects in letter trials). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserve d.