An Investigation of the Effectiveness of a Short-Term Meditation Intervention on Stress and Interoception in Novice Meditators: An fNIRS Study

Previous research on meditation interventions has demonstrated potential benefits for reducing perceived stress levels, lowering blood pressure, and enhancing interoceptive awareness. The present study investigated whether participants who listened to a ten-minute guided meditation would have greater decreases in stress and increases in interoception than a comparison group who listened to a ten-minute TED talk. Among our sample (n = 100), most participants identified as being White (63%), female (75%), and reported a mean age of 20.00 years (SD = 1.08). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: one of which listened to a TED talk followed by a guided meditation, while the comparison group listened to two TED Talks. Results indicated that both groups experienced significant reductions in self-reported perceived stress and systolic blood pressure from pre- to post-intervention. No significant changes were observed in diastolic blood pressure or interoception across either condition. Subgroup analyses revealed that gender, minority status, and socioeconomic status did not moderate the effects of the meditation intervention. However, individuals reporting high levels of dietary restraint in the meditation condition exhibited significantly greater reductions in stress than participants with low and average levels of dietary restraint. Additionally, no significant differences in neural activity, as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), were found between the two groups. Overall, our findings align with existing literature which suggests that brief meditation practices can effectively reduce stress and systolic blood pressure. However, meditation was not found to be more effective than listening to a ten-minute TED talk. Notably, the stress-reducing effects of meditation appear to be particularly pronounced among individuals with high dietary restraint.