The Balanced Mind and its Intrinsic Neural Timescales in Advanced Meditators

Abstract

A balanced mind, or equanimity, cultivated through meditation and other spiritual practices, is considered one of the highest mental states. Its core features include deidentification and non-duality. Despite its significance, its neural correlates remain unknown. To address this, we acquired 128-channel EEG data (n = 103) from advanced and novice meditators (from the Isha Yoga tradition) and controls during an internal attention task (breath-watching) and an external attention task (visual-oddball paradigm). We calculated the auto-correlation window (ACW), a measure of the brain's intrinsic neural timescales (INTs), and assessed equanimity through self-report questionnaires. Advanced meditators showed higher levels of equanimity and a shorter duration of INTs (shorter ACW) during breath-watching, indicating deidentification with mental contents. Furthermore, they demonstrated no significant differences in INTs between tasks, indicating non-dual awareness. Finally, the shorter duration of INTs correlated with the participants' subjective perceptions of equanimity. In conclusion, we show that the shorter duration of the brain's INT may serve as a neural marker of equanimity.