Towards a refined model of mindfulness related to consciousness: A systematic review of ERPs findings

Based on neuroimaging, behavioral and self-report evidences, four main cognitive mechanisms through which mindfulness works were described: – self-regulation of attention; – improvement of the emotional regulation; – better performance monitoring; – enhancement of the body awareness. Electrophysiological background using Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were used for evaluating this mechanistic model. We performed a systematic review of studies including ERPs recordings acquired in relation to mindfulness. A total of 27 articles were included. Results showed that neural features of mindfulness were consistently associated with self-regulation of attention, and in most cases with lower emotional response to negative stimuli and improvement of performance monitoring. Enhancement of the body awareness was never investigated. We link these electrophysiological findings to models of consciousness and introduce an unique structure for the mechanistic model of mindfulness. This refined model assumes that mindful functioning could decrease the threshold access to consciousness. We conclude with several working hypotheses that could direct future research in mindfulness and give some leads about how to clarify these hypotheses.