Mental training affects electrophysiological markers of attention resource allocation in healthy older adults

•Aging is associated with a slowing of attentional processes.•We examined the attentional benefits of mindfulness in healthy older adults.•Attentional performance improved after 8 weeks of training.•These benefits were accompanied by reduced frontal N2 and P3 latencies.•Mindfulness may have a role in combating age-related cognitive declines. Aging is associated with a decline in performance and speed of attentional processing. Mindfulness has been shown to enhance attentional performance, however evidence of this is lacking in aging cohorts. A longitudinal RCT was conducted to examine the effect of mindfulness training on attentional performance in healthy older adults (n = 49) together with an active control computer-based attention training group (n = 30). While both groups displayed decreased N2 amplitudes at frontal and central regions during an auditory oddball task after training, only the mindfulness group showed reductions in frontal N2 and P3 latency. These results suggest that programs targeting sustained attention may result in efficient allocation of attentional resources in older adults. In particular, mindfulness may enhance the speed of attentional processes which are known to decline in aging, thereby providing benefits against age-related cognitive decline.