Focused-attention meditation increases cognitive control during motor sequence performance: Evidence from the N2 cortical evoked potential

Focused-attention meditation training increases cognitive control during motor sequence performance: Evidence from the N2 cortical evoked potential. The left ring represents the cyclical processes common in focused attention meditation (adaptedfromMalinowski,2013). Each process covers the related phenomenological, attentional function and brain network activation. The middle ring represents the cognitive control enhancement that resulted from 21 days of meditation training as reported in the manuscript. The right ring represents how motor sequence learning performance and the N2 potential changes. [Display omitted] •Cognitive control is shared amongst different goal-directed activities.•Modulation of cognitive control affords different motor sequence learning mechanisms.•We found that meditation training reinforces cognitive control.•General learning enhancement was supported by increased N2 component amplitudes.•N2 modulation during sequence learning is more dynamic with meditation training. Previous work found that single-session focused attention meditation (FAM) enhanced motor sequence learning through increased cognitive control as a mechanistic action, although electrophysiological correlates of sequence learning performance following FAM were not investigated. We measured the persistent frontal N2 event-related potential (ERP) that is closely related to cognitive control processes and its ability to predict behavioural measures. Twenty-nine participants were randomised to one of three conditions reflecting the level of FAM experienced prior to a serial reaction time task (SRTT): 21 sessions of FAM (FAM21, N = 12), a single FAM session (FAM1, N = 9) or no preceding FAM control (Control, N = 8). Continuous 64-channel EEG were recorded during SRTT and N2 amplitudes for correct trials were extracted. Component amplitude, regions of interests, and behavioural outcomes were compared using mixed effects regression models between groups. FAM21 exhibited faster reaction time performances in majority of the learning blocks compared to FAM1 and Control. FAM21 also demonstrated a significantly more pronounced N2 over majority of anterior and central regions of interests during SRTT compared to the other groups. When N2 amplitudes were modelled against general learning performance, FAM21 showed the greatest rate of amplitude decline over anterior and central regions. The combined results suggest that FAM training provided greater cognitive control enhancement fo