AUTHOR=Lippelt Dominique P. , Hommel Bernhard , Colzato Lorenza S. 

TITLE=Focused attention, open monitoring and loving kindness meditation: effects on attention, conflict monitoring, and creativity – A review

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01083

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01083

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as a topic for scientific research and theories on meditation are becoming ever more specific. We distinguish between what is called <italic>focused Attention meditation</italic>, <italic>open Monitoring meditation</italic>, and <italic>loving kindness</italic> (or compassion) <italic>meditation</italic>. Research suggests that these meditations have differential, dissociable effects on a wide range of cognitive (control) processes, such as attentional selection, conflict monitoring, divergent, and convergent thinking. Although research on exactly how the various meditations operate on these processes is still missing, different kinds of meditations are associated with different neural structures and different patterns of electroencephalographic activity. In this review we discuss recent findings on meditation and suggest how the different meditations may affect cognitive processes, and we give suggestions for directions of future research.</p>