Dataset Information

EEG Microstates Indicate Heightened Somatic Awareness in Insomnia: Toward Objective Assessment of Subjective Mental Content.

ABSTRACT: People with Insomnia Disorder (ID) not only experience abundant nocturnal mentation, but also report altered spontaneous mental content during daytime wakefulness, such as an increase in bodily experiences (heightened somatic awareness). Previous studies have shown that resting-state EEG can be temporally partitioned into quasi-stable microstates, and that these microstates form a small number of canonical classes that are consistent across people. Furthermore, the microstate classes have been associated with individual differences in resting mental content including somatic awareness. To address the hypothesis that altered resting mental content in ID would be reflected in an altered representation of the corresponding EEG microstates, we analyzed resting-state high-density EEG of 32 people with ID and 32 age- and sex-matched controls assessed during 5-min eyes-closed wakefulness. Using data-driven topographical k-means clustering, we found that 5 microstate classes optimally explained the EEG scalp voltage map sequences across participants. For each microstate class, 3 dynamic features were obtained: mean duration, frequency of occurrence, and proportional coverage time. People with ID had a shorter mean duration of class C microstates, and more frequent occurrence of class D microstates. The finding is consistent with previously established associations of these microstate properties with somatic awareness, and increased somatic awareness in ID. EEG microstate assessment could provide objective markers of subjective experience dimensions in studies on consciousness during the transition between wake and sleep, when self-report is not possible because it would interfere with the very process under study. Addressing somatic awareness may benefit psychotherapeutic treatment of insomnia.

SUBMITTER: Wei Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6135918 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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EEG Microstates Indicate Heightened Somatic Awareness in Insomnia: Toward Objective Assessment of Subjective Mental Content.

Wei Yishul Y Ramautar Jennifer R JR Colombo Michele A MA Te Lindert Bart H W BHW Van Someren Eus J W EJW

Frontiers in psychiatry 20180906

People with Insomnia Disorder (ID) not only experience abundant nocturnal mentation, but also report altered spontaneous mental content during daytime wakefulness, such as an increase in bodily experiences (heightened somatic awareness). Previous studies have shown that resting-state EEG can be temporally partitioned into quasi-stable microstates, and that these microstates form a small number of canonical classes that are consistent across people. Furthermore, the microstate classes have been a ...[more]

PMID: 30237769

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Project description:Meditation is increasingly showing beneficial effects for psychiatric disorders. However, learning to meditate is not straightforward as there are no easily discernible outward signs of performance and thus no direct feedback is possible. As meditation has been found to correlate with posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) activity, we tested whether source-space EEG neurofeedback from the PCC followed the subjective experience of effortless awareness (a major component of meditation), and whether participants could volitionally control the signal.Sixteen novice meditators and sixteen experienced meditators participated in the study. Novice meditators were briefly trained to perform a basic meditation practice to induce the subjective experience of effortless awareness in a progressively more challenging neurofeedback test-battery. Experienced meditators performed a self-selected meditation practice to induce this state in the same test-battery. Neurofeedback was provided based on gamma-band (40-57Hz) PCC activity extracted using a beamformer algorithm. Associations between PCC activity and the subjective experience of effortless awareness were assessed by verbal probes.Both groups reported that decreased PCC activity corresponded with effortless awareness (P<0.0025 for each group), with high median confidence ratings (novices: 8 on a 0-10 Likert scale; experienced: 9). Both groups showed high moment-to-moment median correspondence ratings between PCC activity and subjective experience of effortless awareness (novices: 8, experienced: 9). Both groups were able to volitionally control the PCC signal in the direction associated with effortless awareness by practicing effortless awareness meditation (novices: median % of time=77.97, P=0.001; experienced: 89.83, P<0.0005).These findings support the feasibility of using EEG neurofeedback to link an objective measure of brain activity with the subjective experience of effortless awareness, and suggest potential utility of this paradigm as a tool for meditation training.

Dataset Information

EEG Microstates Indicate Heightened Somatic Awareness in Insomnia: Toward Objective Assessment of Subjective Mental Content.

Publications

EEG Microstates Indicate Heightened Somatic Awareness in Insomnia: Toward Objective Assessment of Subjective Mental Content.

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