Accelerating Meditation Using Mixed Reality and Neurofeedback

Overview:

This project aims at creating a personalized system that uses brain signals and virtual reality to help people get into and stay in a deep, focused meditative state more easily and quickly, making the benefits of meditation more accessible to everyone.

Abstract:

We are developing hyper-personalized meditation assistance technology that identifies periods of self-defined deep meditative states and then encourages subsequent instantiations of such states with neurofeedback. This work leverages machine-learning and neuroimaging (EEG, fNIRS [Kernel Flow 50]) to identify meditator-specific brain-states associated with deep meditative experiences and mixed-reality, audiovisual neurofeedback to behaviorally guide meditators to their self-reported optimal state. The aims of this project are to 1) decrease the amount of time it takes to reach a personally defined deep meditative state, 2) increase the duration of said state, 3) identify the shared neural correlates associated with achieving deep meditative experiences, and 4) optimize the paradigm for naïve meditators.

Broader Impact:

If we are successful in reliably inducing meditative states with less friction (i.e. shorter, easier, and less regular practices), the barrier for individuals to reap the expansive benefits of mindfulness would be effectively lowered.