Improved Concentration Through Meditation

The brain never takes a break. It’s always working, only sometimes in a fundamentally different way. For example, when we have nothing to do at the moment, our thoughts wander freely, and suddenly the wildest associations pop into our minds. Or when we actually want to concentrate, such as while browsing through a book. And while our eyes obediently follow the lines, our concentration doesn’t – and at the end of a page, we suddenly ask ourselves: Oh, what was that just about? During such phases, the brain switches to a kind of resting state: the so-called default-mode network. Meditation can influence this mode of the brain: In experienced meditators, the activity and connections of the neurons in this network change, allowing them to concentrate better.

This mode was discovered by the living neuroscience legend Marcus Raichle of Washington University in St. Louis (USA). Like many other researchers, he had used Functional magnetic resonance imaging to track which brain regions are activated during specific tasks. When the participants in his studies had nothing to do during the breaks between tasks but were still lying in the scanner, they began to daydream. Raichle noticed that a completely different network was active than usual: It encompasses regions that, viewed from above, extend across the center of the brain from front to back, supplemented in the hindbrain by lateral areas.

Among the core components of this resting-state network is, for example, the medial prefrontal cortex, which evaluates and categorizes events and, in particular, the self – as good, bad, or neutral – from a higher vantage point, so to speak, with a very personal perspective. For example, when people select adjectives from a list that they believe describe them, the medial Prefrontal cortex becomes more active. Not only this region, but other parts of the default-mode network are also closely connected to the hippocampus, which is essential for autobiographical Memory – for example, when it comes to recalling whether we played soccer yesterday or spent a day at the beach. All of this led Raichle to one conclusion: “Whenever people reflect on themselves, they activate their default-mode network.”

Take daydreaming, for example: This “internal engagement” is a double-edged sword. It can be useful when it comes to creativity, for instance. Many “eureka” moments have suddenly popped into people’s minds when the brain had nothing else to do but engage in aimless self-reflection. “The content of the daydream determines whether it benefits a person’s well-being or not,” explains neuroscientist Jonathan Smallwood of the University of York. And, of course, the context: When you need to concentrate while studying or engaged in another activity, any deviation from the actual task is counterproductive.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that even in light of modern research, daydreaming is viewed critically. For example, when it comes to Attention deficits – much like Wilhelm Busch’s old German children story Hanns Guck-in-die-Luft, the dreamer who, for instance, falls into a river because he was “looking up at the blue sky.” Or when it comes to people with Depression who can’t break out of ruminative loops and whose thoughts keep circling back to their own selves. One of Marcus Raichle’s studies showed: “Depression is characterized by the inability to downregulate the default-mode network.” Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University are definitely no fans of daydreaming. They equipped 2,250 volunteers aged 18 to 88 with a smartphone app. Through this app, they repeatedly asked the participants how happy they were, what they were doing at the moment, and whether they were thinking about their current activity or something else. The result: People spent nearly half their time pondering something other than what they were actually doing. And: This daydreaming usually made them unhappy – it apparently prevented the participants from living in the moment.

Being in the here and now: This is exactly what people who meditate frequently are quite good at. Naturally, neuroscientists want to know how meditation, daydreaming, and the default-mode network are connected. Psychiatrist Judson Brewer of Yale University, for example, invited twelve people to his lab who had been practicing meditation for more than ten years, as well as 13 participants who had just started. While lying in an MRI scanner, they were asked to practice three different meditation techniques. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, Brewer and his colleagues determined what was happening in the brain during these sessions – and, as a control, in a relaxed state without meditation.

Unlike the meditation novices, the experienced meditators are able to largely inhibit brain areas that are part of the default-mode network and are associated with daydreaming: the medial Prefrontal cortex and the posterior Cingulate gyrus in the cerebral Cortex. These areas are involved in processing Emotions and directing Attention. As a result, experienced meditators are focused: their thoughts no longer wander aimlessly as often. They truly live in the here and now. Moreover, their default-mode network is routinely much more closely connected to brain regions responsible for conscious control, working memory, and conflict management. For meditators, “greater present-moment awareness,” as the researchers write, is the norm: with fewer self-referential thoughts that otherwise repeatedly interrupt concentration on the here and now. Further studies have since essentially confirmed these findings.

According to recent findings, many diseases are associated with functional disturbances in the default-mode network. For example, if the brain areas that can be “calmed” through meditation are excessively active, this is considered a risk factor for conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as schizophrenia and anxiety disorders. It is therefore plausible to assume that meditation can have a positive influence on neural self-regulation in ADHD and other disorders, thereby reducing symptoms.

Further reading

• Brewer, JA et al., “Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity,” PNAS, 108(50):20254–9, 2011, text
• Feruglio, S., Matiz, A., Pagnoni, G., Fabbro, F., & Crescentini, C. (2021). The impact of mindfulness meditation on the wandering mind: A systematic review. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 131, 313–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.032
• Garrison, K. A., Zeffiro, T. A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R. T., & Brewer, J. A. (2015). Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 15(3), 712–720. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-015-0358-3
• Hasenkamp, W., Wilson-Mendenhall, C. D., Duncan, E., & Barsalou, L. W. (2012). Mind wandering and Attention during focused meditation: A fine-grained temporal analysis of fluctuating cognitive states. NeuroImage, 59(1), 750–760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.008
• Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2015). The science of mind wandering: Empirically navigating the stream of consciousness. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 487–518. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015331
• Zagkas, D., Bacopoulou, F., Vlachakis, D., Chrousos, G. P., & Darviri, C. (2023). How does meditation affect the default mode network: A systematic review. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 1425, 229–245. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31986-0_22

Originally published on April 15, 2014
Last updated on July 30, 2026