Research Psychological Bulletin · 2006
Cahn & Polich — Meditation States and Traits
The baseline review: EEG, ERPs, neuroimaging of meditation as state and as trait, across traditions. If you want to compare audio-assisted sits to meditation science, start here.
B. Rael Cahn and John Polich surveyed electrophysiology and imaging of meditation. State versus trait is the useful split: what changes in a sit, what changes in a person who has sat for years.
Who, where, when
Scripps / cognitive psychophysiology. PMID 16536641. A major review, not a single experiment.
What the work actually did
They organize EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging findings across traditions and methods. The paper is still the map many later reviews assume you have read.
What it does not prove
2006 is not 2024. Later meta-analyses add coordinates and clinical outcomes. A review cannot make binaural audio into meditation, and it cannot make a two-week app into a lifetime of practice.
How to use this page
Use Cahn & Polich to keep audio in its place: a possible support, not a tradition.
Related
Editorial reading of published research. The official paper is authoritative. Not medical advice. Not a claim that consumer audio recreates a trial protocol.