Two dissociable axes of brain hierarchical dynamics track universal and population-specific effects of mindfulness
Abstract
How mental training reshapes the temporal architecture of large-scale brain dynamics and how these mechanisms differ between healthy and clinically vulnerable populations remains poorly understood. Time-averaged neural measures collapse the multi-scale nature of brain activity, obscuring the dynamic processes through which behavioural interventions reorganise hierarchical brain function. Here, applying a sliding-window Temporal Irreversibility Index to source-reconstructed EEG across three complementary cohorts (n = 141), we decompose hierarchical brain trajectories into three orthogonal temporal descriptors and uncover two dissociable, mechanistically interpretable axes of intervention-induced plasticity. Cumulative meditation practice drives a universal, pan-cerebral reduction in the exploratory breadth of hierarchical dynamics, tracking dose-dependently with lifetime hours of practice. Temporal persistence is bidirectionally tuned by 8-week mindfulness-based interventions in a population-specific way: reduced in healthy meditators but increased in trauma-exposed individuals, revealing that comparable MBI protocols engage qualitatively distinct network mechanisms depending on baseline clinical status. A joint Hidden Markov Model further links these dynamical shifts to distinct microstate substrates, and longitudinal changes selectively track improvements in a single facet of mindfulness, attentional presence in daily life. Together, these findings establish a mechanistic framework for how behavioural training reorganises non-equilibrium brain dynamics, with direct implications for tailoring mindfulness-based interventions to individual clinical profiles.
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BibTeX
@misc{oswald2026dissociable,
title = {{Two dissociable axes of brain hierarchical dynamics track universal and population-specific effects of mindfulness}},
author = {Victor Oswald and David Zarka and Riku Johannes Ihalainen and Gulshan Kumar and Rikkert Hindriks and Auretta Sonia Kummar and Helen Correia and Hakuei Fujiyama and Saketh Malipeddi and Ravindra P Nagendra and Arun Sasidharan and Bindu M Kutty and Steven Laureys and Prejaas K. B. Tewarie},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.20854},
eprint = {2610.20854},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20854},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Two dissociable axes of brain hierarchical dynamics track universal and population-specific effects of mindfulness
AU - Victor Oswald
AU - David Zarka
AU - Riku Johannes Ihalainen
AU - Gulshan Kumar
AU - Rikkert Hindriks
AU - Auretta Sonia Kummar
AU - Helen Correia
AU - Hakuei Fujiyama
AU - Saketh Malipeddi
AU - Ravindra P Nagendra
AU - Arun Sasidharan
AU - Bindu M Kutty
AU - Steven Laureys
AU - Prejaas K. B. Tewarie
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.20854
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20854
AB - How mental training reshapes the temporal architecture of large-scale brain dynamics and how these mechanisms differ between healthy and clinically vulnerable populations remains poorly understood. Time-averaged neural measures collapse the multi-scale nature of brain activity, obscuring the dynamic processes through which behavioural interventions reorganise hierarchical brain function. Here, applying a sliding-window Temporal Irreversibility Index to source-reconstructed EEG across three complementary cohorts (n = 141), we decompose hierarchical brain trajectories into three orthogonal temporal descriptors and uncover two dissociable, mechanistically interpretable axes of intervention-induced plasticity. Cumulative meditation practice drives a universal, pan-cerebral reduction in the exploratory breadth of hierarchical dynamics, tracking dose-dependently with lifetime hours of practice. Temporal persistence is bidirectionally tuned by 8-week mindfulness-based interventions in a population-specific way: reduced in healthy meditators but increased in trauma-exposed individuals, revealing that comparable MBI protocols engage qualitatively distinct network mechanisms depending on baseline clinical status. A joint Hidden Markov Model further links these dynamical shifts to distinct microstate substrates, and longitudinal changes selectively track improvements in a single facet of mindfulness, attentional presence in daily life. Together, these findings establish a mechanistic framework for how behavioural training reorganises non-equilibrium brain dynamics, with direct implications for tailoring mindfulness-based interventions to individual clinical profiles.
ER -