Decoding attentional states for neurofeedback : Mindfulness vs. wandering thoughts

Neurofeedback requires a direct translation of neuronal brain activity to sensory input given to the user or subject. However, decoding certain states, e.g., mindfulness or wandering thoughts, from ongoing brain activity remains an unresolved problem. In this study, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to acquire brain activity during mindfulness meditation and thought-inducing tasks mimicking wandering thoughts. We used a novel real-time feature extraction to decode the mindfulness, i.e., to discriminate it from the thought-inducing tasks. The key methodological novelty of our approach is usage of MEG power spectra and functional connectivity of independent components as features underlyin…