Mindfulness Is in the Eye of the Machine

Mindfulness can be defined relative to mind-wandering, while the former is associated with focused attention and enhanced monitoring of conscious experience, the latter corresponds to a process of distraction. The aim of this human-machine interaction study was to investigate the ocular correlates of the state of mindfulness by comparing it with mind-wandering and resting-state. To this end, experienced meditators and nonmeditators performed a point-fixation task while carrying out three different actions: meditating, reflecting on a philosophical question, and resting. Meditating induced mindfulness, reflecting induced mind-wandering, and resting-induced a resting-state. Eye movement recordings revealed a decrease in microsaccade amplitude and velocity during the meditation task, compared with the other two tasks. Participants also blinked more during the reflecting task than during the other two tasks, especially those in the experienced meditator group. These results suggest that microsaccades are indicators of sustained attention, and blinking of distraction, meaning that it may be possible to detect mind-wandering episodes versus states of mindfulness. Detection of this episodes will be used to develop a biofeedback device to learn mindfulness meditation.