Brief Mindfulness Meditation Enhancing Shooting Performance Through Attention Control And Its Brain Mechanisms

Attention is commonly considered a fundamental cognitive process,essential to all aspects of higher cognitive and functional activities.It is a vital psychological condition for acquiring knowledge,mastering skills,completing various intellectual operations,and practical work tasks.Deficits in attention can have adverse effects on an individual’s physiological and psychological health as well as their quality of life,such as poor academic and occupational performance,difficulties in interpersonal relationships,low self-esteem,and emotional dysregulation.Mindfulness meditation training is a form of self-regulatory practice for the mind and body.Numerous studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can impact various attentional abilities.However,traditional and classical methods of mindfulness meditation,such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction(MBSR)and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy(MBCT),often require high demands in terms of instructors,learning costs,and practice time,making it difficult for many people to practice or to maintain consistency.Brief meditation training is not constrained by time and location,is convenient,cost-effective,and has good application prospects.Nevertheless,research on the effects of brief meditation training on attention is scarce,and the neural mechanisms are even less well-defined.Furthermore,improvements in attention are not only an effect of meditation training but also significantly impact performance in other domains.Shooting is a task that requires high concentration and stable attention.Enhancing the ability to maintain stable and focused attention for extended periods through intervention and training is crucial for completing tasks and improving performance in shooters.While some studies have shown that mindfulness-related interventions can improve shooters’ performance and reduce stress levels,few have investigated the relationship and underlying mechanisms between mindfulness,attention,and shooting performance,with early research primarily focusing on experienced shooters.This study aims to explore the impact of brief mindfulness meditation on attention and to investigate the underlying brain mechanisms using electroencephalography(EEG),event-related potentials(ERP),and functional near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS)techniques.The research is divided into three parts: the first part examines the effectiveness of brief mindfulness meditation on attention through a randomized controlled trial to preliminarily explore its intervention effects on attention;the second part investigates the practical effects of brief mindfulness meditation in shooting training and delves into the mechanisms of attention involved;the third part studies the improvement of shooting performance and the brain mechanisms through brief mindfulness meditation,which is divided into two parts.Part 1 uses EEG and ERP to investigate the brain mechanisms by which brief mindfulness meditation training enhances attention;part 2 uses fNIRS to measure changes in brain activation patterns at different time points during rest,intervention,and attention tasks,deepening the understanding of brain plasticity induced by mindfulness.The main research methods and results are as follows:Study 1: An Efficacy Study on the Impact of Brief Mindfulness Meditation on AttentionStudy 1 was a randomized controlled trial.It recruited 48 participants who were randomly assigned to a meditation group(15 minutes per day for 5 days)and a control group.Before and after the intervention,the Attention Control Scale(ACS),the Psychomotor Vigilance Task(PVT),and the Stroop test were used to measure participants’ attention performance.The results showed that after five days of brief mindfulness meditation training,the scores of the meditation group on the Attention Control Scale significantly increased,and the response times in the PVT and Stroop tests significantly decreased.This suggests that the JW2016 brief mindfulness meditation training,as a time-saving and economical method,can improve the practitioner’s attention control ability,alertness,and inhibitory control function after five days of practice.Study 2: The Role of Attention in the Improvement of Shooting Performance through Brief Mindfulness Meditation InterventionStudy 2 was a randomized controlled trial that observed the impact of simple meditation on shooting performance and influencing factors,and explored the effects and brain mechanisms of simple meditation training on attention.It recruited 119 participants who were randomly assigned to a meditation group(15 minutes per day for18 days)and a control group.Before and after the intervention,participants’ levels of attention control,mindfulness,subjective sleep quality,perceived stress,and state anxiety were measured,and the shooting performance of the two groups was recorded post-intervention.The results indicated:1.After 18 days of 15-minute daily brief mindfulness meditation training,the shooting performance of the meditation group was significantly better than the control group.The pass rate for the meditation group was 91%,compared to 76% for the control group.Further chi-square tests showed that the pass rate for the meditation group was significantly higher than the control group,p<0.05.2.After the brief mindfulness meditation intervention,the meditation group showed a significantly greater improvement in mindfulness levels,attention control,and sleep quality compared to the control group,with significantly lower levels of perceived stress,indicating that short-term mindfulness meditation training can reduce the perception of stress and enhance sleep quality,attention control levels,and mindfulness.3.The shooting performance was positively correlated with improvements in attention control levels,mindfulness,and subjective sleep quality,as well as with reductions in state anxiety levels.4.Regression analysis indicated that the improvement in attention control was the only predictor of shooting performance.Further mediation analysis suggested that the impact of brief mindfulness meditation training on shooting performance was primarily mediated by the improvement in attention control.Study 3: Research on the Enhancement of Attention and Neural Mechanisms through Brief Mindfulness MeditationPart 1: The Brain Mechanism of Enhancing Attention and shooting performance through Brief Mindfulness Meditation Training-Based on EEG and ERP ResearchPart 1 incorporates technologies such as virtual reality,brain-computer interfaces,wearable sensing,and human-computer interaction.Using Unity,a simulated shooting range environment was developed,and physiological sensing data such as electroencephalograms(EEG)and eye movements were concurrently collected.The experiment enrolled 76 participants,randomly assigned to a meditation group(15minutes daily over 18 days)and a control group.Participants completed shooting tasks and Attention Network Tests(ANT)before and after the intervention while EEG data were recorded during task performance.The results demonstrate the following:1.In the ANT tasks,the meditation group showed a significant decrease in average response time and increased efficiency of the executive network in post-tests compared to the control group.2.In the virtual reality shooting task,the meditation group’s post-test shooting accuracy,as indicated by the number of hits,was significantly higher than in the pre-test.The meditation group exhibited an increase in the power of γ and β waves during the shooting task.3.EEG data analysis indicated an increase in γ wave activity post-intervention and a significant reduction in the average amplitude of P3 and N2 components compared to the control group,suggesting that the meditation group completed the tasks with reduced cognitive resource expenditure and enhanced executive control functions.The study indicates that brief mindfulness meditation training can significantly improve attention and shooting performance.The increase in γ wave activity and the decrease in N2 and P3 amplitudes may represent the neural mechanisms through which mindfulness meditation enhances attention.Part 2: The Brain Mechanism of Enhancing Attention through Brief Mindfulness Meditation Training-A Study Based on fNIRSPart 2 recruited 61 participants,randomly assigned to a meditation group(15minutes daily over 18 days)and a control group.The study applied functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy(fNIRS)on days 0,5,10,and 18 to determine the cerebral blood oxygenation levels in both groups under resting conditions and intervention practice to explore the levels of activation in different brain regions and the functional connectivity between them.The results indicate:(1)Questionnaire results indicated that the effectiveness of brief mindfulness meditation intervention in improving attention control and mindfulness levels was closely related to the duration of practice,particularly in the later stages of the intervention(T3).Compared to the control group and the pre-intervention period(T0),the meditation group demonstrated significant improvements.(2)The Attention Network Test(ANT)results revealed that the effects of brief mindfulness meditation intervention on the alerting and orienting networks were not significant.However,it had a positive impact on enhancing the efficiency of the executive control network.At T3,the meditation group showed significant efficiency improvements compared to the control group and when compared to its own performance at T0 and T1.(3)The fNIRS(functional near-infrared spectroscopy)data results showed that during both the resting state and the intervention state,the meditation group exhibited reduced brain activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,ventrolateral prefrontal cortex,primary motor cortex,and supplementary motor area.During attention tasks,the meditation group displayed reduced brain activation in the aforementioned areas,as well as in the frontal eye field,and increased activation in the temporal pole region.The study suggests that brief mindfulness meditation(JW2016)can enhance brain efficiency,leading to reduced brain activation in attention-related regions and improved behavioral performance.The conclusions drawn from this study are as follows:1.Brief mindfulness meditation,as a cost-effective and easily implemented approach,can significantly enhance attention control abilities,vigilant attention,and inhibitory control functions within a short span(5 days).2.Eighteen days of brief mindfulness meditation training significantly improve shooting performance,mindfulness levels,attention control,and sleep quality,as well as reduce stress perception in military academy freshmen.Improvements in shooting performance are positively correlated with enhancements in attention control,mindfulness levels,and sleep quality,as well as a reduction in state anxiety.Attention control improvements emerged as the sole significant predictor of shooting performance.Mediation analysis revealed that the positive impact of mindfulness meditation on shooting performance is primarily achieved through the enhancement of attention control.3.Eighteen days of brief mindfulness meditation training can enhance shooting performance in a virtual reality scenario,increasing the power of γ and β waves during shooting tasks.Compared to the control group,the meditation group showed an increase in the efficiency of the executive control network when completing ANT,where the increase in γ waves and the decrease in N2 and P3 amplitudes may be the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the attentional improvements facilitated by brief meditation training.4.During both the resting state and the intervention state,the meditation group exhibited reduced brain activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,ventrolateral prefrontal cortex,primary motor cortex,and supplementary motor area.During attention tasks,the meditation group displayed reduced brain activation in the aforementioned areas,as well as in the frontal eye field,and increased activation in the temporal pole region.This indicates that brief mindfulness meditation may improve behavioral performance by enhancing brain efficiency,specifically by reducing activity in attention-related brain regions while maintaining or improving task performance.This study suggests that brief mindfulness meditation is an effective training method that not only enhances attention,particularly the executive control network of attention,but also significantly improves shooting performance.The research findings indicate that increased gamma wave power,decreased N2 and P3 amplitudes,and reduced activity in attention-related brain regions are the underlying brain mechanisms through which brief mindfulness meditation enhances attention.These findings provide scientific evidence for further understanding the role of mindfulness meditation in cognitive enhancement and skill training,and pave the way for future applications and research.