Does focused attention meditation reduce default mode network activity more than open monitoring or rest, and does this depend on practitioner expertise?

Why focused attention might quiet the default mode network

The default mode network is a set of brain regions that becomes active when the mind wanders, daydreams, or thinks about the self. Focused attention meditation asks a person to keep attention on a single object, such as the breath, and to notice and return when the mind drifts. Because mind-wandering is a core feature of DMN activity, researchers have reasoned that focused attention might reduce DMN activity more than open monitoring, which involves keeping a broad, non-reactive awareness of whatever arises, or simply resting [3].

One magnetoencephalography (MEG) study directly compared focused attention, open monitoring, and rest, and found that different meditation styles and meditation expertise appeared to modulate the coupling between the DMN and other brain networks [1]. That suggests the DMN does not simply switch off during meditation; instead, its communication with other networks changes in ways that depend on both the style of practice and the practitioner's experience.

What the brain measurements actually show

In an fMRI study comparing expert and novice meditators, the default mode network was identified as a key component distinguishing focused attention and open monitoring meditation, and the researchers reported that expertise-dependent sustained focused attention implies changes in DMN involvement [3]. However, that study did not include a rest condition, so it cannot tell us whether focused attention reduces DMN activity more than rest does.

A separate study of highly experienced meditators found that focused attention, open monitoring, and loving-kindness meditation produced different patterns of brain connectivity in attentional and cognitive monitoring networks, and that these patterns depended on expertise [2]. This study did not measure the DMN or include a rest condition, so it does not directly answer the question about DMN reduction, but it supports the broader idea that meditation style and expertise shape brain-network activity in distinct ways.

Expertise changes the picture

Long-term Zen monks showed a strong inhibitory effect in the DMN during meditation, and their two major brain networks—the working memory network and the DMN—appeared to cooperate rather than oppose each other as is usually claimed [5]. That finding comes from a comparison between monks with over seven years of practice and healthy adults who had never meditated, and it suggests that years of practice may allow experts to handle DMN activity in a more controlled way. But the study did not compare focused attention with open monitoring, so it does not show that focused attention is the style that reduces DMN activity most.

In a pain-processing study, short-term and long-term meditators showed different patterns of brain-network change across focused attention, open monitoring, and rest [4]. The study focused on pain-related brain responses rather than the DMN, but it reinforces the general finding that expertise changes which meditation states produce which neural effects. Together, these results suggest that any answer to whether focused attention reduces DMN activity more than other practices will likely depend on who is practicing.

What is still unclear

The direct comparison needed to answer the question—focused attention versus open monitoring versus rest, with DMN activity measured in both novices and experts—has not been clearly reported in the available evidence. The MEG study that compared all three conditions found style- and expertise-dependent changes in DMN coupling, but its abstract does not state whether focused attention reduced DMN activity more than the other conditions [1]. The fMRI study that did identify the DMN as a distinguishing component lacked a rest condition [3], and the Zen study that found strong DMN inhibition did not compare meditation styles [5].

So the honest answer is that focused attention may well engage the DMN differently from open monitoring or rest, and expertise clearly matters, but the evidence is not yet strong enough to claim that focused attention reduces DMN activity more than the alternatives. The most confident conclusion is that meditation style and practitioner expertise together shape how the DMN interacts with other brain networks, and that simple claims about one style being universally better at quieting the DMN are not supported by these studies.

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