When researchers first studied meditation, they often treated it as a single thing. But meditators know better—sitting in concentration on the breath feels different from open awareness, which feels different from generating compassion. Neuroscience has caught up, showing that different practices produce distinct brain states.
Understanding these differences helps you choose practices for specific purposes and gives insight into what you're actually training.
The Major Categories
Focused Attention (FA)
The practice: Concentration on a single object—breath, mantra, point.
The experience: Narrowed focus, stability, reduced mind-wandering.
Examples: Samatha, breath counting, mantra meditation, trataka.
Open Monitoring (OM)
The practice: Wide awareness of whatever arises without focus on specific object.
The experience: Spacious awareness, observing without engaging.
Examples: Vipassana, shikantaza, choiceless awareness.
Constructive Practices
The practice: Generating specific mental states—compassion, love, visualization.
The experience: Emotional activation, imagery, active cultivation.
Examples: Loving-kindness (metta), tonglen, deity visualization.
Focused Attention Brain Patterns
What Happens
Attention networks activate: Dorsal attention network increases activity.
Default mode quiets: Mind-wandering network reduces activity.
Conflict monitoring engages: Anterior cingulate cortex active—detecting distraction.
EEG Signatures
Gamma increases: High-frequency activity associated with focus.
Alpha changes: May increase or decrease depending on eyes open/closed.
Theta in frontal regions: Associated with sustained attention.
The Mechanism
The training: Each time you notice wandering and return, you strengthen attention networks.
The development: With practice, focus becomes easier to sustain.
The transfer: Improved attention extends beyond meditation.
Brain Regions
Prefrontal cortex: Executive control, goal maintenance.
Anterior cingulate: Error detection, attention allocation.
Thalamus: Sensory gating, attention regulation.
Open Monitoring Brain Patterns
What Happens
Meta-awareness increases: Watching the mind without engaging.
Default mode changes: Present but observed rather than identified with.
Salience network active: Detecting what arises in awareness.
EEG Signatures
Different gamma patterns: More distributed than in focused attention.
Alpha may increase: Relaxed but alert awareness.
Different theta patterns: Less frontal-focused.
The Mechanism
The training: Developing the capacity to observe without reacting.
The development: Awareness becomes independent of any object.
The transfer: Less caught in automatic reactions to experience.
Brain Regions
Insula: Interoceptive awareness, feeling the body.
Posterior cingulate: Present but different activity than default mode wandering.
Angular gyrus: Integrating information, perspective-taking.
Loving-Kindness Brain Patterns
What Happens
Emotional circuits activate: Regions associated with positive emotion.
Social cognition engages: Theory of mind, thinking about others.
Reward systems activate: Similar to receiving love, not just giving.
EEG Signatures
Left frontal activation: Associated with positive affect.
Gamma in different regions: More related to emotional processing.
The Mechanism
The training: Repeatedly generating compassionate states.
The development: Easier access to compassion, more stable positive emotion.
The transfer: Greater empathy and prosocial behavior.
Brain Regions
Medial prefrontal cortex: Self and other processing.
Insula: Emotional awareness, empathy.
Temporal-parietal junction: Perspective-taking.
Striatum: Reward, positive emotion.
Comparing the Three
Attention Differences
Focused attention: Narrow, concentrated, single object.
Open monitoring: Wide, receptive, no specific object.
Loving-kindness: Directed toward objects (beings) but with emotional quality.
Default Mode Differences
Focused attention: Suppressed—you're not wandering.
Open monitoring: Observed—wandering is noticed, not followed.
Loving-kindness: Active but different content—thinking about others with warmth.
Emotional Quality
Focused attention: Relatively neutral, calm.
Open monitoring: Equanimous, accepting.
Loving-kindness: Actively positive, warm.
Different Purposes, Different Practices
For Concentration
Best practice: Focused attention meditation.
The training: Builds stability, single-pointedness.
The application: When you need focus for work, study, performance.
For Awareness
Best practice: Open monitoring.
The training: Develops metacognition, insight.
The application: Understanding your own mind, reducing reactivity.
For Emotional Wellbeing
Best practice: Loving-kindness and related practices.
The training: Cultivates positive emotions, reduces negativity bias.
The application: Depression, social anxiety, relationship difficulties.
For Stress Reduction
Any practice: All types show stress reduction.
The mechanism: Different routes to similar outcome.
The choice: What resonates with you.
Advanced States
Deep Concentration (Jhana)
The practice: Extended focused attention.
The brain: Significant shifts in activity patterns.
The experience: Absorption, bliss, altered perception.
Non-Dual Awareness
The practice: Beyond subject-object duality.
The brain: Reduced self-referential processing.
The experience: Awareness without observer.
Flow States
The overlap: Some meditation states resemble flow.
The difference: Flow is task-oriented; meditation states aren't.
The shared: Reduced self-consciousness, altered time perception.
Research Considerations
What Studies Show
Reliable differences: FA, OM, and LKM produce distinguishable brain patterns.
Individual variation: Not everyone shows identical patterns.
Experience matters: Experienced meditators show more pronounced effects.
Limitations
Small samples: Many studies have few participants.
Experienced meditators: Harder to study beginners' brain states.
Practice mixing: Real practice often combines elements.
Practical Applications
Choosing Practices
Know your goal: What are you trying to develop?
Match practice to goal: Focus for concentration, OM for awareness, LKM for emotion.
Combine over time: Most traditions use multiple practice types.
Sequencing
Common sequence: Start with FA to stabilize, then open to OM.
Traditional approach: Concentration as foundation, insight as development.
Modern programs: Often mix from the start.
Reading Your Own Experience
Notice the quality: Is your attention narrow or wide? Neutral or emotional?
Identify the state: What practice are you actually doing?
Adjust as needed: Switch practices based on what's needed.
The Bottom Line
Different meditation types produce different brain states:
- Focused attention: Activated attention networks, quieted default mode, concentrated awareness
- Open monitoring: Meta-awareness, observed default mode, receptive attention
- Loving-kindness: Emotional circuits, social processing, positive affect
Understanding these differences helps you practice more intentionally. You're not just "meditating"—you're training specific capacities with specific neural correlates.
Return is a meditation timer that supports any practice type. Set your timer for focused attention one day, open monitoring the next. The same simple interface for whatever you're training. Download Return on the App Store.