Apr 02, 2026 12:30:00

Research suggests that practicing mindfulness for a short period can improve visual processing speed.

Mindfulness is a psychological practice that involves 'focusing your awareness on the present moment,' and it is gaining attention for its potential to reduce stress and improve concentration. A study has reported that practicing mindfulness for about a month can improve the visual processing speed of adults.

The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Mechanisms of Attentional Control in Young and Older Adults: A Preregistered Eye Tracking Study | eNeuro
https://www.eneuro.org/content/12/7/ENEURO.0356-23.2025

Brief mindfulness practice accelerates visual processing speeds in adults
https://www.psypost.org/brief-mindfulness-practice-accelerates-visual-processing-speeds-in-adults-2026-03-26/

The human brain relies on a nerve nucleus called the locus coeruleus to maintain mental concentration and process incoming sensory information. The locus coeruleus is the main source of norepinephrine , which regulates attention and stress-induced arousal. Experiments with monkeys have shown that stimulating the locus coeruleus improves visual attention, while inhibiting the release of norepinephrine decreases attention.

The locus coeruleus is thought to be strongly involved in the duration of attention, but as we age, the locus coeruleus undergoes structural changes and loses its connection to other attention networks in the brain. Early signs of cognitive decline often appear in the locus coeruleus, and older adults generally tend to react more slowly to visual tasks and be more easily distracted by irrelevant things compared to younger people.

Previous research has shown that mindfulness practices, such as meditation, may help restore diminished attention. Scientists believe that mindfulness may improve attention by reducing physical stress and calming the overactive norepinephrine system.

In this study, a research team led by cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Andy Kim of the University of Southern California conducted an experiment to investigate whether practicing a short-term mindfulness program improves visual processing ability and attention in adults. The research team hypothesized that mindfulness practice might offer greater benefits to older adults than to younger adults.

The experiment involved 28 young participants aged 18-30, 20 middle-aged participants aged 50-65, and 21 elderly participants aged 65-80. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one that practiced short-term mindfulness during the first experimental period and listened to audiobooks during the subsequent experimental period, and another that listened to audiobooks during the first experimental period and practiced short-term mindfulness during the subsequent experimental period.

In the mindfulness practice, participants were instructed to use a popular mobile app to conduct 10-15 minute mindfulness sessions over 30 days. The sessions were designed to cultivate basic breathing techniques and bodily awareness.

On the other hand, the control group, who listened to audiobooks, received one chapter of the public domain audiobook of '

The Adventures of Pinocchio ' each day and were asked to listen to the audio for 7 to 20 minutes without doing any other tasks. By having the group that did not practice mindfulness listen to the audio in a calm state, we were able to isolate and analyze the effects of mindfulness rather than the calm time itself.

The subjects' visual processing abilities were measured by a task in which they had to find a designated shape from among various shapes displayed on a screen, without being distracted by irrelevant shapes. The research team used eye-tracking cameras to track the subjects' eye movements and analyzed their split-second cognitive judgments and attention spans.

The experiment revealed that subjects who practiced a one-month mindfulness program showed faster initiation of eye movements towards designated shapes. In contrast, subjects who listened to audiobooks did not show any improvement in the speed of eye movement initiation, indicating that mindfulness improves the visual processing speed of subjects.

Furthermore, while overall attention improvement was observed in participants who listened to audiobooks, the degree of improvement was reported to be greater in participants who practiced mindfulness. The reason why some improvement was seen in participants who listened to audiobooks is thought to be due to improved skills from working on the same task multiple times and the influence of setting aside time to relax during the day.

The research team initially hypothesized that the improvement in visual processing ability through mindfulness would be more pronounced in older adults. However, the experiment showed similar improvements in reaction speed across young, middle-aged, and older age groups, and no age-related differences were observed.

Furthermore, some participants who practiced mindfulness completed more sessions than instructed by the research team. These participants showed a tendency to be more easily distracted by irrelevant shapes displayed on the screen as they used the mindfulness app more frequently. The research team suggests that this result may indicate that mindfulness practice, which focuses attention on the 'present moment,' unintentionally increases overall sensitivity to the visual environment, making it harder to ignore bright sensory stimuli.

This study was conducted solely through a mobile app, which may result in less effectiveness than in-person mindfulness programs. Furthermore, the 30-day experimental period was relatively short; future research tracking individuals who practice mindfulness for longer periods could potentially reveal the limits of improvement in visual processing ability and attention.