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This study investigates how mental training alters the temporal dynamics of large-scale brain activity by applying a sliding-window Temporal Irreversibility Index to EEG data from 141 participants. The analysis decomposes hierarchical brain trajectories into three orthogonal descriptors, revealing two dissociable axes of plasticity: a universal reduction in exploratory breadth with cumulative practice, and a population-specific bidirectional tuning of temporal persistence by mindfulness interventions. These dynamical shifts are linked to distinct microstate substrates and selectively track improvements in attentional presence, providing a mechanistic framework for tailoring mindfulness interventions.
Mindfulness training reshapes brain dynamics via two distinct axes, one universal and one population-specific, with implications for personalized mental health interventions.
How mental training reshapes the temporal architecture of large-scale brain dynamics and how these mechanisms differ between healthy and clinically vulnerable populations remains poorly understood. Time-averaged neural measures collapse the multi-scale nature of brain activity, obscuring the dynamic processes through which behavioural interventions reorganise hierarchical brain function. Here, applying a sliding-window Temporal Irreversibility Index to source-reconstructed EEG across three complementary cohorts (n = 141), we decompose hierarchical brain trajectories into three orthogonal temporal descriptors and uncover two dissociable, mechanistically interpretable axes of intervention-induced plasticity. Cumulative meditation practice drives a universal, pan-cerebral reduction in the exploratory breadth of hierarchical dynamics, tracking dose-dependently with lifetime hours of practice. Temporal persistence is bidirectionally tuned by 8-week mindfulness-based interventions in a population-specific way: reduced in healthy meditators but increased in trauma-exposed individuals, revealing that comparable MBI protocols engage qualitatively distinct network mechanisms depending on baseline clinical status. A joint Hidden Markov Model further links these dynamical shifts to distinct microstate substrates, and longitudinal changes selectively track improvements in a single facet of mindfulness, attentional presence in daily life. Together, these findings establish a mechanistic framework for how behavioural training reorganises non-equilibrium brain dynamics, with direct implications for tailoring mindfulness-based interventions to individual clinical profiles.