Over the past two decades, meditation research has surged, revealing its positive impacts on various clinical outcomes, yet many questions remain about its mechanisms, individual differences, and comparative effectiveness. Different meditation practices—focusing on emotional regulation, concentration, and interoception—are often grouped together despite significant differences. Existing studies usually have small, non-diverse samples. This study aims to address these issues through a large-scale citizen science approach, involving over 200,000 users of the MUSE-S headset in a 4-week meditation challenge. Participants will be randomized into one of five groups (four meditation types and one active control using classical music) and collect mental health, well-being, EEG, and PPG data. The large sample size is expected to provide more robust and nuanced insights into the effects of different meditation practices and individual differences.
