Meaningful Results from Meditation Research

What do we really know about meditation, other than the fact that the practice is touted for its apparent ability to help relaxation, ease stress, and quiet the mind? While the Western world has gravitated toward various forms of meditation in recent years, researchers haven’t quite caught up with studies to prove why and how meditation provides these benefits, along with others. Some researchers are working to change that, as evidenced by some of their newly published results. Meditation Can Help You Make Fewer Mistakes Michigan State University researchers studied how a single, 20-minute session of guided meditation produced changes to brain activity in participants who’d never before meditated. Their study, published in Brain Sciences, found that open monitoring meditation — which involves tuning inward and paying attention to all that’s happening in body and mind — enhances the ability to detect and pay attention to mistakes. In open monitoring, the individual sits in quiet, and closely pays attention to where their mind goes without getting caught up in the details. While participants meditated, researchers studied their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG), then had the participants complete a computerized test of distraction. For their next phase using this neuroscientific approach, the researchers plan to include a broader participant group, test different meditation types, and see if brain activity changes will extend to behavioral chan...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Mindfulness Research Meditation Source Type: blogs