BRAIN AND MEDITATION
1. Background
- Researchers have found that consistent meditation modifies the connectivity between relay channels that takes in data from the sensory world to the cerebral cortex of the brain.
- It allows a person to easily transition into a state of deep meditation, making it easier to meditate. Meditation has been a mainstay in Indian traditions for ages.
- However, the scientific understanding of the different states of yoga has been limited.
- Several EEG studies have found that a deep stage of meditation results in an increase in theta and delta waves in the brain.
- These waves are caused during a relaxed stage but not in the sleeping stage.
- A new study supported by the SATYAM programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and conducted by Prof Rahul Garg at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi suggests that consistent practice reduces thalamocortical connection with the sensory regions of the brain.
- The findings were presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance.
- The team consisting of Vaibhav Tripathi, Anju Dhawan, Vidur Mahajan, and Rahul Garg recorded brain activity with the help of MRI of expert meditators and also those who do not regularly practise meditation before, during, and after meditation.
- The results of the study were carried out collaboratively by the Psychological and Brain Sciences Dept., Boston University, School of Information Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Mahajan Imaging Center, Delhi, and Dept. of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi demonstrated and experimentally validated the concept of Pratyahara and Dharana associated with the withdrawal of sensory information which allowed a reduction in brain activity that helped to transcend into deep states of meditation.
- It underlined the importance of the different techniques which incorporate aspects of Pratyahara and Dharana.
2. Meditation can provide many benefits, including:
- lowering blood pressure
- reducing stress
- managing anxiety
- controlling pain
- improving attention
- strengthening memory
- improving self-image
- enhancing self-awareness
- improving sleep
3. The practice of meditation typically involves the following elements:
- a quiet location with few distractions
- a comfortable posture
- an open attitude, letting distractions come and go naturally
- a focus on breathing
- a focus of attention
4. Meditation has measurable effects on three areas of your brain:
- grey matter — involved in muscle control and sensory perception, including emotions, memory, speech, seeing, hearing, and decision making
- the prefrontal cortex — responsible for decision making
- amygdala — controls emotional response
- hippocampus — responsible for memory and learning.
.png)
