Post by Admin on Aug 18, 2018 15:10:14 GMT -5
We came across more interesting research on how meditation (MBSR type) improves attention/cognition of even beginner/novice meditators. In a rather technical (for this reader's eyes) article in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience's August 2018 edition, it was found that even ten minutes of meditation helps improve one's attention. This paper differs from others I've seen lately in that it used subjects who were in their initial exposures to MBSR meditation.
Given the recent critiques of Mindfulness research (Van Dam et. al., see this discussion elsewhere on this forum -->click-HERE), the methodology and use of control groups was most rigorous. So, for those science-junkies out there who thirst for this kind of evidence-backed writing about mindfulness, you just might find these of interest(links at bottom).
For most of us, it seems that the takeaway might be this: This is still another instance of neuroscientific research on mindful meditation which validates that positive brain changes happen with MBSR meditation; Whether the changes are lasting, or even due to singular causation doesn't matter as much to me, but what is important (to this reader) is that this article fits well into the growing flow of academic/scientific studies in the infant field of Mindfulness research.
So as we sit to do our routine personal practices, knowing that scientists are hard at work trying to understand it all, somehow helps us stick to it.
So as we sit to do our routine personal practices, knowing that scientists are hard at work trying to understand it all, somehow helps us stick to it.
Just 10 minutes of meditation turbocharges your brain
August 14, 2018
Robby Berman (www.bigthink.com)
A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience finds that just 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation can improve a person’s cognitive abilities, provided they’re not too neurotic to begin with. According to Hedy Kober, senior author and associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at Yale, “We have known for a while that people who practice meditation for a few weeks or months tend to perform better on cognitive tests, but now we know you don’t have to spend weeks practicing to see improvement.” She adds, “We don’t know if longer meditation sessions, or multiple sessions, would improve their cognitive scores, and we look forward to testing that in future studies.” Her co-lead on the project was Catherine Norris at Swarthmore....
To read entire paper, click-touch link below:
To read the paper referenced in the above article, see info below:
****original research paper Aug 6, 2018****
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Brief Mindfulness Meditation Improves Attention in Novices: Evidence From ERPs and Moderation by Neuroticism
Catherine J. Norris1*, Daniel Creem1, Reuben Hendler2 and Hedy Kober3
1Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, United States
2Psychiatry Department, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
3Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States