New research reveals how meditation changes the brain

[Tapio]

Since I couldn't find this through the search engine, I'll put it up (sorry if it's already been discussed).

As someone who used a lot of time during roughly 10 years of his life to perform different intensive meditation practices, I found this article in Scientific American interesting.

When expert meditators practiced focused attention meditation, demonstrable changes were seen using fMRI in the networks of the brain that are known to modulate attention. A second set of experiments studied long-term meditators practicing ‘open monitoring meditation’, a more advanced meditation practice which in many ways is a form of metacognition: the objective is not to focus one’s attention but rather to use one’s brain to monitor the universe of mental experience without directing attention to any one task. The unexpected result of this experiment was that the EEG of long-term meditators exhibited much more gamma-synchrony than that of naive meditators. Moreover, normally human brains produce only short bursts of gamma-synchrony. What was most remarkable about this study was that long-term meditators were able to produce sustained gamma-activity in a manner that had never previously been observed in any other human. As such, sustained gamma activity has emerged as a proxy for at least some aspects of the meditative state.

Links to the actual studies behind the article:

http://www.pnas.org/content/104/27/11483.full

http://www.pnas.org/content/101/46/16369.long

http://www.pnas.org/content/104/43/17152.long

Dalai Lama is one religious hero .

 

[Careyp74]

what is the benefit of sustained gamma-synchrony?

If you had asked me before any tests were done, I could have told you that long time practitioners of meditation had higher concentration levels. Sitting for hours a day thinking about nothing, training yourself not to get distracted, is going to have an effect on you.

What we have to figure out now is, which is the chicken and which is the egg. Are these 'good' meditators good because they have higher gamma-synchrony, or did they acquire higher gamma-synchrony through good meditation? The fact that there are 'bad' meditators tells me that there is a possibility that good ones might have a natural advantage, perhaps having higher gamma-synchrony to begin with.

 

[jasonpatterson]

It's fairly well recognized that meditation, particularly by those who have practiced it or been taught it, has measurable effects on the brain and its workings. We have the ability to do all sorts of interesting things to poorly understood electrical patterns in our brains and bodies. It's cool, and not unworthy of study, but I'm not sure that anyone can convincingly say what something like this actually means.

 

[Tapio]

Yep. From the article:

That being said, despite the elegant experimental design utilized by the investigators, sustained gamma-activity is not identical to meditation. For these reasons and more, it is doubtful that anyone would accept this experiment as satisfying the Dalai Lama’s call to the neuroscience community to develop a technological replacement for the many hours spent immersed in contemplative thought. But given the growing body of evidence which suggests that even short-term meditation improves measures of attention, these new experiments provide an interesting twist to the growing field of cognitive enhancement.

 

[casebro]

Ah yes. When one's gamma-synchrony is in opposite oscillation to gravity rays of the Earth, negating them, one begins to levitate.

eta: Nuts. I should have used "Quantum" in there somewhere

 

[paximperium]

Dude...just to be able to claim "I have attained Gamma-Synchrony" is benefit enough.

 

[Kuko 4000]

Ah yes. When one's gamma-synchrony is in opposite oscillation to gravity rays of the Earth, negating them, one begins to levitate.

eta: Nuts. I should have used "Quantum" in there somewhere

So, you calling all this simply woo? I'm genuinely interested, as a layman.

BTW: This was actually Tapio writing from my account...

 

[casebro]

The Woo is in the claims that meditation leads to levitation, that Buddha levitated to Nirvana.

Or, so far, that Gamma-Synchrony leads to any benefit.

The studies may just be selection bias- people with high Gamma-Synchrony are more likely to meditate?

Even if Einstein, Franklin, Edison, Marconi, Tesla, Maxwell... all had high Gamma-Synchrony, it wouldn't mean meditating will help the average schmuck attain anydamnthing. Including levitation.