Meditation and Mindfulness

 

            Meditation has been used since as early as 1500 BCE [1]. However, it seems recently we have started to rediscover the benefits of meditation. Davidson’s paper titled “Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation” describes their research study involving twenty-five subjects over an 8-week period. The study reported increased left-sided anterior neurological activity and an increase in antibody tiers. These results suggested a correlation between meditation and positive brain and immune functions.

As meditation practices have become more mainstream, research has been done on the effects of meditation during the meditation period. This paper, however, attempted to study the long-lasting effects of meditation. Since previous research has shown that meditation deceases anxiety and increases positive affect, the authors of the paper hypothesized an increase in neurological left-sided activation. This portion of the brain is responsible for positive emotion. Similarly, previous studies have shown that relaxation and stress management have shown an increase T-cy-totoxic/suppressor in HIV-infected men. Therefore a hypothesis was formed that those that meditate will show an increase in antibody titers when exposed to vaccination. During the study participant’s brain electrical activity was measured at three different time periods. All participants were also given a flu vaccine at the end of the study period and blood was taken at different times to test for antibodies. Meditation occurred through weekly instructional classes, a seven-hour silent retreat and at home sessions. At the conclusion of the study the group that meditated showed an increase of antibodies in response to the vaccine and left-sided anterior activation.

From this study we can learn that meditation does not only have immediate positive effects, but also long term effects. These effects include benefits to our brain and immune functions. It was also interesting to see that although the participants were tasked to perform meditation for 1 hour 6 days a week, on average they only practiced 2-3 days a week for less than 20 minutes. This time was in addition to a weekly-guided session that lasted 2.5 to 3 hours. From this information it can be seen that long periods of mediation are not needed to experience the positive results.

The paper affectively demonstrated its intended objective of showing that meditation had long-term benefits. However, the paper claimed to show that mediation showed improved brain and immune function. Previous research has shown a correlation between the type of brain function studied in this paper and improved immune function. Therefore increase in one caused increase in the other. There was also a large disparity in the amount of time that participants meditated. It would be nice to see if there was a correlation between mediation time and the degree of improved brain function.

This paper could lead to tools that help to train and/or encourage mediation. Applications that guided users through time effective meditation periods could be beneficial for large populations. Overall, it is interesting to see the effects of meditation on the brain and that these positive benefits can be achieved with short regular periods of meditation.

 

Sources:

[1] Everly, George (2002). A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

[2] Davidson, R.J. (2003). Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine vol. 65 no. 4, 564-