Apparently, the natural ground state of the brain can be activated by transcendental meditation (TM), says a new EEG study conducted on college students at American University.
This three-month randomized control study is published in a special issue of Cognitive Processing dedicated to the Neuroscience of Meditation and Consciousness. Specifically, the study found the TM technique produces a unique state of 'restful alertness,' as seen in the markedly higher alpha power in the frontal cortex and lower beta and gamma waves in the same frontal areas during TM practice. It creates greater alpha coherence between the left and right hemispheres of the brain suggesting the brain is working as a whole, and enhances an individual's sense of 'self' by activating what neuroscientists call the 'default mode network' in the brain. This is considered the natural ground state of the brain, glimpsed by neuroscientists during eyes-closed rest but more fully activated during Transcendental Meditation practice.
The finding of significant brain wave differences between students practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique and those simply resting with their eyes closed is especially convincing because subjects were randomly assigned to conditions, and testing was conducted by a researcher unaware of the experimental condition to which the subject had been assigned, say the authors.
Research has already shown that simply closing one's eyes and relaxing increases the default mode. A significant additional finding of this new study is that activity in the default mode increases during TM compared to simple eyes-closed rest. Different meditation techniques entail various degrees of cognitive control. Thus, activation patterns of the default mode network could give insight into the nature of meditation practices.
Previous published research has already shown that TM practice decreases high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, cholesterol, stroke, and heart failure.
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