By InnoHEALTH Editorial Team
Regular meditation sessions can have a long-lasting effect on a person’s attention
span and other cognitive abilities, says an extensive study.
Regular Meditation Sessions
R
egular
and
intensive
meditation sessions over
the course of a lifetime
could help a person remain
attentive and focused well into old
age, the study has found.
This is according to the most extensive
longitudinal study to date examining
a group of meditation practitioners.
Published in Springer’s Journal of
Cognitive Enhancement, the research
evaluates the benefits that people
gained after three months of full-time
meditation training and whether
these benefits are maintained seven
years later.
Lead
18
author
Anthony
Zanesco,
Volume 3 | Issue 3 | July-September 2018
now at the University of Miami in
US, however, cautions that further
research is needed before meditation
can be advocated as a sure-fire
method for countering the effects of
aging on the brain.
This study follows up on previous
work by the same group of researchers
at the University of California, Davis
in 2011, which assessed the cognitive
abilities of 30 people who regularly
meditated before and after they went
on a three-month long retreat at the
Shambhala Mountain Center in US.
At the center, they meditated daily
using techniques designed to foster
calm sustained attention on a chosen
object and to generate aspirations
such as compassion, loving-kindness,
emphatic joy and equanimity
among participants, for others and
themselves.
During this time, another group of
30 people who regularly meditated
were also monitored. Other than
traveling to the meditation center for
a week-long assessment period, they
carried on with their lives as normal.
After the first group’s initial retreat
was over, the second group received
similar intensive training at the
Shambhala Mountain Center.
As part of this study, follow-up
assessments were conducted six
months, eighteen months and