It almost seems that every few
months another article is released citing a new research publication stating
the various mental benefits of meditation. Meditation research continues to
gain traction for a variety of reasons. In fact, over 100 randomized clinical
trials studying the effects of meditation on our mental health have been
studied since 2005.
That being said, a recently
published randomized controlled investigation published in Psychological Science that showed that even 10 minutes a day of
meditation for simply two weeks improved verbal scores on the Graduate Record
Examination by 16 percentile. The reasoning behind this is that mindful
meditation seems to be an effective technique in improving the ability to tend
to a task without distraction, an ability that is pertinent in verbal reasoning
tasks. This relationship between meditation and increasing attentional
awareness has been looked at more closely in a 2008 study conducted by Lutz et al., titled “Attention regulation and
monitoring in meditation”, and is referenced in a talk by Marcia Grabowecky, an
associate professor at Northwestern University.
Grabowecky explores the positive
benefits of mindful meditation in her talk by referring to its ability to
increase cortical thickness, improve emotional reactivity, and decrease the
amygdala’s response to negative distractions. This decrease in the response of
the amygdala may explain why students who practice meditation have shown an
increase in verbal reasoning scores, as reading comprehension depends heavily
on maintaining the ability to avoid external distractors.
Although
meditation seems to do nothing but good for those who regularly engage in it,
there have been some instances where it is not beneficial. For example, for
those who have underlying psychosis, regular meditation can accelerate the
emergence of these psychiatric conditions. Luckily for others, however, the
benefits of meditation seem to continuously increase with more research.
Lutz, A., Slagter, H.A., Dunne, J.D., Davidson, R.J. (2008).
Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends Cogn Sci. 12(4), p. 163-169
Michael D. Mrazek, M.D., Franklin, M.S., Phillips, D.T.,
Baird, B., Schooler, J.W. (2013). Mindfulness training improves working memory
capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. Psychology Science 20(10), p. 1-6
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