Mindfulness: The Role of Meditation in the Future of Medicine

This semester, one rather interesting research area we were introduced to was meditation and its affects on various cognitive functions. In her talk, Marcia Grabowecky presented us with studies showing the potential of meditation for improving attention. Long term monks, who have meditated from 10,000 – 50, 000 hours, were shown to generate more stable and reproducible mental states compared to novice monks. Dr. Grabowecky presented that meditation doesn't have to be our traditional understanding of meditation such as, yoga. It can be something as simple as sitting in a natural position and being at peace with your thoughts rather than trying to block them. Dr.Grabowecky presented that such meditation can train our brains to more easily focus on what it is that we need to focus on. This type of attention research can have great insights for education, among other fields.

A recent article by Science Daily continues to illuminate the role of meditation in medicine. The study featured in the article, by researchers in University of Minnesota, shows that meditation can allow individuals to better control brain-activity based technology. In this particular study, 12 adults who regularly practiced some form of meditation and 24 adults who had no experience with meditation were studied. Participants were asked to move the cursor on a computer screen using hand movements. Their brain activity was analyzed using non-invasive cap. Results showed that individuals who practiced meditation regularly were able to perform the given brain activity test quicker than those who had no experience with meditation.  They also learned faster than those who didn’t have experience with meditation.

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There are very interesting implications for this recent study. The study suggests that meditation can be used as a technique for teaching individuals to operate technology controlled by the brain. This kind of technology can be extremely helpful for individuals with diseases or trauma which has caused partial or full paralysis, but who still have brain activity. As mentioned in the article, Dr. He and his colleagues demonstrated that it is very difficult for most people to operate such technology due to scattered brain activity. Meditation is thought to be able to help with this, because it focuses brain activity and makes the mind more stable. This can be extremely important for providing such individuals with technology and options which will tremendously improve their lifestyles. 


References:

University of Minnesota. (2014). Yoga, meditation may help train brain to help people control computers with their mind. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 11, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140925132559.htm