IntechOpen eBooksMarch 5, 2026A. M. Roy, Sushil Prasad Mahato, Deepti Padmanabha Bhat et al.
Cognitive enhancement is increasingly pursued through complementary mind–body therapies that target fundamental brain–body mechanisms. This chapter synthesizes evidence for core modalities such as meditation and yoga, and additional approaches including Tai Chi/Qigong, breathwork, and music-based interventions. Across healthy and clinical populations, these therapies produce modest yet reliable...
Sympathetic activation is required for attention. Separate studies have shown that meditation ( a) improves attention and ( b) reduces sympathetic activity. The present study assessed attention with the P300 and sympathetic activity with heart rate variability (HRV). Forty-seven male subjects (group mean age ± SD, 21.6 ± 3.4 years) were assessed in 4 mental states: ( a) random thinking, ( b)...
Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM] is one of the leading causes for mortality. This study examined the role of an self-awareness based guided meditation practice, Cyclic Meditation [CM] on perceived stress, anxiety, depression, sleep and quality of life in T2DM patients. Design A single arm pre-post design was used for the study. Setting The study was conducted in an auditorium for...
The auditory sensory pathway has been studied in meditators, using midlatency and short latency auditory evoked potentials. The present study evaluated long latency auditory evoked potentials (LLAEPs) during meditation. Sixty male participants, aged between 18 and 31 years (group mean ± SD, 20.5 ± 3.8 years), were assessed in 4 mental states based on descriptions in the traditional texts. They...
Objectives: Meditation is described in traditional yoga texts as three stages, which follow each other in sequence: (i) Focused attention (FA), (ii) Focused attention on the object of meditation (MF), and (iii) Meditation with one-pointed focused attention without effort (ME). When not in meditation the mind is considered to be in a state of normal consciousness characterized by random thinking...