IntechOpen eBooks
March 5, 2026
A. M. Roy, Sushil Prasad Mahato, Deepti Padmanabha Bhat et al.
Mind-body therapies such as meditation, yoga, Tai Chi/Qigong, breathwork, and music-based interventions produce modest yet reliable improvements in attention, working memory, executive function, and cognitive flexibility across healthy and clinical populations. These therapies also offer meaningful adjunctive benefits for neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions. Convergent mechanisms include enhanced self-regulation, fronto-limbic and large-scale network plasticity, increased heart-rate variability, normalization of HPA axis activity, and anti-inflammatory immune modulation. Implementation requires standardized curricula, trained instructors, and safety monitoring. Emerging digital tools like mobile apps, virtual reality, wearables, and EEG/HRV feedback enable scalable access and precision tracking.
Clinical EEG and Neuroscience
May 1, 2019
Shirley Telles, Deepeshwar Singh, K. V. Naveen et al.
Meditative focusing increased sympathetic arousal, as shown by higher low-frequency heart rate variability (HRV), lower high-frequency HRV, and a faster average heart rate. Defocused meditation decreased average heart rate. Both forms of meditation improved attention, measured by increased P300 brain-wave amplitude; defocused meditation also reduced P300 latency, meaning participants responded faster to an auditory oddball task. The findings indicate that meditation's effects on attention and sympathetic activity depend on the type of meditation practiced.
Clinical EEG and Neuroscience
October 1, 2015
Shirley Telles, Singh Deepeshwar, Kalkuni Visweswaraiah Naveen et al.
Meditation shortens the time it takes for the brain to process sounds in the auditory association cortex, as measured by a faster P2 component of long latency auditory evoked potentials. In contrast, random thinking and nonmeditative focusing reduce the number of neurons recruited in the secondary auditory cortex, auditory association cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex, shown by smaller peak amplitudes of P1, P2, and N2 components. The study assessed 60 male participants aged 18–31 years across four mental states based on traditional texts.
January 1, 2014
S. Telles, Nilkamal Singh, K. Naveen et al.
Meditation, as described in traditional yoga texts, progresses through three sequential stages: focused attention, focused attention on the object of meditation, and one-pointed focused attention without effort. Using fMRI, brain activity was compared across these stages and a random thinking control state in twenty-six meditators. Only experienced meditators (averaging 6048 hours of practice) showed significant activation in the right middle temporal cortex, right inferior frontal cortex, and left lateral orbital gyrus during the third, effortless stage. These brain areas are linked to sustained attention, memory, semantic cognition, creativity, and mental detachment.