Meditation Alters Cognitive Load: EEG Fractal-Based Classification and HRV Geometric Assessment
International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks December 20, 2025 Swati Singh, Laxmidhar Behera, Suvendu Samanta
Cognitive load during demanding tasks can be measured through brain and heart signals. After eight weeks of Hare Krishna Mantra (HKM) meditation, participants showed smaller changes in EEG complexity and heart rate variability between rest and task states, indicating reduced cognitive load and more stable brain-heart dynamics. Machine learning classifiers distinguished rest from task periods with 80-81% accuracy before meditation, but only 61-62% after, confirming that meditation made these states less distinguishable.