Skip to content

Cognitive performance in high school students after short treatment of zazen meditation technic

Pedro L. Linares, Silvia G. Ratti, Edgardo O. Alvarez

Journal of Neurorestoratology October 20, 2022 DOI: 10.26599/jnr.2021.9040013 (opens in new tab)

Read Full Text
Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Controlled trial Peer reviewed
Sample size 76
Population Secondary students aged 15-17 years from public or private high schools, with no previous meditation training
Intervention Zazen training
Duration About 3 months
Topics Meditation
Keywords Zazen Cognitive performance
Key findings Zazen training led to significantly fewer movements on the Tower of London and Tower of Hanoi and fewer errors on the Stroop test compared to recreation activities, with no difference on the Wisconsin Card Sorting test.

Abstract

Zazen is one of several meditation technics that pretends to reach calmness, reducing interference, and controlling awareness practiced by many people in the world. Zazen practitioners claim that a natural sense of wellbeing, spontaneous joy and self-fulfilling is achieved with its practice. Neuroscientific evidence shows that important modifications in the neuronal electric activity with compromise of several brain structures has been observed, especially those that are involved in modulation of attention. Our laboratory was interested to study the possible behavioural effects of a short time zazen practice to a group of secondary students of public or private high schools, with no previous training in any meditation technics. Two groups, 15-17 years old coursing the 4th or 5th year of their secondary study, one receiving zazen training (n = 31), and the other one recreation activities (n = 45) were selected. All subjects were tested with the Tower of London, Tower of Hanoi, Wisconsin Card Sorting and Stroop test to evaluate the cognitive abilities, at the beginning of the experiment (t0) and at the end of the experiment (t1, about 3 months later). Results showed that in the Tower of London and Tower of Hanoi, zazen group displayed significant less movements to solve the task, compared to Control. No differences were found between both groups in solving the Wisconsin Card Sorting test, but in the Stroop test zazen group was superior to Control in making significant less mistakes during solving the task. Results are compatible with a positive effect of zazen training in behavioural abilities of attention and planning strategies in secondary students.

Comparable studies

Other non-randomized and open-label trials on meditation, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress, and Immune Parameters in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients Early-stage breast and prostate cancer patients 2003 Pre-post intervention study n = 59
Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Community sample 2010 Pre-post intervention study
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers Psychological Distress In Medical Students Second-year medical students 2003 Prospective nonrandomized cohort-controlled study n = 302
Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Retreat participants and matched controls 2011 Controlled trial with wait-list control group n = 60
The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents Children aged 8-12 with ADHD and their parents 2011 Within-group waitlist controlled trial n = 22

Citations in the library

Cites 19

and 14 more in the library

Related reading

Explore topics

Meditation