UNBIASING THE BRAIN: THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION UPON THE CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES
John Meissner, Michael Pirot
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal 1983 DOI: 10.2224/sbp.1983.11.1.65 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study with within-subject and between-group comparisons Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 20 |
| Population | Right-handed males with a strong right-hand preference; 10 Transcendental Meditators and 10 non-meditator controls |
| Interventions | Transcendental Meditation relaxation |
| Duration | 20-minute meditation and relaxation conditions |
| Measures | simple reaction time trials to a 500 Hz auditory stimulus |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | A right-ear (left-hemisphere) advantage appeared in all relaxation conditions of both groups, but not after meditation in the Transcendental Meditation group. After meditation, meditators showed significantly slower reaction times to left-hemisphere stimulation and significantly faster reaction times to right-hemisphere stimulation compared with their own relaxation baseline. The authors suggest Transcendental Meditation is an attentional strategy that disrupts usual brain biases and may have clinical implications. |
Abstract
Twenty males with a strong right hand preference underwent 120 simple reaction time trials to a 500 hz auditory stimulus presented to right, left and both ears. Ten Transcendental Meditators served as their own controls in twenty minute meditation and relaxation conditions and were also compared to a ten Non-Meditator control group who relaxed only in two 20-minute conditions. The reaction time trials were administered after the conditions. When the ears were compared to each other a significant right-ear (left hemisphere) advantage (REA) occurred in all relaxation conditions of the Meditator and Non-Meditator control groups. However, no REA emerged after meditation conditions of the Meditator group. The Meditator group after meditation compared to their own baseline relaxation condition showed a significant suppression of reaction time latencies to stimulation delivered to the left hemisphere and a significant facilitation to stimulation delivered to the right hemisphere. The meaning of these findings suggest Transcendental Meditation is an attentional strategy that disrupts the usual biases of the brain which also has implications as a clinical method. A neuropsychological explanation of the results suggest a comprehensive theory of Transcendental Meditation.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |