EFFECT OF CONCENTRATIVE MEDITATION ON REACTION ABILITY
Kulvinder Singh Bagga
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) February 9, 2023 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7793888 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 50 |
| Population | Students aged 21 to 30 years |
| Intervention | Concentrative meditation |
| Duration | 8 weeks |
| Measures | Electroencephalogram (EEG), psychomotor variables |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Concentrative meditation over eight weeks produced no improvement in reaction ability, but EEG analysis showed significant increases in theta and alpha patterns, suggesting meditation affects brainwave activity without enhancing psychomotor reaction performance. |
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of meditation on reaction ability. Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefit or as an end in itself. Psychomotor abilities were always considered to be the foundation for technical skill and tactical ability in any given sports. Despite its popularity, little is known about the neural mechanisms by which meditation works, several electroencephalogram (EEG) studies have reported changes in spectral and frequency analysis during meditation inspired by techniques that focus on concentration. FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) was used to analysis investigate the composition of an EEG signal. Since the FFT transforms a signal from the time domain into the frequency domain, frequency distributions of the EEG was observed. With this understanding this research study was conceptualized to investigate effect of concentrative meditation on reaction ability. Fifty students were randomly selected as the subjects for the study. The age of the subjects ranged from 21 to 30 years. The subjects were assigned at random to experimental and control group each group consisting of twenty five students. The study was conducted for a period of eight weeks. The study examined EEG changes during meditation. The investigational paradigm involved 15-20 minutes of meditation, where the subjects were asked to close their eyes and adopt their normal meditation. Two groups comprising of twenty five subjects each were formed i.e. experimental Group and control group. The experimental group was given meditation in the morning session time and no meditational training was given to control group. Each subject of Experimental group was learning concentrative Meditation. Electroencephalogram (EEG) and psychomotor variables used to collect the data before and after meditational training to measure the effect of meditation. These results suggest that meditation provides no improvement in reaction ability. EEG findings from this study suggest that concentrative meditation techniques improves theta and alpha EEG patterns significantly. Key Words: Reaction Ability, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Electroencephalogram.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation Healthy employees in a work environment | 2003 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 41 |
| Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Recovered recurrently depressed patients | 2000 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 145 |
| Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Working adults | 2008 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 139 |
| Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Undergraduate Chinese students | 2007 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 40 |
| Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: Replication and Exploration of Differential Relapse Prevention Effects. Recovered recurrently depressed patients | 2004 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 73 |