Izzetoglu Meltem, Shewokis Patricia A, Tsai Kathryn, Dantoin Phillip, Sparango Kathryn, Min Katherine
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085, USA.
Nutrition Sciences Dept., College of Nursing and Health Professions; School of Biomedical Engineering Science and Health Systems, & School of Education, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Brain Sci. 2020 Sep 4;10(9):608. doi: 10.3390/brainsci10090608.
Cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, processing time, perception, and reasoning can be augmented using some type of intervention. Within the broad range of conventional and unconventional intervention methods used in cognitive enhancement, meditation is one of those that is safe, widely practiced by many since ancient times, and has been shown to reduce stress and improve psychological health and cognitive functioning. Various neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) have shown functional and structural changes due to meditation in different types of meditation practices and on various groups of meditators. Recently, a few studies on meditation have used functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study the effects of meditation on cerebral hemodynamics. In this study, we examined the short-term effects of loving-kindness (LK) meditation on sustained attention using behavioral performance measures, physiological outcomes, and cognitive activity as measured by fNIRS in first-time meditators during Stroop color word task (SCWT) performance. Our results indicated that behavioral outcomes, assessed mainly on response time (RT) during SCWT performance, showed a significant decrease after meditation. As expected, physiological measures, primarily pulse pressure (PP) measured after meditation dropped significantly as compared to the before meditation measurement. For the hemodynamic measures of oxygenated-hemoglobin (HbO), deoxygenated-hemoglobin (Hb), and total-hemoglobin (HbT), our findings show significant differences in SCWT performance before and after meditation. Our results suggest that LK meditation can result in improvements in cognitive, physiological, and behavioral outcomes of first-time meditators after a short-term session.
诸如注意力、记忆力、处理时间、感知力和推理能力等认知能力可以通过某种类型的干预得到增强。在用于认知增强的广泛的传统和非传统干预方法中，冥想是安全的方法之一，自古以来就被许多人广泛实践，并且已被证明可以减轻压力、改善心理健康和认知功能。各种使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和脑电图（EEG）的神经影像学研究表明，不同类型的冥想练习以及不同冥想者群体在冥想后会出现功能和结构上的变化。最近，一些关于冥想的研究使用功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）来研究冥想对脑血流动力学的影响。在本研究中，我们通过行为表现测量、生理指标以及在首次冥想者执行斯特鲁普颜色词任务（SCWT）期间用fNIRS测量的认知活动，研究了慈心（LK）冥想对持续注意力的短期影响。我们的结果表明，主要基于SCWT表现中的反应时间（RT）评估的行为结果在冥想后显著下降。正如预期的那样，主要的生理指标，即冥想后测量的脉压（PP）与冥想前测量相比显著下降。对于氧合血红蛋白（HbO）、脱氧血红蛋白（Hb）和总血红蛋白（HbT）的血流动力学指标，我们的研究结果显示在冥想前后的SCWT表现中存在显著差异。我们的结果表明，短期的慈心冥想可以使首次冥想者的认知、生理和行为结果得到改善。
