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What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

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Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#41

Post by dalek_cannes »

markbao wrote: post #6

Is reducing beta waves actually a good thing? It might allow for focus and relaxation, but I wonder if that might do something like clear your working memory and make you less able to make connections between things. Could anyone that has a good grasp on this comment on whether this might be true?

Perhaps it's analogous to CPUs? Perhaps it's better to power down your brain when you're not really using it rather than keeping it running hot at full frequency? The idle mind being the devils workshop and all...

Perhaps (and again speculating) it allows currently active pathways to cool down, allowing different ones to activate. This is especially useful if you're trying to solve a difficult problem and seem to be going in circles along the same line of thought. Your inability to break out of the line of thought might at times be more neurological than cognitive.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#42

Post by dpapathanasiou »

dodyg wrote: post #17

You don't need no fucking App to start. Sit down in comfortable position, close your eyes, try to concentrate on your breathing in and out (your mind will start to wander - keep coming back to the breathing). Repeat everyday. You'll have the chance to "optimize" and "improve" your meditation experience later on. First, build the habit.

I agree that it's better not to use an app, since you don't want to be dependent on a specific voice to get you going, among other things.

The technique you describe (which I also use) is explained more fully by Roger Wells in "Happy to Burn"[1] which I found out about from the "Mind Perfomance Hacks" book[2] originally.

[1] http://www.sankhara.com.au/shop/products/detailFree.html?Pro...

[2] http://www.worldcat.org/title/mind-performance-hacks/oclc/64...

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#43

Post by dmoney »

hippee-lee wrote: post #26
seren wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting because this is a rarely reported consequence. It seems no one would object to have denser grey matter, but if it is thinner somewhere, it feels like you lost something.

Perhaps it's because there is only so much expression in our genetics. Don't think of it as if you lost something. Think of it as if you are investing and building up in the areas with max rio. By max rio I mean it on all levels of genome. Individual, your family & our society. I also believe the results can compound over time. As a side note, I was raised Roman Catholic. Although I have not gone to church since coll…

> max rio

Do you mean ROI?

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#44

Post by conradfr »

edf825 wrote: post #36
dodyg wrote: post #17

You don't need no fucking App to start. Sit down in comfortable position, close your eyes, try to concentrate on your breathing in and out (your mind will start to wander - keep coming back to the breathing). Repeat everyday. You'll have the chance to "optimize" and "improve" your meditation experience later on. First, build the habit.

To add to this, one thing I found helpful was to count with every breath in or out, up to ten -- breathe in, one; breathe out, two -- All the way up to ten, then back to the beginning. Having something so easy and menial, yet requiring constant attention helps immensely to keep the mind from wandering.

I try meditation for my ADD and counting helps. I still get distracted once I breath out but it gets better ;)

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#45

Post by svasan »

dools wrote: post #39
Simon321 wrote: post #29

Meditation, such a scam. I can't believe so many intelligent people are fooled by it. It's nothing more than a relaxation technique and that's it. The studies about meditation are mostly of dubious quality and origin, and people draw unwarranted conclusions from them. http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/08/21/quacks-eve...

Saying meditation is a scam is sort of like saying religion is a scam. It may be true objectively, but if it works, it works.

And why would you want to bring religion into this discussion?

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#46

Post by stinos »

dtf wrote: post #10
haldujai wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The descriptions are generally accurate, although very broad. The reticular formation is part of the brain stem, responsible for supporting breathing, cardiac function, and other somatic functions. The most relevant function is it's control of alertness and circadian rhythms. The thalamus does function as a 'gatekeeper', although that's a bad term, the level to which the thalamus processes sensory input isn't fully u…

Also, surely the presence of beta waves (12-30Hz) needs to be detected by an electroencephalogram (EEG), not fMRI? I thought fMRI has a much lower temporal resolution (~1Hz).

I can't find a good article atm, but afaik there's an established correlation between fMRI activity (indeed about 0.5/1 slices per second depending on settings) and beta waves.

Btw beta waves can also be recorded using a single electrode: normally these get used to record spikes from a single neuron, but they also pick up the lower frequency bands of all surrounding neurons. The nice thing is this provides a more local view (iirc everything that is closer than a couple of mm around the electrode), whereas an EEG gets you 'everything' so it's more an indication about general brain state without giving information about which part is active.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#47

Post by dodyg »

conradfr wrote: post #44
edf825 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to this, one thing I found helpful was to count with every breath in or out, up to ten -- breathe in, one; breathe out, two -- All the way up to ten, then back to the beginning. Having something so easy and menial, yet requiring constant attention helps immensely to keep the mind from wandering.

I try meditation for my ADD and counting helps. I still get distracted once I breath out but it gets better ;)

That's awesome. My practice is still all over the place. One day I am hybrid Buddha/Professor Xavier, the next I am a toddler after a gallon of soda.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#48

Post by mbrock »

Simon321 wrote: post #29

Meditation, such a scam. I can't believe so many intelligent people are fooled by it. It's nothing more than a relaxation technique and that's it. The studies about meditation are mostly of dubious quality and origin, and people draw unwarranted conclusions from them. http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/08/21/quacks-eve...

Do you derive "mostly of dubious quality" from this angry blogger's "I've read some of these studies?"

These anti-quackery people aren't really operating in full scientific rigor mode.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#50

Post by psteinweber »

miloshadzic wrote: post #32
dodyg wrote: post #17

You don't need no fucking App to start. Sit down in comfortable position, close your eyes, try to concentrate on your breathing in and out (your mind will start to wander - keep coming back to the breathing). Repeat everyday. You'll have the chance to "optimize" and "improve" your meditation experience later on. First, build the habit.

Tip: Try to keep your eyes open. Closing your eyes makes it easier to become slouched, wander off and fall asleep. I agree wholeheartedly with the rest of your post.

Many traditional meditation techniques recommend closing the eyes. For the reason that visual stimulation takes up >75% of our perception. Closing the eyes automatically makes it harder for our mind to wander off. Still hard enough, but at least you won't be distracted by those nice lights on the wall (or similar).
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