How Meditation Changes The Brain's Attention Span

The observational capacities of the human brain are limited by a phenomenon known as the "attentional blink." Here, the brain ignores the second of two quickly presented stimuli, having allocated too many resources to the first. For example, when two images are flashed on a screen less than a second apart, most people will only see the first. Occasionally they will see the second stimuli, however, suggesting it may be possible to exert some degree of control over this response.

Intensive meditation, which focuses on training attention, may be the key to doing just that, shows research from University of Wisconsin psychologists. For their study, seventeen individuals attended a three-month retreat during which they meditated for 10 to 12 hours daily. A control group also participated, meditating for twenty minutes a day during this time. Researchers recorded scalp-recorded brain potentials while both groups participated in an attention task in which they were asked to identify two numbers presented 336 or 672 milliseconds apart.

Results showed that while everyone could detect the first number, significantly more meditation practitioners also detected the second one. Scalp readings also showed a significant reduction in the magnitude of brain waves elicited by first number. This reduction was further tied to an increase in accurately detecting the second number, suggesting that as the brain invested fewer resources in the first, it more efficiently responded to the second.

These findings confirm firsthand reports of meditation improving the ability to pay attention and process information and add to previous studies that show long-practicing Buddhist monks have a stronger gamma wave and activity in the left prefrontal cortex. Together, these findings are proving that many properties of the brain, such as the attentional blink, once thought to be static, may in fact be malleable well into adulthood.

FULL TEXT: Mental Training Affects Distribution of Limited Brain Resources