Meditation, well-being and cognition in heartfulness meditators - A pilot study

Bhuvnesh Sankar Sylapan; Ajay Kumar Nair; Krishnamurthy Jayanna; Saketh Mallipeddi; Sunil Sathyanarayana; Bindu M Kutty

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2020.103032

Meditation, well-being and cognition in heartfulness meditators - A pilot study

Conscious Cogn. 2020 Nov:86:103032. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2020.103032. Epub 2020 Oct 20.

Authors

Bhuvnesh Sankar Sylapan¹, Ajay Kumar Nair², Krishnamurthy Jayanna³, Saketh Mallipeddi¹, Sunil Sathyanarayana⁴, Bindu M Kutty⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India; Center for Consciousness Studies, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India.
² Department of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India; Center for Consciousness Studies, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India. Electronic address: ajay.nimhans@gmail.com.
³ Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru, India; Center for Integrative Health and Wellbeing, Bengaluru, India; Heartfulness Institute, Bengaluru, India. Electronic address: krishnamurthyj@cihw.in.
⁴ Dayananda Sagar College of Dental Sciences, Bengaluru, India; Heartfulness Institute, Bengaluru, India.
⁵ Department of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India; Center for Consciousness Studies, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India. Electronic address: bindu.nimhans@gmail.com.

PMID: 33096504
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2020.103032

Abstract

Meditative practices can vary considerably in technique as well as their effects. Heartfulness is a popular meditation technique that includes in its repertoire, a unique passive form of meditation. We carried out a pilot study recruiting male heartfulness meditators (proficient n = 24, with 6-28 years of meditation experience; novice n = 24, 5 to 16 months of experience) and subsequently recruited matched controls (n = 15). We examined well-being, and carried out high-density EEG recordings to examine indices of meditation and cognition in these groups. Well-being scores were significantly higher for the proficient meditators as compared to novice and intermediate for the controls. We did not find any group differences in cognitive processing. During meditation, enhanced occipital gamma was found in proficient meditators as compared to controls. We discuss the findings from this pilot study and suggest avenues for future research.

Keywords: Cognition; EEG; ERP; Heartfulness; Meditation; Well-being.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cognition
Humans
Male
Meditation*
Pilot Projects