Thomas Knierim
9th June 2005, 05:13 PM
By Michael Hopkin, www.nature.com
Meditation can focus the mind in a measurable way, according to a study of Buddhist monks. In a visual test designed to confuse the brain, the monks were able to stave off confusion more easily than those not trained in the contemplative arts.
Researchers studied 76 Tibetan Buddhist monks taking a test of 'perceptual rivalry', in which two conflicting images are presented, one to each eye. This usually causes the brain to switch back and forth between the images every few seconds as it struggles to make sense of what it is seeing.
Monks skilled in the art of 'one-point' meditation - which involves focusing all of one's attention on a single object or thought - were able to slow this switching down or even stop it completely, report Olivia Carter of the University of Queensland in St Lucia, Australia, and colleagues.
In their study, published online by Current Biology1, they asked monks with training ranging from to 5 to 54 years to practise different forms of meditation and then don a set of goggles which displayed two different images: horizontal bars to one eye, and vertical bars to the other.
View the complete article at: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050606/ful...l/050606-8.html (http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050606/full/050606-8.html)
Meditation can focus the mind in a measurable way, according to a study of Buddhist monks. In a visual test designed to confuse the brain, the monks were able to stave off confusion more easily than those not trained in the contemplative arts.
Researchers studied 76 Tibetan Buddhist monks taking a test of 'perceptual rivalry', in which two conflicting images are presented, one to each eye. This usually causes the brain to switch back and forth between the images every few seconds as it struggles to make sense of what it is seeing.
Monks skilled in the art of 'one-point' meditation - which involves focusing all of one's attention on a single object or thought - were able to slow this switching down or even stop it completely, report Olivia Carter of the University of Queensland in St Lucia, Australia, and colleagues.
In their study, published online by Current Biology1, they asked monks with training ranging from to 5 to 54 years to practise different forms of meditation and then don a set of goggles which displayed two different images: horizontal bars to one eye, and vertical bars to the other.
View the complete article at: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050606/ful...l/050606-8.html (http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050606/full/050606-8.html)