A team of researchers from China and the UO are studying how meditation might provide improvements in a person's attention and response to stress.
Michael Posner, professor emeritus of psychology, and Yi-Yuan Tang, a visiting scholar, believe that the ancient mind-training practice can help them to understand how the brain regulates awareness and attention.
In a recent study, Chinese students received integrated body-mind training (IBMT) that included mindfulness meditation. After five days, the group trained in IBMT performed better on an attention test. The researchers also found lower levels of cortisol "the stress hormone," in saliva samples following mental arithmetic, which revealed the meditators were better able to handle anxiety during the test.
At this point, the findings suggest a measurable benefit that people could achieve through body-mind meditation, especially involving an effective training regimen. Posner and Tang plan to study American undergraduates with functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain network changes induced by training during attention tests.
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