Meditation Research
Meditation Databases
Institute of Noetic Sciences Meditation Bibliography
Compiled and edited by Michael Murphy, co-founder of Esalen Institute, in collaboration with Steven Donovan. Now updated and available as a searchable, online catalog with citations, abstracts, and, when available, full-text articles.
The Institute of HeartMath Meditation Research
Search on "Meditation" for (at last count) 111 studies conducted by this group of scientists.
Mind & Life Institute Research and Initiatives: Mapping the Mind
This non-profit organization organizes articles and research conducted by the world's leading neuroscientists working in conjunction with seasoned Tibetan Buddhist meditators under the auspices of the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
Weblinks
Biofeedback, Yoga and Altered States of Consciousness
Article by Swami Tapasmurti Saraswati, Founder of Yoga Magazine. Based on Cade's research and Mind Mirror.
Article by Anna Wise. Published by FutureHealth.org, "Winter Brain Papers," 2007.
"Meditation and Neurofeedback"
Article by Tracy Brandmeyer and Arnaud Delorme, Frontiers in Psychology/Consciousness Research, October 2013.
"Meditation, Creativity, Psychological Integration and more"
Study published by U.S. National Library of Medicine, February 2009. Alpha-theta meditation promotes a wide array of positive benefits, from creative performance enhancement, psychological
integration and neuroplasticity, to reduced depression and anxiety in alcoholism, resolved post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), and improvements in working memory, learning, retention
and REM sleep.
Meta-study published by Science Daily in July 2014. Neurofeedback meditation trials showed healthy and elderly participant gains in sustained attention, orienting and executive attention, memory, complex psychomotor skills, implicit procedural memory, recognition memory, perceptual binding, intelligence, mood and well-being.
“First Direct Evidence of Neuroplastic
Changes Following Brainwave Training”
Study published by Science Daily in March 2010. Significant changes in brain plasticity observed with 30 minutes of voluntary-controlled alpha brainwave training per day, inducing a lasting shift in cortical excitability and intracortical function.
"Meditation Changes the Brain's Electrical Patterns"
Article by Lisa Brunette of the University of Wisconsin. Drs. Richard Davidson and Antoine Lutz studies on gamma-producing Buddhist monks suggest that neural synchrony involved in the global coordination of brain activity induces short-term and long-term change in the brain.
Meditation Rewires Attention and Emotion, Increases Cortical Thickness
Study by Kang Do-Hyung, et al published in Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Meditation Stabilizes Attention and Working Memory
Study by Amishi Jha, et al. Article published in the New York Times Magazine
Alpha
Mindfulness Training Reduces Stress, Chronic Pain and Depression Relapse,
and Leads to
Enhanced Cognitive Regulation and Metacognition
Study by C.E. Kerr, et al. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, published by PubMed.gov
Gamma Study: Meditation Gives Brain a Charge
Washington Post writer Mark Kaufman synthesizes Dr. Richard Davidson's research on Buddhist monks, neuroplastic changes to the left prefrontal cortex, and gamma waves arising out of attentional focus and compassion meditation. 2005
"Scans of Monks' Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning"
Article by Sharon Begley. Science Journal/Wall Street Journal, November 2004
"Long-Term Meditators Self-Induce High-Amplitude Gamma Synchrony During Mental Practice"
Study by Antoine Lutz, et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States
"How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time"
Article By Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Time Magazine, January 2006. How meditation sharpens the mind and mitigates age-related attenuation by thickening the frontal cortex.
Noninvasive Brain Wave Treatment Reduces Alzheimer's Pathology, Improves Memory in Mice. Recent NIA-supported research offers evidence in mice that stimulation of gamma brain waves reduces Alzheimer's-related proteins and slows neurodegeneration association with the disease. NIH publication, 2019.
Videos
"How the Mind
Can Reshape Our Brains"
Neuroscientist Sara Lazar presents a TEDx Talk in Cambridge (2011), 8:33 minutes
The benefits of meditation: neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, increased empathy and compassion, reduced stress and negative emotions in the amygdala.
Mindfulness
and Neural Integration: Relationships and Reflection on the Cultivation of Well-Being
Daniel Siegel, M.D. presents a TEDx Talk in Studio City (2012), 18:26 minutes
"Self" and self-regulation: how mindful self-reflection and self-regulation integrate the reptilian, mammalian and human (cortical) brains for greater health and well-being
40Hz Gamma
and Higher States of Consciousness
Beverly Rubik, Ph.D., Institute for Frontier Sciences. Presentation in 3 parts, total 21 minutes
"Transform
Your Mind, Change Your Brain"
Google TechTalk by Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., 1:05:21 minutes
Content: neuroplasticity, epigenetics, meditation: the cultivation of compassion, neurocardiac coupling, demonstrable changes in new meditators, gamma frequencies, attentional stability, immune system improvements, predications about the future pervasiveness of meditation.