Abstract 82: The effect of meditation on neurophysiological and neuro-psychological parameters

Objective/Backgrounds: Meditation is an ancient practice that is believed to originate in India several thousand years ago. Hundreds of studies have been done on the physiological and psychological effects of meditation, making it one of most intensively studied area of knowledge in the field of human development. Meditation, in general is a complex neurocognitive task. It is often associated with alteration in body's physiological and psychological measures. It is also associated with change in brain anatomy (anatomical changes) as it strengthens the fractional anisotropy measures in different brain areas e.g. Corpus callosum (fiber network connecting both the hemispheres), pre-frontal cortex (associate with enhanced attention and more conscious mind) and in insular region (known for seat of consciousness). Methods: In this study, we took two groups of sample size of 100, where 70 subjects recruited under Meditational practice while 30 were engaged both in Yoga exercise and Meditation practice along with same sized control group. Both the groups practiced it for one-hour duration each day for 3-months (study period). Both the groups assisted for some pre-defined some of vey crucial human physiological parameters i.e. pulse rate, blood pressure, SpO2 level, lung volume and body temperature parameters, which undubiously explicit the Human health scenario. Any unwanted variation in these parameters could be life threatening and would lead to several diseased conditions. Here with, we have utilized the statistical analysis through Mann-Whitney U Test and Two-Way ANOVA to test the validity of our findings. Results: We came to the conclusion that after the Meditational practice significant difference recorded in all the mentioned parameters. There was significant decrease recorded in pulse rate and blood pressure and increase in lung volume and SpO2 level, whereas no significant difference recorded in body temperature, although temperature reduced to some extend but not at significant level in Group1 (Meditators). On the other hand, in Group-2 (Yoga + Meditators) increase in blood pressure, pulse rate, SpO2 and lung volume. However, no significant difference was found in body temperature of Group-2 practitioners but Group-1 practitioners, showing that meditation tends to reduce body temperature at physiological level. Likewise at psychological level, the participants showed phenomenal change in their behavior and attitude e.g. after the practice they reported a decrease in stress, depression and anxiety levels and increase in mental well-being, decision making ability, calmness, more happiness, changed emotional state and improvement in sleep cycle. Discussion/Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the effect of Meditation on these neurophysiological and neuropsychological parameters, which are crucial to define human health and preclude various ill diseases conditions if maintained in their normal state. But still, the current studies related to these dimensions of our traditional knowledge are still in not suffice. Although our country, India, is the founder nation for these contemplative traditions but still India share the contribution of handful of studies in this particular field due to the extreme limitations in technological methodologies. And those research findings are not that much appreciable, to understand the dimensions of meditation. The molecular mechanism of meditation is still to be understood. Understanding of its mechanism of action will, help us to understand pathology of various disorders and can even find new treatment modalities to various untreatable disorders.