Neuroscience Reveals the Secrets of Meditation’s Benefits

The efficacy of the regular elicitation of the relaxation response in reducing surgical anxiety and pain in an ambulatory surgery setting was studied in a population of patients scheduled for the surgical removal of a skin cancer. Forty-nine patients with skin cancer were enrolled in the study immediately after being informed of the ned for surgery; 21 of these patients elicited the relaxation response 20 minutes per day until the day of surgery, 21 read for 20 minutes per day, and 7 […]

Meditation is a conscious mental process that induces a set of integrated physiologic changes termed the relaxation response. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to identify and characterize the brain regions that are active during a simple form of meditation. Significant (p<10(-7)) signal increases were observed in the group-averaged data in the dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices, hippocampus/parahippocampus, temporal lobe, pregenual anterior cingulate […]

Evaluated self-esteem and locus of control in a group of high school students prior to, during, and following a single academic year. Using a randomized, crossover experimental design, 26 Ss were exposed to either a health curriculum based on elicitation of the relaxation response (RLR) and then a follow-up period, while 24 were assigned to a control health curriculum and then the RLR. Psychological testing was conducted using the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale and the Now […]