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This talk gave a brief
overview of
some key studies done by mainstream researchers on the neurophysiology
of
meditation. The first part of the talk
focused on long-term effects of meditation on brain structure and
function. Research has indicated that
meditation is
associated with increased activity of the left prefrontal area (which
has been
linked to optimism), increased cortical thickness in sensory and motor
areas,
and increased synchrony of gamma waves in various regions of the brain
(suggesting greater integration of cognitive and affective functions).
The second part of the
talk turned
to a study that provides some interesting ideas about might be
happening in the
brain in the short run during meditation.
In particular, speculations were made about whether the kind of
direct
“seeing” associated with meditation may involve the operation of a
second
pathway of visual perception that does not go through the visual
cortex, but
simply makes a short loop through the lower emotional (limbic) area of
the
brain.
The greater part of the
hour was
devoted to a discussion of the above studies, as well as meditation
research in
general. Skepticism was expressed as to
whether direct seeing really simply involves activity of the second
visual
pathway, since that type of seeing seems to require operation of higher
cognitive functions.
This was my first
virtual reality
presentation, and I was surprised by the extent to which a bunch of
silly
looking avatars can make the experience so much more effective and real
than
telephone conferencing. As a novice
though, it was a bit difficult for me to devote as much attention as I
would
have liked to the blurb at the bottom indicating who was speaking – or
trying
to speak – at any particular time, so that after the presentation, I
was left
with a vaguely uneasy feeling that I had inadvertently dissed a number
of
people!
Davina Chan