Mindfulness is about focusing on the present moment. It involves paying attention to what’s happening right now. Mindful meditation is a technique to achieve mindfulness, but it can be challenging. It takes practice to stay focused on the present moment for more than just a short time.
Our minds are busy with lots of information from our senses that need processing by the brain. When we practice mindfulness, we train ourselves to focus on one thing around us, like our breath. By repeatedly bringing our attention back to this one thing, we improve our ability to stay focused and enhance our awareness, decision-making, and memory.
Mindfulness meditation has many benefits. It improves attention span, selective attention, and executive control. It also reduces anxiety, improves sleep, lowers blood pressure, and helps cope with chronic pain. Recent research suggests that it can even change how the brain processes information and potentially prevent cognitive decline as we age.
Researchers from Australia and Germany studied how mindfulness meditation affected information processing in older adults' brains. They recruited older adults for their study because aging can affect cognitive abilities.
Participants were split into two groups: one received eight weeks of daily mindfulness meditation training, while the other played computer games for an equivalent period. Both groups had brain scans after the training.
During these scans, participants were shown sensory stimuli that triggered responses in their senses. The recorded waves showed how their visual system responded to these stimuli over time. The timing of these waves indicated which part of the system was involved in processing the information.
After eight weeks of training, there were no noticeable changes in either group’s brain scans. However, after six months of continued practice at home, those who practiced mindfulness meditation showed significant improvements in sustained attention and changes in their brain scans that suggested better sensory processing than those who played computer games alone.
These findings suggest that practicing mindfulness meditation improves the brain’s efficiency in processing visual information and may also strengthen the brain’s connections, leading to better information processing.
References:
- Isbel, B., Weber, J., Lagopoulos, J., Stefanidis K., Anderson, H., & Summer, M.J. (2020). Neural changes in early visual processing after 6 months of mindfulness training in older adults.
- National Institute of Health (2021). Mindfulness for your health. The benefits of living moment to moment.
- Spagna, A., Mackie, M-A., & Fan, J. (2015). Supramodal executive control of attention. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 65.