How can meditation affect your brain? Examine one interaction between cognition and physiology in terms of behaviour. Evaluate two relevant studies.”

What is cognition? It’s any process that involves our mind the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. Examples of cognitive processes are: Language Memory Problem solving Imagination

What is physiology? The biological functions of our bodies Examples of physiological processes include: Neurotransmission Secretion of hormones (e.g. melatonin) Dendritic branching (neuroplasticity)

How do they interact? What study have we looked at so far that investigate cognitive and physiological factors? HM’s case study shows how the hippocampus (physiology) is integral in the formation of new long term memories (cognitive). Davidson’s study will show how meditation (cognition) can influence levels of gamma waves (physiology).

What is an EEG? An EEG measures the electrical charge that neurons produce when they are activated in the brain. It is useful for measuring things like emotion and sleep. An EEG is not technically a ‘brain imaging’ device as it only provides a graphical printout of the electrical activity in the brain. There are 256 sensors that are placed all over the person’s head to measure the ‘brain waves.’

Richard Davidson’s Study Read the information on the reverse of your SLT sheet. I will then explain the study with deliberate mistakes – you will get an M and M for each mistake you spot…

Get ready to spot the mistakes! Beat the Teacher!!! Get ready to spot the mistakes!

Aim The aim of Davidson’s study was to measure the effects of gamma waves on meditation. Correct Answer: It’s the opposite: Davidson wanted to investigate how many hours of meditation could influence levels of gamma waves in the brain.

Methods Participants: There were Eight Tibetan monks who had between 15,000-54,000 hours experience. There were also ten volunteers who had trained in meditation for one year. Correct answers: They had a minimum of 10,000 hours of experience and the volunteers had only trained for one week.

Methods cont… Design: This is a true experiment as the independent variable is being manipulated by the researcher in a controlled environment Correct answer: this is in fact a type of qasi experiment, because the IV already exists. This is a natural experiment as the IV is occuring before the study (Davidson did not instruct the monks to meditate for 54,000 hours).

Methods cont… Procedures: The monks were asked to meditate on compassion

Results All the monks experienced an increase in gamma wave levels. One volunteer’s gamma wave levels increased. Two volunteer’s gamma wave levels increased. All the monks gamma wave levels stayed above their normal level at the conclusion of the experiment. The movement of the waves was better organised and coordinated than it was in the volunteers.

Conclusions The left-parietal lobe was the most activated area of the brain in the monks. The left-prefrontal cortext This is associated with contentment and happiness. This suggests that the monks could experience more positive emotions because they have more neural networks in their ‘emotional centre.’

Evaluation Discussion In peers, discuss strengths and limitations of this natural experiment.