1. Brain and Leadership Professor Frederick Travis, PhD
Director, Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition
Maharishi University of Management
Fairfield, Iowa USA

2. Thinking and action
CEO
Emotions
Concrete Experience

3. Stress turns off the CEO of the brain
Challenge
1. Challenge
CE0
2. Stress
Lose ability to
interpret subtle cues
index, store and access information
perceive patterns
Access long term memory
Overreact to experiences
More automatic and limited in responses.
Revert to stereotypical

4. Experience changes the brain….

5. Activation of visual cortex
in a sighted person reading a book,

6. Activation of visual cortex: in a sighted person reading a book,
and in a blind person “reading” Braille.

7. Conscious Thoughts Focused Attention: Gamma (20-50 Hz)
Loving-kindness-compassion (Lutz eta l. 2004);
Other studies with single group or case study designs
Qigong (Litscher et al, 2001)
Zen–3rd ventricle (Huang and Lo, 2009)
Diamond Way Buddhism (Lehmann et al., 2001)
Focused Attention: sustained focus and voluntary control of attention and cognitive processes
Travis and Shear, 2010

8. Conscious Thoughts Focused Attention: Gamma (20-50 Hz)
Open Monitoring: Theta (4-8 Hz)
Vipassana meditation (Cahn et al., 2010)
Zen meditation (ZaZen) (Murata, et al, 1994)
Sahaja Yoga (Aftanas and Golocheikine, 2001; Baijal & Srinivasan, 2009)
Concentrative Qigong (Pan, Zhang, & Xia, 1994)
Dispassionate, non-evaluative awareness of ongoing experience
Travis and Shear, 2010

9. Conscious Thoughts Focused Attention: Gamma (20-50 Hz)
Open Monitoring: Theta (4-8 Hz)
Automatic Self-Transcending: Alpha 1 (8-10 Hz)
Automatic transcending of the procedures of the meditation practice
Travis and Shear, 2010

10. Paradoxical Alpha (TM)
Front
Center
Back
Alpha as Idling (eyes closed)
Travis et al, 2009

11. Task: 5 sec – 0 sec
Alpha Beta Gamma

12. TM: 30 sec – 35 sec
Alpha Beta Gamma

13. Conscious Thoughts Automatic Self-Transcending: Alpha 1 (8-10 Hz)
TM technique (Dillbeck & Bronson, 1981)
TM technique (Travis & Wallace., 1999)
TM technique (Travis et al., 2001)
TM technique (Hebert et al., 2005)
TM technique (Travis & Arenander., 2006)
TM technique (Travis et al., 2010)
Other case study
Qigong (Qin, et al, 2009)
Conscious Thoughts
Automatic Self-Transcending: Alpha 1 (8-10 Hz)
Automatic transcending of the procedures of the meditation practice
Travis and Shear, 2010

14. Transcending during TM

15. Transcending during TM

16. Transcending during TM

17. Transcending during TM

18. Transcending during TM
Pure Consciousness

19. Restful Alertness during TM practice
Baseline
TM Practice
FDG-PET
Frontal
and
Parietal
Hippo-campus and
Thalamus
Newberg, A., Travis, F., Wintering, N., Nidich, S., Alavi, A. & Schneider, R. Neural Imaging conference, Miami, Fl., 2006.

20. Brain Functioning during Simple and
Choice
Reaction
Time
Tasks

21. As soon as you hear the tone, press the space bar as fast as you can.
1st Task (Attention)
In the first task, you'll see an * in the middle of the screen. Then you'll hear a tone.
As soon as you hear the tone, press the space bar as fast as you can.

22. 2nd Task (Remain Balanced)
In this task, you'll see a number in the middle of the screen; then a blank screen for 1.5 seconds; and then a second number.
If the first number is greater, press the left button. If the second number is greater, press the right button.

23. Alpha Amplitude
Coherence

24. Differences in CNV

26. Correlation of the Brain Integration Report Card with:
* p < .05, ** p < .01
Mean
Std
R (28)
Moral Reasoning
3.46
0.41
0.66**
Emotional Stability
3.86
0.85
0.52**
Openness to exp
4.42
0.47
0.46*
State Anxiety
27.75
11.92
-0.46*
Trait Anxiety
31.29
12.23
-0.47*
Travis et al 2004, Consciousness and Cognition, 13/2,

27. American University College Students (random assignment to groups)
Brain Integration during tasks (3-mon TM)
Travis et al, 2009

28. American University College Students (random assignment to groups)
Brain Integration during tasks (3-mon TM)
Travis et al, 2009

29. American University College Students (random assignment to groups)
Brain Integration during tasks (3-mon TM)
Travis et al, 2009

30. (Nidich et al, 2009)

35. Thank you.
Any Questions?