Evaluation of facial temperature distribution changes during meditation using infrared thermal imaging:An experimental,cross-over study

Objective:To investigate the differences between meditation and resting states using infrared thermal imaging(IRTI)to determine facial temperature distribution features during meditation and annotate the patterns of facial temperature changes during meditation from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine facial diagnosis.Methods:Each participant performed 10 min meditation and 10 min resting but in different sequences.A concentration test was set as the task load,followed by a meditation/resting or resting/meditation session,during which the participants'facial temperatures were observed using IRTI.Participants were scored on the Big Five Inventory(BFI)and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale(MAAS).Results:Forehead temperatures decreased more during meditation than during the resting state.The chin temperature increased only during meditation(P<.0001).For the subjects with meditation experience,there were significant differences in the temperatures of the left forehead(P<.01),right forehead(P<.01)and chin(P<.05)between the meditation and resting state at the 10~(th)min.In the nontask state,the BFI-Extraversion showed a negative correlation with the temperature of the left forehead(R=-0.41,P=.03).In the post-task state,the temperature of the left forehead was negatively correlated with scores on the MAAS(R=-0.42,P=.02).Conclusion:Using IRTI to study meditation offers a practical solution to the challenges in meditation research.The results indicate that an increase in chin temperature may be a representative feature of a meditation state,and forehead temperature is also a potential indicator.

Effect of Mindful Meditation, Physical Activity, and Diet to Reduce the Risk to Develop or Reduce Severity of Cardiovascular Diseases in Saudi Arabia: A Systematic Review

Background: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is one of the leading chronic diseases in Saudi Arabia (SA) that cause disability and death. CVD predisposition risk varies according to age, gender, education, socioeconomic factors, and place of residency. In addition, CVD risk factors include physical inactivity, sedentary lifestyle, saturated fatty acid high diet, smoking, and stress. Aim: This is a systematic review study that aims to determine the effect of mindful mediation, physical activity, and diet on CVD in SA. Materials and Methods: This is a systematic electronic search method in Google scholar, PubMed, and Medline. Papers collected are papers that have been published since 2015. The search uses the following keywords: (Cardiovascular disease OR physical activity OR Physical inactivity OR meditation OR diet) AND Saudi Arabia. Data were extracted from each study through a narrative summary of each study. Results: Forty papers collected from 2015 to 2022 were included in the narrative study. Physical activity, diet, and mindful meditation are among the factors that can reduce the risk of development of CVD or severity of disease in patients with a CVD. Conclusion: This systematic review emphasized risk factors like physical inactivity, poor diet, and low level of awareness among Saudis and CVD Saudi patients. The findings show the role of physical activity, mindful meditation, and diet in reducing the onset or severity of cardiovascular disease.

Analysis of the Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Patients with Burning Mouth Syndrome

Objective:To explore the effect of mindfulness meditation on patients with burning mouth syndrome.Methods:60 patients with burning mouth syndrome in our hospital who were treated from January 2021 to December 2022 were selected for this study.The patients were divided into two groups of thirty cases each using the randomized numerical table method.The observation underwent psychological intervention and mindfulness meditation training,while the control group only received symptomatic care.The condition of the patients of both groups was observed and compared.Results:Upon receiving treatment,the patients in the observation group had lower Hamilton Anxiety(HAM-A)scores,and Hamilton Depression(HAMD)scores compared to the control group(P<0.05).The visual analog scale(VAS)scores of the observation group were also lower than those of the control group(P<0.05).Moreover,the efficacy of the nursing intervention in the observation group was higher than that of the control group(P<0.05).Conclusion:Psychological intervention and mindfulness meditation training can effectively improve the clinical symptoms of patients with burning mouth syndrome.Therefore,this treatment method should be popularized.

An Investigation of Whether Different Kinds of External Sounds Would Influence Meditation Process

It is worth mentioning that meditation,which acts as emotional therapy,has become popular in human lives nowadays.Some psychology-related software provides users with guided meditation.However,after experiencing this,several users cannot detect the effect of meditation on their mood and sleep quality.This study aims to investigate whether different kinds of sounds would affect meditation effectiveness.Specifically,it provides a reference for that software to improve the meditation function.In this context,meditation is defined as a mental exercise that trains attention and awareness.To test the hypothesis that white noise meditation would be the most effective one,while silent meditation is the least effective,an online meditation was carried out among 40 participants.They were divided into four conditions,A for vocal guidance,B for white noise,C for pure music,and D for silent condition.Responses were recorded using both pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire about meditation,and then it was analyzed through bar charts.The results and hypothesis deviated insignificantly:Guided meditation is the most effective one in affecting participants’mood and sleep quality,while silent meditation is the least effective one.These results suggested that the meditation software provided do have a positive impact on users’mood calming and sleep quality improvement.By contrast,some participants who did not have meditation experience before this study support that software should also concentrate on white noise meditation.

Non-Linear EEG Measures in Meditation

In this study, the performance of Sevcik’s algorithm that calculates the fractal dimension and permutation entropy as discriminants to detect calming and insight meditation in electroencephalo-graphic (EEG) signals was assessed. The proposed methods were applied to EEG recordings from meditators practicing insight meditation and calming meditation before as well as during both types of meditation. Analysis was conducted using statistical hypothesis testing to determine the validity of the proposed meditation-identifying techniques. For both types of meditation, there was a statistically significant reduction in the permutation entropy. This result can be explained by the increased EEG synchronization, which is repeatedly observed in the course of meditation. In contrast, the fractal dimension (FD) was significantly increased during calming meditation, but during insight meditation, no statistically significant change was detected. Increased FD during meditation can be interpreted as an increase in self-similarity of EEG signals during self-organisation of hierarchical structure oscillators in the brain. Our results indicate that fractal dimension and permutation entropy could be used as parameters to detect both types of meditation. The permutation entropy is advantageous compared with the fractal dimension because it does not require a stationary signal.

Neural mechanisms of mindfulness and meditation: Evidence from neuroimaging studies

Mindfulness is the dispassionate,moment-by-moment awareness of sensations,emotions and thoughts.Mindfulness-based interventions are being increasingly used for stress,psychological well being,coping with chronic illness as well as adjunctive treatments for psychiatric disorders.However,the neural mechanisms associated with mindfulness have not been well characterized.Recent functional and structural neuroimaging studies are beginning to provide insights into neural processes associated with the practice of mindfulness.A review of this literature revealed compelling evidence that mindfulness impacts the function of the medial cortex and associated default mode network as well as insula and amygdala.Additionally,mindfulness practice appears to effect lateral frontal regions and basal ganglia,at least in some cases.Structural imaging studies are consistent with these findings and also indicate changes in the hippocampus.While many questions remain unanswered,the current literature provides evidence of brain regions and networks relevant for understanding neural processes associated with mindfulness.

Does mindfulness meditation improve attention in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) manifests by high levels of inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. ADHD starts in childhood and results in impairments that continue into adulthood. While hyperactivity declines over time, inattention and executive function difficulties persist, leading to functional deficits. Adolescents and adults with ADHD have pervasive impairment in interpersonal and family relationships. They may develop addiction, delinquent behavior and comorbid psychiatric disorders. Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, persistent residual symptoms are common, highlighting the need for novel treatment strategies. Mindfulness training, derived from Eastern meditation practices, may improve self-regulation of attention. It may also be a useful strategy to augment standard ADHD treatments and may be used as a potential tool to reduce impairments in patients with residual symptoms of ADHD. Clinically, this would manifest by an increased ability to suppress task-unrelated thoughts and distractions resulting in improved attention, completion of tasks and potential improvement in occupational and social function.

Breath-based meditation: A mechanism to restore the physiological and cognitive reserves for optimal human performance

Stress can be associated with many physiologicalchanges resulting in significant decrements in human performance.Due to growing interests in alternative and complementary medicine by Westerners,many of the traditions and holistic yogic breathing practices today are being utilized as a measure for healthier lifestyles.These state-of-the-art practices can have a significant impact on common mental health conditions such as depression and generalized anxiety disorder.However,the potential of yogic breathing on optimizing human performance and overall well-being is not well known.Breathing techniques such as alternate nostril,Sudarshan Kriya and bhastrika utilizes rhythmic breathing to guide practitioners into a deep meditative state of relaxation and promote self-awareness.Furthermore,yogic breathing is physiologically stimulating and can be described as a natural"technological"solution to optimize human performance which can be categorized into:(1)cognitive function(i.e.,mind,vigilance);and(2)physical performance(i.e.,cardiorespiratory,metabolism,exercise,whole body).Based on previous studies,we postulate that daily practice of breathing meditation techniques play a significant role in preserving the compensatory mechanisms available to sustain physiological function.This preservation of physiological function may help to offset the time associated with reaching a threshold for clinical expression of chronic state(i.e.,hypertension,depression,dementia)or acute state(i.e.,massive hemorrhage,panic attic)of medical conditions.However,additional rigorous biomedical research is needed to evaluate the physiological mechanisms of various forms of meditation(i.e.,breath-based,mantra,mindfulness)on human performance.These efforts will help to define how compensatory reserve mechanisms of cardiovascular and immune systems are modulated by breath-based meditation.While it has been suggested that breath-based meditation is easier for beginning practitioners when compared to other forms of meditation more research is needed to elucidate these observations.A breath-based meditation sequence suchas Sudarshan Kriya has the potential to help develop an individual’s self-awareness and support better integration of the brain(i.e.,mind)with other organ systems(i.e.,body)for enhanced human performance.

Effects of mindfulness meditation on anxiety, depression, stress, and mindfulness in nursing students: a meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis of randomized controlled trials

Objective:The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation(MM)on anxiety,depression,stress and mindfulness in nursing students.Methods:A comprehensive search and screening procedures were conducted to locate all MM interventions implemented with nursing students.For randomized controlled trials(RCTs)in accordance with the inclusion criteria,a search was conducted in PubMed,Embase,Web of Science,Medline,PsycINFO,Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health(CINAHL),Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials(CENTRAL),China Biology Medicine(CBM),Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI)and Wanfang.Databases were retrieved from inception through August 2018.Additional studies were identified through hand searches and Internet searches.Two reviewers collected relevant data of eligible articles according to the data extraction tables.Based on Cochrane Handbook,critical appraisal of the methodological quality was assessed by two other reviewers.An Excel form was used to extract main characteristics of included RCTs.Meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis(TSA)were carried out using software RevMan 5.3 and TSA 0.9.Results:Five RCTs with 257 nursing students were included.Only two studies were assessed as high quality and three studies were evaluated as moderate quality.Meta-analysis showed that,comparing with the control group,MM could significantly improve anxiety(SMD=?0.45,95%CI?0.73 to?0.17,P=0.001)and stress(SMD=?0.69,95%CI?0.97 to?0.40,P<0.001).TSA results confirmed that the outcome of the merger is credible.It could also significantly improve depression level of nursing students after 8 weeks intervention duration(SMD=?0.70,95%CI?1.14 to?0.26,P=0.002).However,there was no beneficial effect on depression level of nursing students with 1 week intervention duration(SMD=0.09,95%CI?0.42 to 0.59,P=0.74)and its effects on mindfulness level of nursing students also did not show statistical significance(SMD=0.37,95%CI?0.04 to 0.77,P=0.07).No definitive conclusions were drawn from the TSA.Conclusions:The results of this meta-analysis indicated that MM could effectively reduce the level of anxiety and stress of nursing students.TSA confirmed that the results of meta-analysis are credible.For depression,it could also significantly improve depression of nursing students with 8 weeks intervention,but there was no significant effect on nursing students with 1 week intervention duration.There was also no beneficial effect on mindfulness level of nursing students.However,TSA indicated that the accumulated evidence is still inconclusive.We suggest that more well-designed clinical trials with large sample and higher quality would be required in future to draw a definitive conclusion.

Efficacy of mindfulness-based meditation therapy on the sense of coherence and mental health of nurses

The primary goal of the study was to assess the efficacy of mindfulness-based meditation therapy on the psychological well-being and sense of coherence of nurses with respect to coping with stress. The participants were 28 nurses working in a ward for elderly patients, with 15 included in the intervention group and 13 in the control group. Nurses in the intervention group received two sessions of mindfulness-based meditation therapy, including breathing, yoga movement and meditation. Each nurse was taught the program in the first session, then exercised at home with a CD, and subsequently met with an interviewer in a second session after two weeks. Nurses in the control group did not receive any interventions. The participants completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), including subdomains of physical symptoms, anxiety and sleep disturbance, interference with social activities, and depression;and the Sense of Coherence (SOC) questionnaire, which includes three subdomains of comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness pre- and post-intervention. The GHQ scores of the intervention group showed a significantly greater decrease than those of the control group. The SOC scores of the intervention group showed a significantly greater increase after the intervention compared to those in the control group, with the highest score for the meaningfulness subdomain. These results indicate that mindfulness-based meditation therapy is effective for improving the psycho-logical well-being and sense of coherence of nurses, which helps them to cope with stress.

Macrostate and Microstate of EEG Spatio-Temporal Nonlinear Dynamics in Zen Meditation

Macrostate and microstate characteristics of interregional nonlinear interdependence of brain dynamics are investigated for Zen-meditation and normal resting EEG. Evaluation of nonlinear interdependence based on nonlinear dynamic theory and phase space reconstruction is employed in the 30-channel electroencephalographic (EEG) signals to characterize the functioning interactions among different local neuronal networks. This paper presents a new scheme for exploring the microstate and macrostate of interregional brain neural network interactivity. Nonlinear interdependence quantified by similarity index is applied to the phase trajectory reconstructed from multi-channel EEG. The microstate similarity-index matrix (miSIM) is evaluated every 5 millisecond. The miSIMs are classified by K-means clustering. The cluster center corresponds to the macrostate SIM (maSIM) evaluated by conventional scheme. Zen-meditation EEG exhibits rather stationary and stronger interconnectivity among frontal midline regional neural oscillators, whereas resting EEG appears to drift away more often from the midline and extend to the inferior brain regions.

Meditation-based Interventions Might be Helpful for Coping with the Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19)

The Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19)has been characterized as the first pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus and drawn intense attention in China and globally.With the incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 rapidly growing worldwide,people have been experiencing tremendous psychological distress during the pandemic.Elevated psychological stress could compromise the human capacity to fight against COVID-19.However,effective interventions and timely mental health care to increase resilience and improve psychological wel being is still lacking,which would be the focus of this article.In this article,we briefly summarize why meditation practice may have the potential to help minimize stress-related psychological symptoms associated with the coronavirus outbreak and how we can respond efficiently and effectively to this outbreak via taking advantage of meditation.We also provide a brief introduction of a meditation program that we developed and advocate to popularize meditation practice as a viable approach to improve wellbeing while combatting COVID-19 worldwide.

Potential benefits of Qi Gong meditation in quantifiable physiology: A five-year longitudinal observation

Objective: Qi Gong is a mind-and-body intervention to improve health and relieve disease conditions,which has been practiced for thousands of years. Lack of quantitative measures to monitor the quality and progress of Qi Gong practice has hindered the high-quality study to evaluate its health benefits.Methods: To develop such quantitative measures, vital sign changes in Qi Gong meditation practice of a single individual were monitored for 5 years by wearable devices.Results: This retrospective and exploratory analysis revealed significant changes in blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, respiration rate, and perfusion index in response to Qi Gong practice and physiological adaptation to its long-term training. Among the physiological changes in vital signs, a physiological state with a significant 2-fold increase in pulse-respiration rate ratio was detected during Qi Gong meditation while the ratios were maintained at 4 under resting, sleeping, and mild cycling conditions.Conclusion: This is an inaugural report of a five-year longitudinal observation of this kind. Once validated in a well-designed cohort study, these non-invasive and easily obtained vital signs may be used as biomarkers to assess the adherence to breathing control during Qi Gong practice and can be applied to quantify the quality of Qi Gong practice in clinical trials with Qi Gong intervention.

Meditation

With the recent decades of economic growth in China,artists have had to respond to a rapidly changing environment.Surviving stress and anxiety in this environment,all the while resisting external temptations,has created pitfalls for young Chinese artists,threatening to limit their creativity.Artists are trying find novel ways to move forward;yet,in today’s globalized world,it is challenging to be unique.Moreover,it is very difficult for

Influence of meditation on estate planning decisions:evidence from Indian survey data

Background:Intestate death can lead to the distribution of assets against the personal wishes of the deceased and is a problem in India,as 80%of Indians die without making a last will.Following the concepts of decision theory(i.e.,the theory of choice),stewardship theory,agency theory,and signaling theory,the purpose of this study is to examine the influence of meditation on estate planning decisions.This study also seeks to extend previous findings on the influence of religious beliefs on the estate planning decisions of Canadians to that of Indians.Methods:Employed and self-employed individuals from India were surveyed regarding their perceptions of meditation and estate planning decisions.Results:The survey indicates that mediation positively influences the estate planning decisions while individuals who practice meditation have greater preferences for estate planning compared with those who do not.The findings suggest that individual assets,family size,and education positively influence the estate planning decisions of Indians.Conclusion:Reported meditation,individual assets,family size,location,education,and gender are positively correlated with the estate planning decisions of Indians.

Underlying mechanisms of mindfulness meditation:Genomics,circuits,and networks

Understanding neuropsychological mechanisms of mindfulness meditation(MM)has been a hot topic in recent years.This review was conducted with the goal of synthesizing empirical relationships via the genomics,circuits and networks between MM and mental disorders.We describe progress made in assessing the effects of MM on gene expression in immune cells,with particular focus on stressrelated inflammatory markers and associated biological pathways.We then focus on key brain circuits associated with mindfulness practices and effects on symptoms of mental disorders,and expand our discussion to identify three key brain networks associated with mindfulness practices including default mode network,central executive network,and salience network.More research efforts need to be devoted into identifying underlying neuropsychological mechanisms of MM on how it alleviates the symptoms of mental disorders.

Comparison of Spatio-Spectral Properties of Zen-Meditation and Resting EEG Based on Unsupervised Learning

This paper reports distinct spatio-spectral properties of Zen-meditation EEG (electroencephalograph), compared with resting EEG, by implementing unsupervised machine learning scheme in clustering the brain mappings of centroid frequency (BMFc). Zen practitioners simultaneously concentrate on the third ventricle, hypothalamus and corpora quadrigemina touniversalize all brain neurons to construct a detached brain and gradually change the normal brain traits, leading to the process of brain-neuroplasticity. During such tri-aperture concentration, EEG exhibits prominent diffuse high-frequency oscillations. Unsupervised self-organizing map (SOM), clusters the dataset of quantitative EEG by matching the input feature vector Fc and the output cluster center through the SOM network weights. Input dataset contains brain mappings of 30 centroid frequencies extracted from CWT (continuous wavelet transform) coefficients. According to SOM clustering results, resting EEG is dominated by global low-frequency (<14 Hz) activities, except channels T7, F7 and TP7 (>14.4 Hz);whereas Zen-meditation EEG exhibits globally high-frequency (>16 Hz) activities throughout the entire record. Beta waves with a wide range of frequencies are often associated with active concentration. Nonetheless, clinic report discloses that benzodiazepines, medication treatment for anxiety, insomnia and panic attacks to relieve mind/body stress, often induce beta buzz. We may hypothesize that Zen-meditation practitioners attain the unique state of mindfulness concentration under optimal body-mind relaxation.

Phase space in EEG signals of women refferred to meditation clinic

Poincare plots are commonly used to study the non-linear behavior of physiological signals. In the time series analysis, the width of Poincare plots can be considered as a criterion of short-term variability in signals. The hypothesis that Poincare plot indexes of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals can detect dy-namic changes during meditation was examined in sixteen healthy women. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of different lags on the width of the Poincare plots in EEG signals during meditation. Poincare plots with six different lag (1-6) were constructed for two sets of data and the width of the Poincare plot for each lag was calculated. The results show that during meditation the width of Poincare plots tended to increase as the lag increased. The Poincare plot is a quantitative visual tool which can be applied to the analysis of EEG data gathered over relatively short time periods. The simplicity of the width of Poincare plot calculation and its' adap-tation to the chaotic nature of the biological signals could be useful to evaluate EEG signals during me-ditation.

The Effects of Meditation and Music on Stress in College Individuals

Background: Stress is a universal experience, now more than ever due to an ongoing worldwide pandemic. Modern college students are not only faced with the external pressures of succeeding academically, but they’re also affected by a multitude of other variables that are causing their mental health to suffer. This social trend highlights the need for a simple, efficient, and immediate remedy for individuals suffering from these stressors. Objective: In this controlled study, we assessed the effects of two methods proven by existing research to have stress-relieving effects. Participating college students underwent music (Weightless by Marconi Union) and mindfulness meditation (Daily Calm) treatments. Methods: Ten college students were screened via a self-reporting questionnaire to identify any pre-existing conditions that may present as extraneous variables. Quantitative variables related to stress, such as alpha frequency waves and heart rate, were obtained during baseline and post-treatment stress-induced environments using an iWire EEG recorder and oximeter pulse monitor. Each individual underwent treatments for a duration of five minutes, each with noise-canceling headphones. Students were placed in an experimental stressor state induced by the Stroop test, which provided baseline stressor data. Subsequently, participants underwent each treatment, recording their heart rate before and after each. Upon each treatment’s conclusion, the Stroop test was administered again while alpha wave data was recorded. The final data set was analyzed using a repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test and paired T-tests. Results: Participants’ data showed a decrease in both max-min and mean frequencies for both treatment methods, though the only statistically significant difference between baseline recordings was found in mean frequencies for meditation treatment. No significance or trend was found in changes in heart rate. Conclusions: We concluded that our hypothesis was not supported as the statistical tests showed a significant decrease in mean alpha wave frequencies between the baseline stressor and meditation data rather than that for music therapy. This is indicative of meditation’s greater effectiveness in increasing stress tolerance in participants, which lessened the effects of the controlled stressor event, generating lower alpha frequency waves. Upon experiment conclusion, possible sources of error were identified and varied between potential compounding effects of consecutively administered treatments and an inability of the Stroop Test (SCWT) to induce an adequate level of stress in all patients. In order to circumvent the aforementioned errors, we suggest a change in methodology in which treatments would be conducted on separate days and further research into the efficacy of the SCWT as an all-inclusive stress inducer.