A Review of Meditation and Its Biological

Effects
Working Thesis
Because of the recency of its research and the desire of individuals to achieve an enhanced
quality of life in the physical and mental aspects, the topic of meditation continues to be of
important relevance today. This review intends to move away from the religious idea that
meditation is meant solely for finding spiritual tranquility, and will instead bring attention toward
science to show how studies have indicated its positive impact on human cognition,
consciousness, concentration, and other mental processes.
References
1. Brefczynski-Lewis, J. A., Lutz, A., Schaefer, H. S., Levinson, D. B., & Davidson, R. J.
(2007). Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation
practitioners. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America, 104(27), 1148311488. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0606552104
Purpose: fMRI shows expert meditators (EMs) require less effort than
intermediate meditators to achieve tranquil meditation state. EMs also have
less activation in response to distractions.
This article discusses how fMRI scans of meditators with extensive experience in the field
(expert meditators) showed less neurological activation, and therefore required less effort,
than the lesser experienced meditators (intermediate meditators) in order to achieve a
tranquil meditative state of mind. However, intermediate meditators showed more

activation, and therefore required more effort, to reach this state than the novices who had
only just learned the practice a week in advance. These results can be explained by the
differing amounts of effort needed as ones practice of meditation progresses. This article
will be used in the section of my review titled Changes in Brain Structure & Function.

2. Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Rawlings, N. B., Ricard, M., & Davidson, R. J. (2004). Longterm meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental
practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America, 101(46), 1636916373. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0407401101
Purpose: Electroencephalography (EEG), in a study between Buddhist monks
and novice meditators, shows enhanced electrical activity in the brain scans of
monks during meditation.
This article discusses a study in which EEG was used to record oscillating gamma activity
of high-amplitudes in Buddhist monks that increased steadily throughout the duration of
the meditative practice. Meanwhile, high gamma wave activity was not seen in the novice
control group in this experiment. The authors of the article admit that while the brain scans
of the study showed distinct neurological differences between their experimental and
control groups, there was no way of knowing whether these neurological differences
existed prior to the start of the experiment. This article will be used in the sections of my
review titled Changes in Brain Structure & Function and Errors in Meditation
Research.

3. Matouseka Rose H., Patricia L. Dobkina, and Jens Pruessner. Cortisol as a Marker for
Improvement in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. National Center for Biotechnology
Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2009. Web. Apr. 2016.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20129404>.
Purpose: As most meditation studies rely on self-reported
measures, researchers are hoping to use the stress-hormone,
cortisol, as a more reliable marker for improvement in
meditation.
Researchers are in the process of developing ways in which the stress-hormone, cortisol,
can be used to better study the effects of meditation. This presents itself as a challenge,
however, as measurements of the hormone in the human body can be greatly affected by
several factors, such as diet, smoking, caffeine consumption, and even the time of day. This
article will be used in the conclusion of my review where I describe future studies
underway.

4. Segal, Z. V., Bieling, P., Young, T., MacQueen, G., Cooke, R., Martin, L., Levitan, R.
(2010). Antidepressant Monotherapy versus Sequential Pharmacotherapy and
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, or Placebo, for Relapse Prophylaxis in Recurrent
Depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(12), 12561264.
http://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.168

Purpose: Meditation, or Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT),

offers similar relapse rates in remitted depressed patients as antidepressant
medication.
The similar relapse rates observed in the remitted depressed patients undergoing MCBT
suggests that the practice of mindfulness meditation could possibly be used as a
replacement for antidepressants, especially in depressed patients who are for some reason
averse or unable to follow treatment with antidepressants. This article will be used in the
section of my review titled Meditation as Treatment.