The ability to maintain alertness gained through intense meditation training is sustained for up to seven years later, according to a new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. The study is based on the Shamatha Project, a comprehensive study of the cognitive, psychological, and biological effects of meditation led by researchers from the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis.
“This study is the first to provide evidence that intense and sustained meditation practice is associated with lasting improvements in sustained attention and inhibition of reaction, with the potential to alter the longitudinal courses of cognitive changes over the course of a person’s life,” said lead author Anthony Zanesco , Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Miami who began working on the project before completing his Ph.D. Graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Psychology. The project is led by Clifford Saron, researcher at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, in collaboration with a large group of researchers.
The Shamatha Project is the most comprehensive longitudinal study of intense meditation to date and has attracted the attention of scholars and Buddhist scholars alike, including the Dalai Lama who sponsored the project. It examines the effects of two intense meditation retreats held in 2007 at Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. The study enrolled 60 experienced meditators who attended these three-month meditation retreats and received ongoing meditation techniques from Buddhist scholar, author, and teacher B. Alan Wallace of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. They attended group meditation sessions twice a day and engaged in individual practice for about six hours.
Gains that are sustained in regular meditators
Immediately after the study, participants in the meditation retreat showed improvements in alertness as well as general psychological well-being and stress management.
Since the retreats, the researchers have followed up the participants at six and 18 months, and most recently at seven years of age. The 40 participants who stayed in the study at this final follow-up all reported that they continued some form of meditation practice over the seven-year period, averaging about an hour a day.
UC Davis researcher Cliff Saron discusses his work with the Dalai Lama during a visit to India in 2009.
The new study shows that the gains in attention observed immediately after the retreat were partially retained seven years later, especially in older participants who practiced more careful meditation practice over the seven years. Compared to those who practiced less, these participants maintained cognitive gains and did not show typical patterns of age-related decreases in sustained attention.
The lifestyle or personality of the participants may also have contributed to the observations, Zanesco noted. The benefits of meditation seemed to have plateaued after the retreats, even among those who practiced the most: It could have an impact on how much meditation can actually affect human perception and the way the brain works, he said.
Other authors of the latest article include Brandon King and Katherine MacLean of the UC Davis Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain. Significant financial support for the original study and subsequent data analysis and follow-up came from the Fetzer Institute, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Hershey Family Foundation, as well as from numerous donors.
