Mindfulness meditation: Ten minutes a day improves cognitive function

Just 10 minutes a day helps "working memory". Photo / 123RF

Just 10 minutes a day spent practising mindfulness meditation can improve concentration and the ability to keep information active in one's mind, a function known as "working memory". The brain literally requires fewer brain resources to do tasks.

In our latest study, published in Scientific Reports, we addressed several shortcomings of earlier research to gain more certainty about what changes when people meditate.

Collaborating with colleagues from Osnabrück University in Germany, we randomly allocated 34 participants to one of two groups. For eight weeks, one group practised mindfulness meditation while the other - the control group - performed muscle relaxation exercises.

Using so-called "active controls" - where controls are given a similar task rather than doing nothing - rules out many alternative reasons for changes in task performance. For example, simply being selected for the experimental group or engaging in any new activity might boost performance, without being the effect of meditation practice.

We used the challenging multiple object tracking task which involves tracking two to five discs (targets) that are moving on a computer screen, among 16 identical discs that are also moving. Participants need to concentrate on the target discs without getting distracted by the non-target discs.

We tested participants a few days before and after practising either meditation or the relaxation exercises.

Participants in the meditation group meditated about four times a week. Their accuracy of tracking the targets rose by about 9 per cent - a statistically significant change - showing that their concentration and working memory had improved. The participants in the control group did not improve.

We recorded their brain activity with an electroencephalogram (EEG) while they performed the task. We combined this with a method we pioneered 15 years ago - rapidly switched the moving discs on and off, which drives a brain signal called the steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP). The brain generates electrical activity with the same frequency as the flickering discs, a signal picked up by the EEG.

We found the SSVEP signal was reduced by about 88 per cent - only in the meditation group.

Based on previous work, we know the brain networks involved in tracking the discs became more refined, so that fewer brain resources were needed to carry out the task.

• Peter Malinowski, Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience, Liverpool John Moores University

- This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.