Study A short meditation increases mental performance significantly

Meditation study confirms the positive effects

Just ten minutes of meditation are enough to solve cognitive tasks faster and more accurately than people who do not meditate. These are the findings of a recent study on meditation. Even people who have never meditated before will benefit from short meditations, according to the researchers.

The study was conducted among college students from American Yale University and Swarthmore College. Subjects had to listen to a ten-minute meditation and then solve cognitive tasks. A control group had to solve the same tasks without meditation. As it turned out, the meditation group completed the cognitive tasks faster and more accurately than the control group of the same age. The study results were recently published in the journal "Frontiers of Neuroscience".

Even short meditations over ten minutes improve according to a recent study, the mental performance. Years of training is not necessary for this. Even newcomers benefit within a short time. (Image: Halfpoint / fotolia.com)

Meditation improves mental performance in a short time

"We've known for some time that people who meditate for a few weeks or months do better on cognitive testing," says lead author Hedy Kober in a press release on the study's findings. The study of her recent study has shown that you do not have to practice for weeks to see improvements.

Course of the study

Kober is a professor of psychology and psychiatry. Her research team randomly divided the students into two groups. One group listened to a ten-minute meditation tutorial before performing cognitive tests. The second group heard a ten-minute recording about redwoods. Thereafter, both groups received simple tasks to measure cognitive ability. Those who had listened to the meditation performed much better.

There is one exception though

The study also showed that subjects who had high levels of neuroticism in personality testing benefited less from meditation. Neuroticism, along with other values ​​such as open-mindedness, perfectionism, sociability and empathy, is one of the foundations of every personality. People with a high neurotic value often tend to internal anxiety, nervousness, irritability, insecurity, embarrassment, anxiety and melancholy. In addition, these people are sensitive to stress and tend to show dissatisfaction.

Is meditation unsuitable for such people??

"We do not know if longer meditation sessions or multiple sessions would improve their cognitive outcomes," says Kober. The psychology professor wants to test this in more detail in future studies. (Vb)