[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6380\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EMeditation visibly changes your brainwaves\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver the past fifty years, practices such as yoga and meditation have jumped from the counterculture to the mainstream, with many people praising their stress-relieving and wellbeing effects. They\u0027ve also attracted the attention of neuroscientists who are busy studying how exactly these activities affect our brains and the impact on our behaviour.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a recent experiment, researchers studied the brainwaves of expert meditators while they slept after two sessions of intensive meditation training, and compared them with recordings from the same people before training. They found that after the sessions they showed an increase in slow brainwaves and so-called sleep spindles, brief periods of waxing and waning faster oscillations, early in the night.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESimilar patterns have been observed during sleep after other kinds of training, and are thought to reflect processes the brain uses to strengthen new memories and learning during sleep.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Sleep spindles and slow waves are both considered markers of plastic changes (changes in structure) induced by activities performed during wakefulness,\u2019 said Dr Daniela Dentico of the Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison in the US, who co-authored the study.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research was part of a collaboration between US researchers and a team led by Dr Antoine Lutz at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, France, who received funding from the EU\u2019s European Research Council (ERC) for the BRAINandMINDFULNESS project to look at the impact of mental training on the brain.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir work builds on results from earlier studies in which they showed that long-term meditators with thousands of hours of training had more gamma wave activity in their sleeping brains than non-meditators. While there is no agreement on the exact function of gamma waves, some scientists believe they are associated with focus and concentration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese results were surprising because gamma activity is more characteristic of waking brain activity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Sleep is a privileged window to look at the neural traces of waking experience,\u2019 said Dr Dentico. \u2018It was very exciting to find a signature of meditation practice while you\u0027re asleep, not meditating; that really means meditation changes the defaults of the way your brain works.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESynchronised\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers have also demonstrated that waking brainwave activity in long-term meditators is more synchronised across the brain. Synchronised activity in specialised brain circuits is also thought to be a key signature of conscious experience, so these findings may suggest an increase in conscious awareness.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaken together, the group\u2019s findings are contributing to a picture of how meditation affects the brain. Slow brainwave activity in frontal regions seems to be involved in meditation\u0027s immediate effects, while faster activity towards the back of the brain marks its long-lasting impact.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe next step will be to extend the sleep measures to methods that can be used while participants are awake, which could equip clinicians with better tools for measuring the impact of mindfulness meditation-based treatments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EElsewhere, researchers are investigating the neural basis and effect of self-transcendence, the ability to disassociate our sense of self from our physical bodies and feel a connection with the universe. This is a trait which is commonly seen in people who practice spirituality and meditation techniques.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The aim is to understand how changes in brain activity during spiritual experience, or self-transcendence, influence how we understand others\u0027 behaviour,\u2019 said Dr Cosimo Urgesi from the University of Bangor, UK, who has received a Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie grant for the SPIRIT project to investigate how our mental connection with our bodies can affect empathy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy using transcranial magnetic stimulation, a non-invasive method of activating and supressing different parts of the brain, Dr Urgesi identified a part of the brain called the posterior parietal cortex that seems to help us create a unified sense of self. \u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018Different forms of mindfulness and yoga practices have different effects on social perception.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Cosimo Urgesi, University of Bangor, UK\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018What makes our body \u201courself\u201d is that when we want to move, we actually move, and when we see it touch, we also feel it touch; there is compatibility between different sources of information,\u2019 he said. \u2018And the posterior parietal cortex seems to play a crucial role in this integration.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EConnection\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey are now investigating the link between people\u0027s sense of connection with their bodies, which can be altered through techniques such as yoga and mindfulness meditation, and their level of empathy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Urgesi found that participants who did yoga scored higher on an emotion recognition task than those who performed a body-scan exercise common in the practice of mindfulness meditation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYoga enhances awareness of bodily signals, whereas mindfulness promotes an external perspective, so this result supports the idea that having a greater connection improves social perception.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, a different mindfulness technique, decentring, where participants practice viewing their thoughts and feelings as impermanent and objective features of the mind, improved participants\u0027 emotion recognition more than yoga, especially for expert practitioners.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Different forms of mindfulness and yoga practices have different effects on social perception,\u2019 said Dr Urgesi.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe says that uncovering these links further may help to improve social interactions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Understanding how spirituality affects our understanding of others\u0027 mental states and our reaction to their behaviours might enable us to implement educational programmes for people working in hospitals or schools, to enhance self-representation, and improve their ability to relate with others,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-luawx7pzox-wjqnveprlldcesedllbwxza4ec5zbe4y\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-LUAWx7PzOX_wjqnVEPrllDCESEdlLBWXZa4ec5ZbE4Y\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]