Journal of Advanced Medical Sciences and Applied Technologies

Journal of Advanced Medical Sciences and Applied Technologies

Research Paper: Quantitative Electroencephalogram-Informed Geometric Meditation: A Pilot Validation Study

Document Type : Original Articles

Authors
Farshad Nazaraghaie 1
Fatemeh Torkamani 2
Behnaz Kiani 2
Mohammad Nami 3
1 Social and Individual Stress Reduction Association, Shiraz, Iran.
2 Fars Meditation Academy, Shiraz, Iran.
3 Department of Neuroscience, School of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
10.32598/jamsat.3.3.163
Abstract
Objectives: The emerging neuroscience literature has provided some evidence that meditation may have measurable effects on the electrophysiological parameters in the nervous system. We hypothesized that a novel geometric meditation approach comprising Geometric Somatic-Breathing Based (GSBB) and Geometric Introspective Based (GIB) meditation yield favorable electrophysiological changes at brain’s cortical level and autonomic nervous system upon deep meditative experience. Materials & Methods: A multi-sensor digital sampling setup, including Electroencephalography (EEG), Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was used to obtain data and compare meditation and baseline epochs from 3 long-term geometric meditators. Results: The analysis revealed a notable change in autonomic nervous response, including Root Mean Square of Successive Differences (RMSSD) in Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as well as GSR and Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG) correlates across 10 practiced techniques in training and post-training as compared to the baseline state. Conclusion: Such findings may serve as a pilot validation dataset to pursue further research on quantitative EEG-guided geometric meditation approach.
Keywords
Geometric meditation
Electroencephalography
Polygraphy
Stress index
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Journal of Advanced Medical Sciences and Applied Technologies
Volume 3, Issue 3 - Serial Number 3
13
September 2017
Pages 163-168