Effects of Meditation on Intelligence

Meditation has many benefits. These benefits are not just confined to health, but extend to our brain functions as well. A growing body of research has validated the astounding effects that meditation has on a person’s intelligence.

Our intellectual capacity isn’t static. Unlike what we have believed all along, our brains are capable of accommodating growth in cognitive abilities throughout our lives. And meditation makes this possible. Who would’ve thought that sitting still for a few minutes could be so beneficial? In fact, there’s more to meditation than what meets the eye.

The 4-Day Meditation Training Experiment

Dr. Fadel Zaidan from the University of North Carolina, along with his team of researchers, had conducted an experiment to determine the effects of mindfulness meditation on the brain. 49 students volunteered for the experiment. They were divided into two groups. Each group was assigned one of the two types of interventions, which were:

• A meditation training schedule for 4 days (20 minutes each day)
• Listening to a book being read for an equal amount of time (the book being J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’)

A variety of psychological tests was conducted on the participants before and after the experiment to determine improvements, if any. These tests were meant to assess memory, mood, concentration, attention and so on. The results are going to take you by surprise.

Before the training, both groups performed equally on the tests. An improvement in mood was evident for both groups after the 4-day sessions. What amazed me was that the meditation group scored ten times better results than the other group when it came to cognitive memory.

The meditation practice helped in improving concentration immensely. It enhanced the ability to maintain focus on tasks and helped in keeping distractions at bay. That is not where it ends. Along with the short-term memory, the long-term memory of the meditation group was found to have drawn  towering improvements.

“This seems to be strong evidence for the idea that we may be able to modify our own minds to improve our cognitive processing – most importantly in the ability to sustain attention and vigilance – within a week’s time”, Fadel Zaidan has been quoted as saying.

This is but a part of the profound effect that meditation has on intelligence.

Effects of Meditation on the Brain

The effect that meditation has on the brain is endless. Meditation builds the perfect environment for growth in intellectual abilities. Following are a few of the benefits that meditation has on the brain.

     1.  Meditation Helps in Utilizing Your Entire Brain

It has been found that most of the population uses one half of the brain more than the other, depending on the task that is being performed. This creates an imbalance in the way we think and process information. Meditation abolishes this imbalance by syncing both hemispheres of the brain, enabling the logical left and the creative right to work together in perfect harmony. This helps in the following ways:

• It establishes quicker neural communication.
• It increases the processing power of the brain immensely.
• It enhances the ability to focus considerably.
• Problem-solving skills improve.

The whole process is also known as hemispheric synchronization or whole brain synchronization.

     2.  Meditation Makes the Brain Work Faster

It has been found that those who have been practising meditation for a long time experience greater amounts of gyrification of the brain than those who do not. Since I can sense a frown to the term ‘gyrification’, I have added an explanation of it below.

The neural tissue is made up of a few layers, the cerebral cortex forms the outermost. The layer plays a major role in the following functions of the brain:

• Attention
• Memory
• Consciousness
• Thought

Gyrification is the process of the folding of this cortex to form furrows and folds, which are also known as sulci and gyri. The formation of these folds improves neural processing. Therefore, the more the number of folds, the greater is the brain’s ability to process information. And the quicker you process information, the better you become at comprehension and consequently, decision-making and problem-solving. The bottom line is, the more the gyrification, the faster is your brain.

In fact, experiments conducted over the years have proved the same.

3. Meditation Improves Long and Short Term Memory

Memory and intelligence quotient (IQ) are interconnected. If your memory serves you right, your IQ will witness a steady rise.  And meditation plays a vital role in boosting your memory. Here’s how:

Our brain’s hippocampus and frontal brain lobe are associated with long and short term memory.  Research has shown that when you meditate, these two areas of the brain get stimulated and exhibit increased activity. As a result, the long and short term memory capacity increases making enough room for things to remember.

This makes it all the more easy to remember and retrieve stuff accurately from memory. Imagine racking your brain and actually coming up with what you learnt a long time back in History class about the Renaissance. Now that would be a feat, wouldn’t it? Meditation can get you there.

     4.  Meditation Improves Multitasking Skills

Studies have shown that meditation has a profound effect on multitasking skills. A study involving three groups of 12-15 participants was conducted to prove this. The subjects were all female human resource managers. The first group received mindful meditation training for eight weeks. The second group received body relaxation training for the same duration of time. And no training was administered on the third group initially. After a certain duration of time, the third group received mindful meditation training.

Before the training, the participants were required to take a certain set of tests to assess their competency in multitasking. They had to appear for another set of tests after the training period. These tests required them to use the telephone, instant-messaging, calendars, word processing tools, emails and so on to perform office tasks. They had 20 minutes to complete these.

Any guesses on which group performed the best?

The first group that underwent the meditation training exhibited lower stress levels than the other groups while completing the tasks. And they took no longer than the others to complete the tasks. Reduced stress levels translate to greater efficiency and accuracy. The group with the meditation training exhibited increased:

• control of attentional focus
• focus in switching between tasks
• ability to focus on the present task

Once the stress factor is eliminated, multitasking becomes a whole lot easier.

5.  Meditation Increases Gray Matter Density in the Brain

Meditation has been found to affect the brain’s anatomy considerably. A recent study conducted by Harvard researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has been able to prove this fact with enough evidence supporting the amazing effects of meditation on the brain.

16 participants underwent an eight-week-long mindful meditation training at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. Throughout the training, the subjects were required to participate in sessions that were focused on non-judgmental awareness of feelings, sensations and state of mind. In addition, they were also given audio recordings for meditation practice.

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of the brain was conducted for each participant two weeks before and two weeks after the training. The MRI of the participants showed an increased density of the gray matter in the brain. Gray matter is associated with intelligence, memory, perceptions, emotional stability and so on. Apart from that, stress and anxiety levels were also found to have reduced considerably for the participants.

It is absolutely fascinating to see how a simple act like meditation can result in significant improvement in the intelligence of a person. The best part is, it doesn’t take much to accomplish this, except for a little bit of dedication. All you need to do is squeeze some time out of your daily schedule and practise this simple art. The effects will follow.

Now isn’t that something to think about?

What other benefits of meditation have you experienced? Share those with us in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.