Frontiers in Psychology
March 14, 2016
Peter Sedlmeier, Kunchapudi Srinivas
70 citations
Ancient Indian scriptures, particularly the Samkhya-Yoga system, contain empirically derived psychological theories intertwined with religious and philosophical content. Extracting these theories yields broad hypotheses about personality, the effects of Samkhya-Yoga practice on normal and extraordinary cognition, and different ways of perceiving reality. Existing empirical evidence from diverse fields, collected mostly without reference to this Indian system, substantially supports these hypotheses, though considerable theoretical and research gaps remain. These ancient theories can modify and complement Western mainstream accounts of cognition, potentially providing stronger theoretical grounding for areas like meditation research and consciousness studies.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
September 17, 2022
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C. Bringmann
17 citations
All four 8-week treatments—mantra meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and all three combined—similarly improved body awareness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, and distress tolerance in adults new to yoga and meditation. These benefits persisted at 2- and 12-month follow-ups despite declining home practice. Mantra meditation alone had the least favorable effect on daily affect, while adding physical yoga best prevented negative affective responses. The findings suggest that mantra meditation is the central component driving improvements in interoception, self-awareness, and embodied processing, even though it negatively influenced affect on its own.
September 15, 2021
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C. Bringmann
3 citations
preprint
A single-case multiple-baseline study with 57 healthy, inexperienced yoga practitioners tested how different combinations of yoga components—mantra meditation, physical postures, and ethical teachings—affect body awareness, emotion regulation, affectivity, self-compassion, and distress tolerance. All four treatments (meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and all three combined) improved body awareness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, and distress tolerance to a similar extent. Meditation alone had the least favorable effect on daily affect, whereas adding ethical education enhanced positive valence most, and adding physical yoga best prevented negative affective responses. The authors suggest mantra meditation is the core driver of improvements in interoception and self-awareness, despite its negative influence on daily affect.
arXiv Preprint Archive
March 21, 2016
Kieran C. R. Fox, Matthew L. Dixon, Savannah Nijeboer et al.
Meditation comprises diverse mental practices with distinct strategies. A meta-analysis of 78 neuroimaging studies (527 participants) found reliably different brain activation patterns for four common meditation styles—focused attention, mantra recitation, open monitoring, and compassion/loving-kindness—and suggestive differences for three others. Some brain regions (insula, pre/supplementary motor cortices, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, frontopolar cortex) were recruited across multiple techniques, but convergence was the exception. Effect sizes were medium for both activations (d = .59) and deactivations (d = -.74), indicating potential practical significance. The findings support the neurophysiological dissociability of meditation practices while highlighting methodological concerns and future research directions.