Individual Trait Anxiety Levels Characterizing the Properties of Zen Meditation
Neuropsychobiology January 1, 2004 T. Murata, T. Takahashi, T. Hamada et al. 145 citations
During Zen meditation, people who have never meditated before show distinct brain and body changes depending on their baseline anxiety level. In 22 healthy adults, meditation increased slow alpha brain-wave coherence between the frontal lobes (linked to focused internal attention) and shifted autonomic activity toward relaxation (higher parasympathetic and lower sympathetic heart-rate-variability measures). However, individuals with lower trait anxiety experienced a stronger increase in frontal brain coherence, indicating deeper internalized attention, while those with higher trait anxiety showed a stronger shift toward relaxation. The findings suggest that a person's typical anxiety level shapes which aspect of meditation—focused attention or relaxation—predominates.