The Function of the Brain using EEGs during Induced Meditation Author: Kawano Kimiko 1//Kushita Kouhei N 2 Affiliation: Information Processing Center of Medical Sciences, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan [1]//Dept. of Radioisotopes, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Ibaragi, Japan [2] Conference/Journal: J Intl Soc Life Info Science Date published: 1996 Other: Volume ID: 14 , Issue ID: 1 , Pages: 91-93 , Special Notes: Also in Japanese. Proceedings of First Symposium of Life Information Science, without peer review. , Word Count: 147 The Buddhistic meditation (Zazen) is practiced with eyes half closed and prolonged respiration. For the sake of investigating these effects of the brain, forced meditation using a blindfold and with hyperventilation was tried. An analysis using electroencephalograms(EEGs) had the following results. 1)The blind condition produced many alpha waves over all channels (it means inhibition of brain activities). 2) The lag time of the alpha waves between the occipital and frontal region (tau m) was prolonged by the forced respiration. 3)The frequency of the alpha waves became lower during hyperventilation. These changes in the alpha waves seemed to show a superior condition during the deep Zen-meditation. However, the original traces of the EEG at that time frequently showed many slow waves around the delta and theta band, and the subject told of feeling almost faintish. The strong suppression of the brain seems to be delta a dangerous condition.