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.
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