Cumulative effect of short-term and long-term meditation practice in men and women on psychophysiological…

Article in Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine · November 2015

Guru Deo*, Itagi R. Kumar, Thaiyar M. Srinivasan and Kuldeep K. Kushwah
Cumulative effect of short-term and long-term
meditation practice in men and women on
psychophysiological parameters of electrophotonic
imaging: a cross-sectional study
DOI 10.1515/jcim-2015-0050
Received July 5, 2015; accepted September 22, 2015;
previously published online November 5, 2015

Abstract

Background: Anapanasati is one of the meditation techniques
discussed in Buddhism. In this meditation, one focuses
one’s attention on bodily sensations caused by incoming
and outgoing breath. This study aims to track the cumulative
effect of long-term meditators (LTM) and short-term
meditators (STM) using electrophotonic imaging (EPI).

Methods: To execute the current study, 432 subjects (264
men and 168 women with mean age of 34.36 ± 6.83)
were recruited from two meditation centers. LTM had
practiced for more than 60 months (mean of months
111 ± 47.20, hoursperday 1.71 ± 1.20Þ. STM had practiced
meditation from 6 months to less than 60 months (mean
of months 37.17 ± 19.44, hoursperday 2.14 ± 4.99Þ. A crosssectional
research design was applied and data was collected
using EPI. Scatter plot and Fisher discriminant model
were also used for statistical presentation of values and
interdependency of variables with length of practice
between groups.

Results: In both LTM and STM, lower values of stress (activation
coefficient) were found in woman meditators as
compared to men. In both groups, highly significant gender-related
differences were observed in integral area parameter,
which measures the overall health of an individual.
Integral entropy (index of disorderliness of subtle energy in
the body) was fluctuating in both groups in both directions
for both genders. It was increasing in LTM group and
decreasing in STM group with increasing length of practice.
Conclusions: Women of LTM and STM demonstrated lesser
stress than men. Both groups showed cumulative
health-related improvement. Moreover, in gender-related
analysis woman meditators exhibited more positive
improvement in EPI parameters than men.

Keywords: anapanasati, cumulative, disorderliness,
electrophotonic imaging, gas discharge visualization, meditation, stress

Introduction

Meditation encompasses specific mental state of consciousness,
which induces physiological and neuropsychological
changes. Regulation of attention plays a vital role
in all techniques of meditation [1]. Even short-term meditation
practices have shown beneficial changes on autonomic
and physiological functioning of the body [2–4]. It
is shown in many studies that long-term meditation practices
have provided positive effect on the cognitive and
perceptional aspects of brain activity [4–9]. Recent
research has shown interesting findings how meditation
reduces aging process and enhances gray matter in the
brain and brain activity itself [10–18]. Another recent study
with large sample size (n = 100) presents the potential
protective effect of long-term meditation on gray matter
atrophy and concludes that meditation is brain protective
and reduces deterioration of age-related changes in brain
tissues [9].
Traditional anapanasati meditation, which is termed as
focused attention meditation, is widely studied in scientific
community. In this meditation, practitioners focus on the
bodily sensation caused by incoming and outgoing breath
and if distracted due to any stimulus, they bring back
attention on the object of contemplation [19]. Anapanasati
meditation (focused attention meditation) practiced over a
long period of time induces an effortless concentrative state
of mind. Studies have also been carried out to observe an
immediate and comparative effect of short-term versus
long-term meditation practices [4, 20–22].

Apart from this angle of observation, there are only
a few studies to observe any gender-related changes in
meditation practices. A national survey among the
population in the United States indicates gender imbalance
in the usages of body–mind therapies including
meditation (23.8% women and 14.4% men) [23]. In one
study, electroencephalogram (EEG) coherence was
found different in navigation skill training, wherein
women exhibit higher activity in the theta band compared
to men [24]. Recently in gender-related studies
following Quadrato motor training (QMT), it was seen
theta and alpha intra-hemispheric coherence increases
in women, indicating enhanced relaxation, heightened
attention and reduced activity and thought contents as
compared to men. Gender differences are found in several
areas of emotional functioning and cognitive correlates
of recognition abilities [25]. In behavioral
endeavor regarding the role of emotion in visuospatial
working memory, differences are found in men and
women related to the brain activity pattern [26]. It is
reported in Qigong meditation treatment, women
showed greater reduction in cravings, anxiety and withdrawal
symptoms than men [27]. Women retrieve
appearance of others efficiently and have better face
recognition throughout than men [17, 28]. It is noted
that women have more experiential and cognitive orientation
toward spirituality than men [29].
Thus, in the light of findings presented earlier, the
current study is devised to explore the gender-based
differences in the cumulative effect of meditation in
short-term versus long-term meditation practitioners.

Application of electrophotonic imaging

Electrophotonic imaging (EPI) also known as gas discharge
visualization (based on Kirlian effect) is used in recording
human bioelectromagnetic field. It gives potential information
about the physiological and psychophysiological condition
of the human body [30]. In measurements using EPI,
electrons are drawn out from the body. Under different
psychophysiological conditions, the amount of electron
emission from the body fluctuates from homeostatic level
[31]. In EPI, high voltage and high frequency are applied to
the fingertip for less than a millisecond; the resultant
response is seen as a luminous glow around the finger
which is captured using an optical CCD (charge-coupled
device) camera [32]. The captured image is known as EPIgram.
In this way, electrons are extracted from the surface
of the cutaneous layer of the skin due to the impressed
electromagnetic field [33]. The captured images can be
quantified for medical and scientific research. All 10
images taken from the tip of the fingers of both hands
give complete information about the possible health status
of an individual. Every image is divided into a number of
sectors and analyzed based on acupuncture meridian theory
[34]. If an image has gaps in its sector, this shows an
imbalance in the concerned organ within the body [35]. The
image formation changes due to the person’s psychoemotional
state. On EPI applications, images are taken twice:
with filter and without the filter that show physiological
and psychophysiological functioning of the human system,
respectively [32]. A filter is a specially designed plastic
sheet that is placed while taking an EPI-gram. Since the
filter absorbs sweat, the values of EPI-gram with filter
relate physiological conditions while those without filter
provide values for psychophysiological assessments. The
variations in EPI measurements in healthy individuals fall
within a range of 4.1–6.6 % [32]. This instrument is noninvasive,
safe to use, with quick assessments and has high
reliability [31, 32, 37]. EPI had been applied to study cardiovascular
disease, autism, cancer, diabetes, sport, healing
and meditation [31–44].

EPI parameters

Activation coefficient

Activation coefficient (AC) measures the level of stress in
an individual. The normal range is 2–4 in healthy people.
These values are derived through taking the difference of
measurements obtained with and without filter [32].

Integral area

Integral area (IA) is a measure of general health index
with a range of –0.6 to + 1 for healthy people. It indicates
the presence of structural and functional state in normal
mind–body activities [32, 45]. This is a ratio between EPI
background area and area of an ideal image of EPI. The
mathematics related to this is available elsewhere [32].

Integral entropy

Integral entropy (IE) is an evaluation of disorderliness in
human energy field with normal range of 1–2 in healthy
people. This is mathematically derived from the uniformity

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Effect of short-term and long-term meditation