Meditation and mindfulness are increasingly popular methods of improving our mental capacity and awareness.  New research from UC San Francisco highlights how digital meditation training programs can deliver a significant mental boost in just a handful of weeks.

The application, known as MediTrain, uses a closed-loop algorithm that aims to tailor the length of sessions according to the abilities of each user.  For instance, novices to meditation can often be discouraged by attempts to focus on their breathing and end up quitting.

The application was tested in a randomized control trial with 59 volunteers, with each required to undertake between 20-30 minutes of practice per day.  This practice consisted of a number of very short meditation periods of between 10-15 seconds, with the amount of practice increasing as they improved over the six week trial period.

“This is not like any meditation practice that exists, as far as we are aware,” the researchers explain. “We took an ancient experiential treatment of focused meditation, reformulated it and delivered it through a digital technology, and improved attention span in millennials, an age group that is intimately familiar with the digital world, but also faces multiple challenges to sustained attention.”

At the end of each of the meditation segments, each volunteer was asked to reveal how well they thought they had done during the exercise via a feedback app within the tool.  This feedback then influenced the exercises they were given in future.  In addition to live reporting, the users were given progress reports at the end of each day and week of the exercise.  This interactive functionality was likely to be crucial to the effectiveness of the app.

Smarter relaxation

The data revealed that users were initially able to focus on their breathing for around 20 seconds, but after 30 days of training this had increased to six minutes.  This improvement was associated with enhanced performance on a range of cognitive tasks, including in areas such as attention and working memory.

In addition to these standard tests, the researchers also divided a smaller group off to undergo electroencephalography (EEG) testing to monitor their brain activity.  This testing allowed the researchers to identify the parts of the brain that were altered during the activities.

There was particular activity in the frontal brain areas that are known to help us control attention, whilst activity in areas of the brain believed to be linked with distracted thinking and self-preoccupation reduced.

The team believe that the application could prove particularly popular among younger users who are turning to digital devices for a growing range of their health needs.  What’s more, these younger people are also grappling with a world that seems ever faster and ever more riddled with digital devices striving for a piece of our attention.

“Many of us struggle with challenges to our attention, which seem to be exacerbated by modern technology,” the researchers conclude. “What we’ve done here is flip this story around by creating and studying a digital delivery system that makes cognitive benefits of traditional focused attention meditation more personalized, accessible and deliverable.”