Meditation and attention

Buddhist meditation can help people to be more attentive. Katherine MacLean, a graduate student from the University of California, Davis studied 60 people who were already involved in meditation. Half of them studied meditation for three months at a retreat in Colorado while the other half went onto a waiting list for the retreat. During the retreat the participants took a test on a computer where they had to identify the occasional shorter line displayed on the screen after a series of other ones which were of the same length. The participants who were practising meditation at the retreat got better as time went on whereas those on the waiting list stayed the same.

You can find out more about this study by clicking on the title of this post.

Improving attention in stroke victims

People who have had strokes often have difficulty concentrating. More than half of all stroke victims have this problem which can lead to falls and injuries. Researchers from the University of Auckland in New Zealand wanted to see if a training programme already used in people with traumatic brain injuries could help. The programme called Attention Process Training involves a psychologist guiding patients through a mental workout in which they practice sustaining their attention and focusing on more than one thing at a time. The researchers studied 78 stroke patients, half of whom got regular rehab and half of whom received 14 hours of Attention Process Training. Those who received the training did better on tests of attention and the training was found to have a "highly positive effect."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE56M6R220090723?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews