Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Meditation matters. Brain scientists are using the age-old practice to understand stress and pain reduction, attention spans, even compassion.
Can we train ourselves to be compassionate? A new study suggests the answer is yes. Cultivating compassion and kindness through meditation affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples’ mental states, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The building is locked. Most of the windows are dark. But in a small room on the first floor of the Waisman Center, a group of four is gathered around Richard Davidson.
By Dave Tenenbaum, University Communications For hundreds of years, Tibetan monks and other religious people have used meditation to calm the mind and improve concentration. This week, a new study shows exactly how one common type of meditation affects the brain. Using a scanner that reveals which parts of the brain are active at any …
Everyday experience and psychology research both indicate that paying close attention to one thing can keep you from noticing something else.
In the first scientific article to come from its pioneering studies of long-term Buddhist meditation practitioners, a UW-Madison team has found that long-term meditators (or “adepts”) show markedly different patterns of brain electrical oscillations compared to a group with no previous meditative experience, when both of them generated a standard meditative practice.
The search for happiness can take many paths.
Even though we all experience similar emotions, we respond to them in different ways.
The article, “The Science of Happiness,” showcases Davidson’s research on the brain mechanisms that underlie emotions. In particular, Davidson has worked with Buddhist Monks, including the Dalai Lama, to document how meditation affects individuals both physically and mentally. Davidson’s lab at the Waisman Center uses state-of-the-art brain imaging technology to trace the emotional geography of …
Waisman Researcher Richard Davidson, Ph.D., has been featured in several media stories lately regarding his work with the brain mechanisms that underlie emotions. The most recent is a story in the September 14, 2003 New York Times Magazine. The four-page “Is Buddhism Good for Your Health?” article highlights Davidson’s efforts to transform the investigation into …
