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.
Emotions
Brain Storm
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.
Research of Richard Davidson shows how meditation changes the mind
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 …
Meditation may fine-tune control over attention
Everyday experience and psychology research both indicate that paying close attention to one thing can keep you from noticing something else.
Richard Davidson’s research cited: the effect of meditation on brain
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.
Serenity Now
The search for happiness can take many paths.
Waisman Center Researchers Awarded $10.7 Million Grant for Brain Imaging Research on Emotion
Even though we all experience similar emotions, we respond to them in different ways.
Waisman researcher Richard Davidson graces the cover of the winter 2004 issue of the Wisconsin Academy Review magazine.
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 …
Davidson’s Emotion Research Featured in New York Times Magazine
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 …
Study shows brain activity influences immune function
Staying healthy may involve more than washing hands or keeping a positive attitude. According to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it also may involve a particular pattern of brain activity.