EEG And Autonomic Nervous Activation Study Of Meditation

This dissertation tends to explore the physiological mechanism of meditation by recording the brain electrical and autonomic nervous activation indexes (breath rate, breath depth, skin conductance, skin temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation) of subjects who are non-experienced meditate exerciser (postgraduate students) and experienced meditate exerciser during restful and meditative states using BIOPAC SYSTEMS. The results and conclusions follow: Meditation has not obviously changed the objective emotion of non-experienced meditate exerciser and experienced meditate exerciser. Meditation has different effects on brain electrical physiological and autonomic nervous activation of non-experienced meditate exerciser and experienced meditate exerciser. Meditation is a dynamic process during which brain electrical physiological activation and autonomic nervous activation is changing rather quiescent. Heart rate is the sensitive autonomic nervous activation index of experienced meditative exerciser during meditation. Breath rate and skin temperate are the sensitive autonomic nervous activation indexes of non-experienced meditate exerciser during meditation. The EEG indicates that meditation makes their brain be a special state which is different from sleep, restful, inert and especially active cognitive states. For experienced meditate exerciser, the different meditative methods and time make changes of brain electrical physiological activation rather autonomic nervous activation.