Association between cyclic meditation and creative cognition: Optimizing connectivity between the frontal and parietal lobes

Abstract

Background:Important stages of creativity include preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. Earlier studies have reported that some techniques of meditation promote creativity but have not specified which stage is enhanced. Here, we report the influence of cyclic meditation (CM) on creative cognition measured by a divergent thinking task. Our aim was to determine the degree of association between the two.Methods:Twenty-four university students were randomly assigned to an experimental group (CM) and controls (Supine Rest), 35 min/day for 7 days. Creativity performance was assessed pre and post using Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA), while 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure brain activity during both CM/SH and the creativity test.Results:Results indicated that CM training improved creativity performance, producing a shift to predominant gamma activity during creativity compared controls who showed delta activity. Furthermore, the experimental group showed more activation of frontal and parietal regions (EEG leads F3, F4 and P3, P4) than controls, i.e., the regions of the executive network responsible for creative cognition, our particular regions of interest where specialized knowledge is being stored.Conclusion:Improvement on creativity test performance indicates that CM increases association and strengthens the connectivity between frontal and parietal lobes, the major nodes of default mode network and executive attention network, enhancing the important stages of creativity such as preparation, incubation, and illumination.

Health and Wellness Through Cyclic Meditation

“…It has been hypothesized that regular practice of CM strengthens associations and increases connectivity between the frontal and parietal lobes, which are the main nodes of the executive attention network and the default mode network, respectively, thereby enhancing key stages of creativity such as preparation, incubation, and illumination [5].…”

Brain Reactions to Opening and Closing the Eyes: Salivary Cortisol and Functional Connectivity

“…In the current study, the SRN exhibited a prolonged decrease in activity following the eyes-closed instruction, and a short-term decrease succeeded by a long-term increase in activity following the eyes-open instruction. Limbic deactivation has been interpreted as the suppression of unwanted emotional reactions that are aroused by tasks (Dagher et al 2009;Dedovic et al 2009;Lederbogen et al 2011;Pruessner et al 2008;Soliman et al 2011), or conversely as full relaxation responses under resting states (Kalyani et al 2011;Shetkar et al 2019). As mentioned previously, a shortterm decrease in the vHC was an indication that the subject was under parasympathetic control and free from approachavoidance conflicts.…”

Creativity Skill Proses in Project Based Learning: A Case Study of Distance Learning in Pacitan

“…Interviews show that there are several variations of activities (Goslin-Jones & Richards, 2018) in the process of incubation and intimacy. Students stated that the idea was obtained when doing routine activities at home, helping siblings to study, some are not doing any activity (Shetkar et al, 2019), and doing online activities.…”