Yoga meditation is the most natural refreshing agent

Feeling comfortable and at peace, meditation can also improve your brain structure and actually strengthen your brain. This is the conclusion scientists have reached in recent research. Scientists at the University of Kentucky in the United States conducted a successful experiment on the efficacy of meditation using a quantifiable method. They asked volunteers to look at a liquid crystal display screen. When an image appeared, volunteers were asked to press a button as quickly as possible. Generally speaking, it takes 200 to 300 milliseconds for people to press a button to respond after an image appears, but people who lack sleep take longer and sometimes cannot even respond.

The researchers asked volunteers to take a button press test before and after meditation, and compared it with other tests administered at the same time, such as tests on sleep, reading, and conversation. Experiments have shown that meditation allows volunteers to achieve good results in responding, especially when they have not slept all night, and the refreshing effect of meditation is very significant. At Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers used an MRI device to understand the brain mechanisms of meditation. They used the technology to scan the brains of 15 meditators and then compared the scans with the brains of 15 other ordinary people. They found that meditators 'cerebral cortex was thicker than the general population in some areas, such as areas involved in paying attention to and processing sensory information. (Internship Editor: Wu Jinyu)