Meditation and brain health: a 6-month multimodal longitudinal study of Inner Engineering

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Sepideh Hariri^1,2 (shariri1@bidmc.harvard.edu), Kestutis Kveraga^1,2, Braiden Deschryver², Akila Rayapuraju², Sydney Freidopfer², Morgan Pratt², Nashaw Jafari², Preeti Reed^1,2, Balachundhar Subramaniam^1,2; ¹Harvard Medical School, ²Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Introduction: Growing evidence supports meditation’s benefits for cognition, emotional resilience, mental health and potentially preventing neurodegenerative disease. While its neural effects are widely being studied, the interplay between meditation, brain function, physiological and psychological metrics remains unclear. Multimodal, longitudinal research is essential to deepen our understanding of this complex phenomenon and establish meditation as a scalable, evidence-based intervention. This study aims to quantify the impact of meditation on brain health and cognition over 6 months, using a multimodal approach combining neuroimaging, physiological, and behavioral outcomes in meditation-naïve participants. Methods: 80 meditation-naive subjects (40 intervention and 40 matched controls) are recruited and assessed at four time-points over six months. The intervention group practices Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya, a daily 21-minute breath-based meditation taught through the Inner Engineering program offered by the non-profit Isha Foundation. Control participants continue their usual routines. The study measures include: (1) neuropsychological questionnaires for affect, cognitive-emotional regulation, and sleep, (2) behavioral tasks for executive function and working memory, (3) 128-electrode EEG during rest, meditation, and tasks, (4) fMRI for structural and functional brain changes during rest and task (5) low-density EEG headband during meditation and sleep, (6) Fitbit watch for sleep, HR, and HRV, (7) hair cortisol for long-term stress, and (8) blood markers for brain health. Results: While data collection is still ongoing, preliminary results show a significant increase in Cognitive Emotional Regulation scores, improved cognitive task performance, and changes in Late Positive Potential (LPP) amplitude in the meditation group over time, when compared to the controls.

Topic Area: OTHER