Research Studies & Publications by SpARC with India’s Premier Research Organizations/ Institutions:
| SN | Topic | Collaborative organization |
Investigator(s) | Result | Paper Publication | Attachment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Effect of Raja Yoga Meditation on Physiological, Psychological & Affective Functions | Three Labs of Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defense, New Delhi (i)DIPAS (Defence institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences)(ii)DIPR (Defence institute of Psychological research), (iii)INMAS (Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences) |
1. DrShashiBala Singh, Director, DIPAS, DrMantu Shah, Scientist ‘F’, Project Co-ordinator, DIPAS, DrAbhiroopChaterjee, Research Officer, CARTY (DIPAS) 2. Dr. Arunima Gupta, Scientist ‘F’ and Dr. Nishi Gupta, Scientist ‘E’, DIPR, DRDO, Delhi 3. Dr.Sushil Chandra, Scientist ‘G’, Head Bio-Medical, INMAS, DRDO, Delhi |
-Blood pressure reduction indicates better cardiac function perhaps attained as a result of Raja Yoga meditation practice. -Improved parasympathetic dominance is reflected by HRV in terms of reduced VLF, LF and HF % powers. -Trend of reduction in LF/HF ratio symbolizes sympatho‐vagal balance. Better relaxation is indicated by decreased skin conductance. -Significant improvement in relaxed wakefulness is implicated by improved alpha and reduced beta. - Hope & Happiness scale were Higher |
Completed (Project Duration 4 Months 2011-12) Psychological Study Published in peer-reviewed open access international journal International Journal of Health Sciences and Research(ISSN: 2249-9571) |
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| 2 | What contributes to wellbeing gains – proficiency or duration of meditation related practices? | NIMHANS(National Institute of Mental Health &Neuro Sciences), Bangalore | Prof. Dr. BinduKutty, Former, HOD, Neuro Physiology, NIMHANS Dr Ajay Nair, Research Scholar, Neuro Physiology, NIMHANS |
Meditation practice does improve wellbeing and that proficiency of practice is better correlated with most aspects of wellbeing than duration of practice but there are a few aspects of wellbeing that increase with sustained practice over a long time. | International Journal of Wellbeing, 8(2), 68-88. doi:10.5502/ijw.v8i2.696 | |
| 3 | Just a minute meditation: Rapid voluntary conscious state shifts in long term meditators | NIMHANS(National Institute of Mental Health &Neuro Sciences), Bangalore | Prof. Dr. BinduKutty, Former, HOD, Neuro Physiology, NIMHANS DrAjay Nair, Research Scholar, Neuro Physiology, NIMHANS |
Long term meditators robustly shifted states with enhanced theta power (4–8 Hz) during meditation. Short term meditators had limited ability to shift between states and showed increased lower alpha power (8–10 Hz) during eyes closed meditation. Controls could not shift states |
Paper Published in Peer Reviewed Journal |
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| 4 | Effect of Raja Yoga Meditation: A Resting State Simultaneous EEG-fMRI Study | Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Dept. of Neuroimaging and Interventional Radiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Science (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India | Rajanikant Panda, Scientific Officer Cognitive Neuroscience Centre,Dept. of Neuroimaging & Interventional Radiology National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Science (NIMHANS) Bangalore-560029. Dr Rose D Bharath, MBBS, MD,DM; Mangalore |
Long term meditators have lower intensity with lesser no. of voxel in Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)&Posterior cingulate cortex as compared to healthy people at rest and this activity was further reduced during meditation whereas increased in medial temporal cortex. | PaperPresented at The American Society of Neuroimaging (ASN 2014) annual meeting The abstract published (Having DOI: 10.1111/jon.12109) in Journal of Neuroimaging (JON). JON is a well established US pear reviewed journal having impact factor 3.36 and cited half life 5.20 by Blackwell Publishing |
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| 5 | Temporal Dynamics of the Default Mode Network Characterize Meditation-Induced Alterations in Consciousness | Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Dept. of Neuroimaging and Interventional Radiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Science (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India | Rajanikant Panda, Scientific Officer Cognitive Neuroscience Centre,Dept. of Neuroimaging & Interventional Radiology National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Science (NIMHANS) Bangalore-560029. Dr Rose D Bharath, MBBS, MD,DM; Mangalore |
We observed that the long-termmeditators have lower DMN activity as compared to healthy people at rest and this activity isfurther reduced during meditation. We observed fluctuations of EEG-Microstates decreased with an increase in the duration of individual EEG-microstates suggestive of increased stability in meditators. From this result we conclude that the meditator was lowering ruminative and mindwandering thoughts even if they are not in meditative state and that long-term meditation hadcaused a shift in the DMN networks. From this we conclude that meditation could find application in situations where we need to reduce the internal conflicts and hence helps increase the ability to keep the brain stable and more aware of the surroundings. | Panda, R., Bharath, R. D., Upadhyay, N., Mangalore, S., Chennu, S., &Rao, S. L. (2016). Temporal dynamics of the default mode network characterize meditation-induced alterations in consciousness. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 10, 372. | |
| 6 | Developed Spiritual Assessment Scale |
DIPR (Defence institute of Psychological research) |
Dr. Arunima Gupta, Scientist’F’ DIPR, DRDO, Delhi, Dr. Sushil Chandra, Scientist ‘G’, Head Bio-Medical, INMAS, DRDO, Delhi, BK Avinash, Faculty SpARC wing, New Delhi. |
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| 7 |
Effect of Raj Yoga Meditation (RYM) psychological and functional outcomes in persons with Spinal cord injury |
ISIC (Indian spinal injuries center), New Delhi |
Dr. H.S. Chhabra, Medical Director and Chief of Spine Services, ISIC, New Delhi |
Stress, Anxiety &Depression significantly decreased. Quality of life significantly improved. Pain rating significantly decreased within intervention group and Selfcare independence measure significantly improved within group as compared to controls. Modified Ashworth rating also decreased within group as compared to controls |
Completed (Project Duration 1-1/2 Years April 2017-October 2018) |
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| 8 | Psycho-physiological assessment of Rajayoga Mediators | INMAS, New Delhi |
Dr. Sushil Chandra, |
An EEG data of long term meditators was recorded using 64 channel EEG. Results reveal high-band power in alpha and theta spectra in meditators. Cortical asymmetry calculated through EEG power was also found to be high in frontal as well as parietal region.Overall, findings indicate contribution of smaller frequencies (alpha and theta) while maintaining meditative experience. This suggests a positive impact of meditation on frontal and parietal areas of brain, involved in the processes of regulation of selective and sustained attention as well as provide evidence about their involvement in emotion and cognitive processing. |
1. Sharma, K., Chandra, S., &Dubey, A. K. (2018). Exploration of lower frequency EEG dynamics and cortical alpha asymmetry in long-term Raja Yoga meditators. International journal of yoga, 11(1), 30. 2. Sharma, K., Trivedi, R., Chandra, S., Kumar, R., Salam, A., &Dubey, A. (2016). Influence of Long term Rajayoga meditation on Attentional Networks using EEG. International Journal of Psychology, 51. 3. Poster Presented at 47th Annual conferene of SfN (Neuroscience-2017) at Washington DC, USA
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| 9 | White matter properties of Rajayoga meditators | INMAS, New Delhi | Dr. SubashKhushu Scientist – ‘G’, Divisional Head, NMR Division, INMAS-DRDO. Dr. Sushil Chandra, Scientist ‘G’, Head Bio-Medical, INMAS, DRDO, Delhi Kanishka Sharma JRF- DRDO Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences, Ministry of Defense New Delhi | White matter properties at micro/macroscopic level of Corpus Callosum (CC)studied using Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Results show high fractional anisotropy (FA) values with low mean diffusivity (MD) in whole as well as different segments of CC in LTM group. Also the experience of meditation was correlated with white matter properties of CC tracts. Findings may suggest Rajayoga meditation to bring potential changes in microstructure of CC segments. |
1. Sharma, K., Trivedi, R., Chandra, S., Kaur, P., Kumar, P., Singh, K., ...&Khushu, S. (2018). Enhanced White Matter Integrity in Corpus Callosum of Long-Term BrahmakumarisRajayoga Meditators. Brain connectivity, 8(1), 49-55. | |
| 10 | Assessing Neurocognition via Gamified Experimental Logic: A Novel Approach to Simultaneous Acquisition of Multiple ERPs | NIMHANS(National Institute of Mental Health &Neuro Sciences), Bangalore | Prof. Dr. BinduKutty, Former, HOD, Neuro Physiology, NIMHANS Dr Ajay Nair, Research Scholar, Neuro Physiology, NIMHANS |
This paper on the ANGEL approach describes the paradigm design and demonstrates its validity and utility in the study of multiple neurocognitive variables such as auditory and visual perception, attention, set shifting, memory, discrimination, corollary discharge, motor readiness, conflict processing, and multiple levels of decision making under changing circumstances.
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Frontiers in Neurosciences METHODS published: 29January2016 doi: 10.3389/fnins.2016.00001 |
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| 11 | Neural Correlates of Well-Being Long Term Rajyoga Practitioners – A Multimodal Study | NIMHANS(National Institute of Mental Health &Neuro Sciences), Bangalore | Dr. Ajay Kumar Nair, Research Scholar, Neuro Physiology, NIMHANS | The study provides converging evidence that the neural correlates of well-being in long term include rapid change especially in theta and alpha power based on situational demand and experience dependent neuroplastic changesin resting state and task functional connectivity between brain regions. | Ph.D Thesis Submitted to NIMHANS | |
| 12 | Electrophysiological aspects of Rajayoga meditators | MILE Lab, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru | Prof. A.G. Ramakrishnan, Head, Medical Intelligence and language engineering (MILE )lab, Indian Institute of science, Bengaluru |
EEG data analyzed for long term meditators. The high frequency component (23-42 Hz) found to be increased during meditation compared to their baseline. Also, the increase in the ratio is higher with increasing time in meditation. Findings of the study suggest the role of neural generators of gamma during meditation and rest in long term meditators. A novel approach of using the variance of power is proposed to study the meditation and non-meditation states. Decreased variance is observed during the state of meditation. Correlation between the states is higher across the meditation states than the non-meditation states. |
1. Paper in communication to ACCS-2019 Conference at Goa. Sharma K, Pradeep G, Ramakrishnan AG, High frequency to low frequency band power ratio in Rajayoga meditators: an indicator for meditation experience 2. Paper in communication to ACCS-2019 Conference at Goa.
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