Studies of vipassana use electroencephalograms (those swimmer cap things with the electrodes attached) to measure brain activity. Specifically, they measure gamma waves, the messengers between the neurons. Vipassana meditators exhibit a very rare occurrence: extremely high gamma wave synchrony. It feels like all your cylinders are firing at once, or as David Dobbs described it beautifully in the Scientific American, “like numerous ropes turning precisely together.” Davidson has found that emotionally stronger people, that is those who bounce back from bad news rather than dip into depression and anxiety, have stronger gamma wave connections between the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdalae. Weaker people, he found, have fewer signals between the PFC and the amygdalae. Vipassana, he surmised, could help rebuild and strengthen those connections.
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