The Closest Thing to Jedi Mind Tricks

Though neuroscience will never peer inside of Luke Skywalker or Yoda's head to find the brain region responsible for feeling the Force, a new study comes close.

Trained Zen Buddhists return to a state of inner calm faster than people who don't practice meditation, according to neuroscientist Giuseppe Pagnoni and his colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta.

The researchers scanned the brains of 12 Buddhists, who were experienced in Zen meditation, and 12 controls, while the subjects focused on breathing. Unlike other forms of mediation that focus on withdrawal, Zen meditation calls for vigilance and attention.

At random intervals, a string of letters appeared on a computer screen inside the functional-MRI scanner, and each subject had to decide whether the string represented a real word or gibberish, and then press a button. (More)

Source: New Scientist