Meditation training app may boost attention, memory

Scientists have developed a personalised digital meditation training programme that significantly improves attention and memory in young adults in just six weeks.

The intervention, called MediTrain, utilises an algorithm that tailors the length of the meditation sessions to the abilities of the participants, so they are not discouraged by their initial attempts to focus attention on their breath, a time-honoured meditation technique.

Scientists from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the US tested the programme in a trial with 59 participants between 18 and 35 years old.

According to the research published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the magnitude of the effects on attention and memory were similar to what has been seen in previous studies of middle-aged adults after months of in-person training or intensive meditation retreats.

The app-based programme, however, required just 20 to 30 minutes of cummulative practice each day, composed of many very short meditation periods. In the beginning, participants were prompted to pay attention to their breath for just 10 to 15 seconds at a time.

As they improved over the six weeks, the application challenged them to increase the amount of time they could maintain focus, which averaged several minutes after six weeks.

"This is not like any meditation practice that exists, as far as we are aware," said Adam Gazzaley, a professor at UCSF.

"We took an ancient experiential treatment of focused meditation, reformulated it and delivered it through a digital technology, and improved attention span in millennials, an age group that is intimately familiar with the digital world, but also faces multiple challenges to sustained attention," said Gazzaley.

MediTrain had digital features that are not present in the traditional practice of breath meditation and that may have been the reason why it achieved such strong results over such a short period and with such a healthy population.

It underscored the need to pay attention by requiring participants to regularly check in on how they were doing.

At the end of each brief meditation segment, participants were asked to indicate whether they had been able to pay continuous attention for the allotted time