Using meditation to improve measures of attention in older adults

Age-related cognitive decline greatly impacts quality of life for older adults. Previous research has indicated that meditation may act as a neuroprotective factor to prevent age-related cognitive decline. This thesis sought to replicate previous findings and investigate if a four-week meditation intervention would improve sustained attention. Participants 60 years and older (n=27, 17 female) were recruited and assigned to a focused-attention (FA) meditation or relaxation group which met for four weeks, three times a week. Resting-state EEG was used to collect individual alpha peak frequency (iAPF) and frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) was also used to measure attention. After the intervention, we found no change in iAPF, FAA or SART performance. This thesis found that a four-week FA meditation practice does not influence sustained attention in older adults, however suggestions as to why no relationship was found are discussed and future research is warranted