Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

improving the effectiveness of schoolsdown processing. Higher coherence across frequencies indicates greaterfunctional connectivity between areas, leading to more focused activity.Also theta/beta ratios, a measure of severity of ADHD symptoms,decreased from baseline to the 3-month post test and the 6-month posttest.In research on 38 college students, Travis and colleagues (2010)conducted a randomized controlled trial of Transcendental Meditationpractice on Brain Integration Scale scores (broadband frontalcoherence, power ratios, and preparatory brain responses), reflectingstructural and functional connectivity between brain areas. Resultsindicated significant positive effects in brain integration due to practiceof Transcendental Meditation compared to controls over three months.Findings also showed a trend for higher frontal broadband coherenceat post test in the Transcendental Meditation group. Frontal coherencemay support enhanced cognitive flexibility and self-regulation, whichhave been reported in Transcendental Meditation research on cognitivefunctioning (Dillbeck, 1982). Other research has shown highercoherence and brain integration correlated with higher levels of moraldevelopment, emotional stability, and inner directness, and lower levelsof anxiety (Nidich et al., 1983; Travis et al., 2004).Taken as a whole, these and other studies on brain coherenceand integration (e.g., Dillbeck & Bronson, 1981) indicate a markedimprovement in brain functioning both during and after practice of theTranscendental Meditation program that may be responsible for thebeneficial changes described below in student personal (cognitive andaffective) development and academic achievement.Cognitive PerformanceSeveral studies on school and college students indicate improvementin cognitive performance, including executive function, due to practiceof Transcendental Meditation. Research by Travis, Grosswald et al.,(2011) with ADHD secondary school students showed improvement inverbal fluency by the Transcendental Meditation students compared tocontrols. The verbal fluency test measured higher-order executive functions,including initiation, simultaneous processing, and systematicretrieval of knowledge. Performance depended on several fundamental303