title: A theoretical model of efficacy of concentrative meditation for cognitive rehabilitation of dementia.
abstract: The positive effects of various types of meditation on health have been one of the well documented evidences of past decade. However, the effects of meditation on one specific domain of human cognition-attention have been understudied. This becomes an especially important issue in cases of dementia, where attention deterioration is an important component in addition to the memory problems. Here we appraise some theories of attention deterioration in aging individuals. We next proceed to build a model of the effects of concentrative meditation practice on various domains of attention in aging individuals, backed up with the evidences from literature. For this we also present the results of our own studies conducted on the concentrative meditation of Vihangam Yoga to highlight the fact that with long-term meditation practice, attention can be improved in various domains. Finally we propose that the effects of meditation can be especially tried on minimal cognitive deficit patients to explore if it helps further deterioration in such patients. This line of study could have important implication for future treatments of attention related problems in dementia patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China. drxiquanhu@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Xiquan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prakash
authors.forename: Suprakash
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chaudhury
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D019122:Meditation / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical