Mindfulness meditation training and cognitive functions in older adults

This study investigated the effect of a 10-week mindfulness meditation (MM) group program on older adults' performance on neuropsychological (CogState) tests of cognitive functions that typically decline with age. A sample of 44 meditation-naive adults (13 males, 31 females) aged 60-85 years (M= 69.07, SD = 6.53) completed neuropsychological tests of sustained attention, working memory, visuospatial memory, executive functions and processing speed. Following baseline testing, 22 of the participants attended a 10-week MM (Vipassana-based) training program involving weekly group meetings and daily individual MM practice, while 22 participants were part of an inactive (no intervention) control group. Both groups completed the same neuropsychological tests at the completion of the MM training program (3 months post-baseline-testing). The hypothesis that MM participants would show significant pre- to post-test improvements on all tests of cognitive functions, relative to the control group, was not supported by the results. Unexpectedly, both groups demonstrated significantly improved performance on visuospatial memory and executive functions tasks, while neither group improved significantly on tests of sustained attention, working memory or processing speed. However, the findings of this study are inconclusive due to a number of methodological limitations, and it is suggested that further research be conducted to determine whether differences in MM program characteristics (e.g., length of training, emphasis of techniques) and cognitive outcome measures produce MM-training-specific improvements in older adults' cognitive abilities.