What we see in the first three minutes of these sessions is similar to what we saw in the first minutes of “thinking of tools” sessions of the previous post. The following charts were obtained for a sequence of 5-minute segments: reading, following the breath and counting the breath. Eyes remained open during the entire recording.
Relative band power for five minutes of reading
Relative band power for five minutes of following the breath
Relative band power for five minutes of counting the breath
We see a striking difference between the non-meditative condition, reading and the two meditative conditions, following and counting the breath. There are definitely stronger high frequency oscillations in the left frontal area for reading than for meditating. During meditation, at least during the first five minutes of a sitting, the alpha oscillations are stronger than for reading. Delta oscillations are stronger for reading than for meditation. As in other recordings, delta seems to correlate with focused concentration.
Any differences between the two meditative conditions (counting or following the breath) are subtle. According to the neuroscience perspective, in which every experience results from electrical oscillations in the nervous system, we would have to say that while the differences may be subtle, they must be measurable in principle.