The BrainMind Audit™

Based on numerous scientific studies in cognitive neuroscience and our own expertise we created an innovative, scientifically based tool The BrainMind Audit™ that helps to quantify objectively the mental aspects of performance such as focus and attention, information processing speed, stress regulation, emotions and overall brain resources.

The BrainMind Audit™ is qEEG tool for measuring objectively the long-term effects of meditation/yoga on optimization of brain and mind functioning. The BrainMind Audit™ helps you assess objectively the status of your brain and mind before (baseline) and after some period of meditation/yoga programme and provides to your coach or trainer a better guide to selecting individualised training protocols which permit you unlock the full potential of your brain.

The BrainMind Audit™ is based on mathematical and statistical processing of digital EEG, which condenses the EEG data to a single page color-coded summary - The BrainMind Audit™ Profile. The Brain Audit™ Profile provides the result of the analysis of multiple indices related to yoga/meditation performance that are derived from qEEG data from a 19-channel EEG recording with a standard International 10-20 electrode placement system. The BrainMind Audit™ Profile consists of 9 evaluation metrics and it gives a person unprecedented ability to look at summarized EEG information, which was not previously possible with regular EEG. These metrics provide an easy to understand quantitative values for otherwise complicated neurophysiological constructs.

Notice that measurement of the brain response to meditative practice is based on the premise that meditation induces distinct states and traits of consciousness. State refers to the altered sensory, cognitive, and self-referential awareness that can arise during meditation practice, whereas trait refers to the lasting changes in these dimensions that persist in the meditator irrespective of being actively engaged in meditation. The BrainMind Audit™ measures trait (long-term) effects of meditation.

By performing regular BrainMind Audits™ you will assess objectively the real effects of your yoga/meditation performance and will adjust your exercises in order to optimize different aspects of your neural and mental capabilities.

To register for the course please visit Kalpataru EEG-avusteinen meditaatiokurssi .

The BrainMind Audit™ effectiveness

What is the effectiveness of The BrainMind Audit™ in real life?

Aggregated analysis of all participants who used this service revealed that after 4-5 months of individually adjusted yoga meditation:

• There were NO participants without improved metrics

  • Vast majority (65%) of participants have improved

  • Vast majority (62%) of metrics have improved (notice that some metrics were already in the optimal range in the first measurement)

  • 9% of metrics and 11% of participants have shifted towards “optimal” range (notice that some metrics were already in the optimal range in the first measurement)

• Metrics as well as participants are NOT equal in their responsiveness to the meditation

  • The younger the participant, the better initial EEG and a larger the number of metrics improved

  • The more a particular metric deviated from the optimal range in the first measurement, the better improvement it demonstrated after 4-5 months of meditation

Summarising, these results demonstrated a clear positive shift towards the optimal activity of the brain and mind. See here in more details.

Illustrative example

Participant: 39 years old male. He never practices meditation before. His baseline (before the course) BrainMind Audit™ Profile revealed deviation from the optimal brain functioning in 7 from 9 evaluation metrics (illustrated as grey circles). After 5 months of regular meditation exercises which were adjusted to his needs based on BrainMind Audit™ Profile, he improved significantly. As it can be seen from the figure all of the metrics improved and 7 metrics reached the optimal level (illustrated by arrows and black circles). Other examples you can find Sampo's blog in Finnish.

Self-Me-I™ index

Self-Me-I™ index is based on the neuroscientific studies related to the brain default mode network (DMN) and utilises the mathematical and statistical processing of digital EEG, which condenses the complex quantitative EEG data to a single page summary (see an example below).

It allows a person to monitor different aspects of selfhood such as “Self”, “Me” and “I” independently from each other while simultaneously to see how they are related one to another in the course of personal growth/mediation/yoga training.

- ‘Self’ indicates how your experience of agency from the first-person point of view (the witnessing observer) is growing; it is responsible for top-down attentional control, metacognition, loving-kindness and compassion, empathy and joy.

- ‘Me’ indicates the experience of the self embodiment and localization within bodily space (representational-emotional agency); it is responsible for the sense of self-ownership for perceptions of objects, explicit self-reference in relation to the body scheme, and autobiographical memories.

- ‘I’ indicates experience of thinking about oneself (reflective agency); it is responsible for visuospatial and mental imagery, episodic memories retrieval, semantic and logical processing, language comprehension, and narrative thoughts.

By increasing or decreasing different aspects of self-consciousness in a controlled manner the person may achieve unprecedented level of personal growth and spiritual transformation, where the mind becomes still, and the physical body less tens and disturbing; the person learns to manage thoughts and control memories in the most effortless way.

Recently there were scientific studies published where the aspects of complex selfhood (such as Self, Me and I) have been studed neurophysiologically as a function of meditation training:

- Long-term meditation training induced changes in the operational synchrony of default mode network modules during a resting state.     

- Trait lasting alteration of the brain default mode network in experienced meditators and the experiential selfhood.