Brain Health With Inner Engineering Meditation

Exclusion Criteria14

• Non-English Speaking. (Justification: Meditation and cognitive assessment instruments are not validated in a sufficient range of languages, and the research team lacks polylingual capabilities or the financial resources to hire interpreters for the duration of all proposed assessments.)
• Practicing meditation regularly for the past 6 months (3 or more times per week of practice regularly for the past 6 month).
• History of psychiatric illness such as severe anxiety, severe depression, Schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
• History of any form of cognitive decline or neurological conditions such as dementia, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, brain tumors, brain surgery.
• Current use of cognition enhancing drugs
• Current management for chronic pain.
• History (within the last 5 years) of stroke/aneurysm.
• Active history (within the last 5 years) of alcohol or drug abuse (> 10 drinks per week).
• Current pregnancy or planning to become pregnant in the next 6 months.
• Currently enrolled in another interventional study that could impact the primary outcome, as determined by the PI.
• Educational attainment below high school level or equivalent.
• Significant visual impairment.
• Women of childbearing potential will be included as the intervention and the procedures in the study have minimal risks. There will be no enrollment exclusions based on sex, racial or ethnic factors.
• If a woman becomes pregnant during the course of the study and is willing to stay as a subject, MRI will not be conducted.