Many of us are familiar with the concept of meditation, it’s been around for centuries after all. We know we should be getting our Om on, but that can be easier said than done.

Mount Allison assistant psychology professor Dr. Mitchell LaPointe, with honours student Emily Mashaal, has embarked on a research project to learn more about the benefits of meditation in our minds and our lives.

“We’re looking at meditation as a tool to investigate our cognitive function, especially around attention and memory,” explains LaPointe. “There is a growing list of studies reporting health benefits of regular meditation. Some of these include reductions in blood pressure, anxiety, and depression.”

LaPointe, who has been at Mount Allison since 2019, teaches classes in introductory psychology, research statistics, and previously a seminar entitled the Psychology of Meditation.

The research study around meditation is asking whether there are advantages among experienced meditators over non-meditators in the ability to focus attention on a task or incentive, process that information, and then have attention ready to engage in processing another area of focus.

“Through group studies and questionnaires, we are looking at whether experienced meditators have an enhanced ability to perform two tasks at once without any detrimental effects on memory,” says LaPointe. “Generally, we are quite poor at doing more than one thing at time. Some research suggests meditators are better at this than the rest of us.”

While there is a lot of published research around meditation, LaPointe and Mashaal have found that many of the studies are individualist in nature; there’s not a lot of consistency in this area of research, yet.

“Meditation practice is different for everyone; some types can be very difficult. It takes dedication and the effects aren’t immediate. The biggest part of research is getting people to stay consistent in their practice,” he says. “However, meditation guides are more accessible now. There are apps and community groups. Interest seems to be picking up in this ancient practice, which as research currently suggests, is a good thing.”

In addition to his research on meditation, LaPointe is also working on a study with honours biopsychology student Hugh McClelland on the effects environmental pollutants, specifically glyphosate — a common herbicide — has on cognitive function. With an aim to hear from individuals with occupational exposure, those who have worked in sectors like forestry and agriculture in Canada, the pair will soon be launching an online questionnaire to help collect data. Interested individuals can reach out to Lapointe: mlapointe@mta.ca.

McClelland began the research last summer with the support of a Mount Allison Independent Student Research Grant.

“Hugh came to me with the idea for this project. It’s been a wonderful experience to help guide his research and learn more about this issue. We’ll see what the theory and data collected will tell us in the study,” says LaPointe.

The study is truly interdisciplinary. The pair are also working with Mount Allison biochemistry professor Dr. Tyson MacCormack who has studied the herbicide’s effect on fish in the Atlantic region.

LaPointe says seeing students access these kinds of opportunities, both in the research field and on campus, is one of the reasons he’s glad to work at Mount A.

“You don’t see opportunities like this on every campus. Being able to work with students like Emily and Hugh and help guide their research projects is really exciting,” he says.