INFLUENCE OF VARIOUS STYLES OF MANTRA CHANTING ON STUDENT’S COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Background: Mantra is a tool to enhance mood regulation, stress management skills, and concentration and awareness. Materials & Methods: There were 35 participants including men and women between the age of 20 to 45 years, in the present study. They were all instructed to recite the "Mahamrityunjaya mantra (MM)" for ten days as an orientation programme. Cognitive tools such the Six Letter Cancellation Test (SLCT), Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS), and Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS) were used. These tools were used to evaluate all six sessions, including the baseline. On the first day of the program, all participants underwent a 10-day orientation, a seven-day washout period, and seven days of post-recording, which included loud chanting (LC), lips movement (LM), silent chanting (SC), audio listening (AL), and silent sitting (SS). As each session lasted 20 minutes, recordings were made for the post-assessment following the intervention for 20 minutes. Results: The Repeated measure ANOVA, Friedman test, and Wilcoxon signed ranked tests were done to analyse the data. The Mindfulness following mantra chanting was significantly higher during loud chanting (LC) (p<0.05) compared to the silent chanting (SC) and the baseline. Also, the scores of digits backward (DB) were significantly higher in LC (p<0.01), LM (p<0.05), SC (p<0.001), and AL (p<0.01), compared to baseline. Conclusion: Results of the current study suggested that mindfulness prevails following the practice of LC and short-term memory following SC suggestive of more information processing in the amygdala, hippocampus, and pre-central cortex.