Another measure of concentration was to see how distracted the meditators are by emotional sounds—laughing, screaming, crying—which they heard in the background while focusing on the light. The more amygdala activation in response to those sounds, the more wavering in concentration. Among meditators with the greatest amount of lifetime practice hours—an average of 44,000 lifetime hours (the equivalent of twelve hours a day for ten years) the amygdala hardly responded to the emotional sounds. But for those with less practice, (though still a high number—19,000 hours) the amygdala also showed a
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