Are Richard Davidson s scientific studies about meditation controlled by marketing agencies to sell us something?

Last Updated on December 25, 2025 by pg@petergamma.org

How accurate are smartwatches? Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org was interested in this question some time ago. And more and more scientific papers became available about this topic. So we had a closer look at those:

090. Review of Accuracy Studies of Consumer Grade Heart Rate Monitors: Methods, Testing Protocols, Reference Devices

But what was striking, that these papers did not use the same testing protocol. Basically every papers used a different protocol, as listed here:

90.3 Summary of the testing protocols of different studies

Was this done on purpose? And was this co-ordinated by marketing agencies? So that these papers can be used for promotion? But if we have a closer look at these data, do we not come to the conclusion, that smartwatches are only of very limited use for scientific studies? Scientists usually do not use smartwatches, but 3 channel ECG devices.

And do we not see something similar with the projects of Richard Davidson about meditation? First they started with Buddhist long-term practitioners:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0407401101

But after these scientific studies the Buddhist Monk Mattieu Ricard entiteled as something which might be revolutionary,

we do not know of new scientific data which stroke us. And then the book „Altered Traits“ came onto the market:

In this talk at Google Inc. Richard Davidson entitled these first studies with Buddhist monks as people at the far end of a scale. They where long-term practitioners.

And the new data we can find in „Altered Traits“ is briefly summarized by Mingyur Rinpoche in the following talk:

Mingour Rhinpoche summarizes which pathways in the brain are changed by meditation. And we learn in „Altered Traits“ also, that a daily practice of 20 min can alter the brain in an objectively measurable way. But so what now? Can this change also be subjectively be perceived? And has it any practical applications for our daily life?

And similar to the scientific papers about smartwatch accuracy, where the smartwatch accuracy papers seemed to be co-ordinated by marketing agencies, so that they can be used for promotion, but the data of different studies could not be compared, since the scientific data cannot be reproduced in a convincing way?

And what about the scientific studies of Richard Davidson about meditation? Where they co-ordinated similarly as the papers about smartwatch accuracy? First studies about long-term practitioners, and then no more studies about this topic, since these data cannot be reproduced in a convincing and revolutionary way? And then scientific studies with other people about „highways“ in the brain which are altered by meditation? Also this for promotional purposes, to sell the book „Altered Traits“? To sell us something, rather than for scientific studies, since these data where not reproducible in a convincing and „revolutionary“ way, as Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard once gave us hope about 20 years ago.