[KirinDave]

Does the Willpower Instinct contain any sort of actual empirical analysis of the subject? Or is it just someone with a PhD saying something?

Because medical professionals can believe in magic and bullshit just as easily as anyone else.

[bennesvig]

Yes. It mentions actual studies and evidence.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/01/24/brain-structure-chan...

[KirinDave]

But these studies are on noticing structural changes, not changes in the subject's capability.

What makes meditation better at this than, say, sitting down and doing math homework or going out and doing exercise? There's a lot of research to strongly correlate regular physical activity with intelligence (random googled summary with many citations here: http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/brainandex.htm...).

[bennesvig]

Structure changes behavior which improves capability.

[KirinDave]

The literal reading of this statement suggests hitting your head with a hammer could make you better at math.