Sanskrit effect or Does chanting vedic mantra make you smart?

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In a recent paper [1], that studied 21 professionally qualified Sanskrit pandits, it was discovered that memorising Vedic mantras increases the size of brain regions associated with cognitive function, including short and long-term memory. The term the ‘Sanskrit Effect’ was thus coined.


In short, this study showed that
these scholars had greater grey matter density in the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in memory encoding and retrieval.

Question: Are these brain changes due to Vedic matras? Is this the power of vedas?

My view: There was another study [2] on London taxi drivers that showed their hippocampus is lot more denser than regular people even compared to London bus drivers (who go on only set routes in the city) because their spatial memory and navigation is better than the rest.

All these studies [1,2] underlines the principle behind brain plasticity - "use it regularly and well enough then it will develop, don't use it at all then it will deteriorate" i.e. 'Use it or lose it'.

Question: There is a belief in the Indian tradition which holds that memorising and reciting mantras enhances memory and thinking. Does this study [1] corroborate this?

My view: Verbal memorization of any text not just Sanskrit shlokas (even Shakespeare's plays or Gregorian chants by christian scholars for that matter) enhances Hippocampus that is involved in memory encoding and retrieval. This implies that their verbal memory is excellent but this does not mean it enhances thinking!

Question: Would small amounts of chanting and recitation of the common Sanskrit mantras like gayatri mantra daily have an amazing effect on all of our brains?

My view: Small amount of chanting like gayatri mantra does nothing or its effect would be negligible - it is like saying since doing 100 push-ups daily makes you strong then doing 1 push-up daily will also make you strong proportionately, no its effect would not be noticeable. Also definitely just saying 'mama' or 'swaha' at the end of each shloka does not help at all!

Question: Dr Hartzell’s study [1] raises the question whether this kind of memorisation of ancient texts could be helpful in reducing the devastating illness of Alzheimer’s and other memory affecting diseases?

My view: It is an interesting idea to say that reading lots of books could increase the cognitive reserve and resist / defer the onset of neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer's. Certainly there is evidence [3] to show that high cognitive ability could avert the clinical expression of some diseases despite developing the underlying neuropathology.

References:
[1] Hartzell, James F., Ben Davis, David Melcher, Gabriele Miceli, Jorge Jovicich, Tanmay Nath, Nandini Chatterjee Singh, and Uri Hasson. "Brains of verbal memory specialists show anatomical differences in language, memory and visual systems." Neuroimage 131 (2016): 181-192.
Link to the scientific paper - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26188261

[2] Maguire, Eleanor A., David G. Gadian, Ingrid S. Johnsrude, Catriona D. Good, John Ashburner, Richard SJ Frackowiak, and Christopher D. Frith. "Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97, no. 8 (2000): 4398-4403.
Link to the scientific paper - https://www.pnas.org/content/97/8/4398.full

[3] Snowdon, David A. "Aging and Alzheimer's disease: lessons from the Nun Study." The Gerontologist 37, no. 2 (1997): 150-156.

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