According to a recent report in Psychological Science, specific types of meditation could enhance the brain's ability to retain mental images of places and objects. While mental images normally fade within a matter of seconds, experienced practitioners of Deity Yoga meditation, which involves an extended visualization of complex scenes, demonstrated the ability to maintain their memory of objects and images for hours at a time. In the George Mason University experiment, both meditation practitioners and non-practitioners were asked to perform a battery of visuospatial tasks, such as mental rotation of 3-dimensional objects. The participants were then given a short break, during which time the Buddhists were asked to meditate. After the break, the exercises were repeated. While there was no significant difference between the performances of the study groups in the first session, during the second one the practitioners of DY meditation scored much higher, suggesting that their meditative state allowed them to access more of their brain's visuospatial resources. According to the authors, these results could prove useful for "therapy, treatment of memory loss, and mental training." Reports regarding the existence or nonexistence of the spoon, however, were unconfirmed.

More at http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2009/kozhevnikov.cfm