Meditation Changing Minds for the Better

Published on Wednesday, 30 November 2011 14:10

	By Lee Lefton Follow @LeftonCreative

Image: Jesús Bonilla

What if you could switch off the area of your brain that was linked to daydreaming, anxiety, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders? Researchers at Yale University have shown that it’s possible through the regular practice of meditation.

There’s a specific part of the brain located in the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulated cortex called the “default mode network.” It’s tied to self-centered thinking which causes us to worry about the past or become preoccupied with the future — to the detriment of our being present in the now.

“Many philosophical and contemplative traditions teach that “living in the moment” increases happiness,” said Judson A. Brewer, assistant professor of psychiatry and lead author of the study.

”However, the default mode of humans appears to be that of mind-wandering, which correlates with unhappiness, and with activation in a network of brain areas associated with self-referential processing. Our findings demonstrate differences in the default-mode network that are consistent with decreased mind-wandering,” Brewer continued.

The default mode network has also been linked to attention lapses, anxiety and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the accumulation of beta amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease.

Using MRI scans to look deeper into the subject

The Yale team conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) scans on the brains of novice and experienced meditators as they practiced three different forms of meditation — Concentration, Loving Kindness and Choiceless Awareness. Those with more experience were able to “deactivate” the default mode network across all meditation types. This didn’t occur with the novices.

The researchers believe this could be the result of experienced meditators constantly monitoring and suppressing mind-wandering and “me” thoughts, which in extreme or pathological form, are associated with autism and schizophrenia.

The FMRI scans showed that the brain activity of the experienced meditators was the same during meditation as it was when they were at rest and not being told to do anything specific. This led to the conclusion that perhaps these meditators have been able to develop a new default mode in which there is more “present-centered” and less “self-centered” awareness. In other words, they’ve been able to “rewire” their brains.

"The hallmarks of many forms of mental illness is a preoccupation with one's own thoughts, a condition meditation seems to affect," Brewer said. “Understanding how meditation works will aid investigation into a host of diseases,” he added.

“While meditation clearly isn't a cure for mental illness, the study suggests that there may be a neurological basis for the benefits that many meditators report — increased awareness, improved concentration, and a better ability to deal with the cognitive and emotional stresses of modern life,” Brewer said.

The physiological, psychological and spiritual benefits of meditation have long been known, and its use in treatments for conditions such as depression and chronic pain are widely acknowledged. But most brain research around meditation has been preliminary with serious study having emerged only in the last decade with the advent of functional MRI, which allows scientists to watch the brain and monitor its changes in relatively real time.

Researchers can’t confirm conclusively from this study whether meditation is good for the brain. But viewed in relation to other studies that show the positive effects of mindfulness training for substance abuse, depression, anxiety and pain disorders, the Yale study seems to have promise.

The chicken or the egg?

What the study doesn’t address is whether meditation is actually changing the brain or if people who already have these brain patterns are more interested in the practice.

Dr. Charles Raison, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine had this to say on the subject. “Emerging data from our group and others suggests that some things thought to be result of meditation might be cause of meditation.”

“If some people are just better at keeping their minds from wandering, that would also be consistent with the Buddhist idea that your capabilities are the result of your Karmic path, so meditation may be better suited to some people than others,” Raison said.

“Someday, if brain scans become cheap enough, there might be a test to see who can benefit most from mindfulness training. In the meantime, scientists should explore these open questions by doing longitudinal studies,” Raison said. “That would involve assigning some people to meditate and others not to meditate, and following the groups over time to see whether a change in brain activity patterns is visible.”

A report of the Yale research findings has recently been published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Relevant Links

Yale University

University of Arizona College of Medicine

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences