Mindfulness Meditation Training Changes Brain Structure in Eight Weeks
In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers reported the results of their 2011 study. It is the first to document that meditation practitioners definitely experience changes in the brain over time. Persons who participate even for as short a period as an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appear to develop measurable changes in the brain areas doctors associate with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. The brain seems to respond to meditation as the body responds to physical exercise.
Sara Lazar, PhDof the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, the study's senior author and editor, outs it like this, "Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day… This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing."
Lazar's group and others had in earlier studies found significant structural differences between the brains of experienced mediation practitioners and individuals with no history of meditation. They observed a thickening of the cerebral cortex associated with attention and emotional integration. Those studies could not demonstrate that those differences were produced by meditation even though the coincidence did suggest that meditation was the catalyst for change. The need to verify the cause of the changes led to the next study.
MR images of the brain structure of 16 study participants were taken two weeks before and after they took part in the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. Weekly meetings included mindfulness meditation practice focusing on nonjudgmental awareness of sensations, feelings and state of mind. Participants received audio recordings for guided meditation practice and were asked to keep track of how much time they spent in daily practice. A set of MR brain images were also taken of a control group of non-meditators over a similar time interval.
Meditation group participants reported an average of 27 minutes in mindfulness exercises everyday. Responses to a mindfulness questionnaire showed significant improvements compared with pre-participation responses. The analysis of MR images focusing on areas where meditation associated differences were seen in earlier studies, showed increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is known to play an important part in learning and memory. It also has a role in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection. Participants self-reported reductions in stress. This thought to be the result of decreased grey-matter density in the amygdala. The amygdala is known to play an important role in higher stress and anxiety levels. Although no change was seen in a self-awareness-associated structure called the insula. The insula has been identified in earlier studies and the authors suggest that longer history of meditation practice might be needed to produce changes in that area. None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that they had not resulted only over time.
Britta Hölzel, PhD, first author of the paper and a research fellow at both MGH and Giessen University in Germany reports that "It is fascinating to see the brain's plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life… Other studies in different patient populations have shown that meditation can make significant improvements in a variety of symptoms, and we are now investigating the underlying mechanisms in the brain that facilitate this change."
Amishi Jha, PhD, a neuroscientist at the University of Miami, investigates the effects of mindfulness training on individuals in high-stress situations. He says, "These results shed light on the mechanisms of action of mindfulness-based training. They demonstrate that the first-person experience of stress cannot only be reduced with an 8-week mindfulness training program but that this experiential change corresponds with structural changes in the amygdala, a finding that opens doors to many possibilities for further research on MBSR's potential to protect against stress related disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder." Jha was not one of the study investigators.
James Carmody, PhD, of the Center for Mindfulness at University of Massachusetts Medical School, is one of co-authors of the study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the British Broadcasting Company, and the Mind and Life Institute.
Source of information: Massachusetts General Hospital (2011, January 21). Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in eight weeks. ScienceDaily. Edited by Sensei Mui.
.jpg)
