A team from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), affiliated with Harvard University, conducted a study that yielded unexpected results about the concrete impact of meditation on human brain structure. For the first time, MRI scans following an 8-week mindfulness meditation program provided conclusive proof that meditation causes "massive changes" in the gray matter of the brain.
Senior study author Sara Lazar, a psychology instructor at Harvard Medical School and member of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, said that those who meditate are doing more than just feeling better. The corresponding long-lasting increases in pleasant and calming emotions are actually being caused by structural changes in their brains.
Fellow MGH researcher Sue McGreevey notes that previous studies by Lazar’s group found structural differences in the brains of meditation practitioners compared to those with no prior experience most notably in the thickening of the cerebral cortex; the area responsible for attention and emotional integration. These prior studies, however could not narrow down the structural differences to meditation specifically until now.
This most recent study found that an average of 27 minutes of a daily practice of mindfulness exercises stimulated a significant boost in gray matter density, specifically in the hippocampus; the area of the brain in which self-awareness, compassion, and introspection are associated. Furthermore, this boost of gray matter density in the hippocampus was also directly correlational to a decreased gray matter density in the amygdala; an area of the brain known to be instrumental in regulating anxiety and stress responses. In stark contrast, the control group did not have any changes occur in either region of the brain thus ruling out merely the passage of time as a factor of influence regarding the drastic change in gray matter density fluctuations.
MGH fellow out of Glessen University in Germany, Britta Hölzel, states that neuroscientists are finding far more plasitidity in brain structure than anticipated and that most importantly we are now aware from a scientific point of view that we can play a very active role in altering our brain structure to improve our overall well-being and quality of life.
References
Feelguide November 19, 2014. Harvard Unveils MRI Study Proving
Meditation Literally Rebuilds the Brain’s Gray Matter in 8 Weeks.
Health, Spirituality, the Human Brain. Retrieved from:
http://www.feelguide.com/2014/11/19/harvard-unveils-mri-study-proving-meditation-literally-rebuilds-the-brains-gray-matter-in-8-weeks/
McGreevey, S. January 21, 2011. Eight weeks to a better brain; Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress. Harvard gazette. Retrieved from: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/
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