Mindfulness Practice Leads to Increases in Regional Brain Gray Matter Density
Britta K. Hölzel,James Carmody,Mark Vangel,Christina Congleton,Sita M. Yerramsetti,Tim Gard,Tim Gard,Sara W. Lazar +7 more
TLDR
The results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.Abstract:
article i nfo Therapeutic interventions that incorporate training in mindfulness meditation have become increasingly popular, but to date little is known about neural mechanisms associated with these interventions. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), one of the most widely used mindfulness training programs, has been reported to produce positive effects on psychological well-being and to ameliorate symptoms of a number of disorders. Here, we report a controlled longitudinal study to investigate pre-post changes in brain gray matter concentration attributable to participation in an MBSR program. Anatomical magnetic resonance (MR) images from 16 healthy, meditation-naive participants were obtained before and after they underwent the 8-week program. Changes in gray matter concentration were investigated using voxel-based morphometry, and compared with a waiting list control group of 17 individuals. Analyses in a priori regions of interest confirmed increases in gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus. Whole brain analyses identified increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum in the MBSR group compared with the controls. The results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.read more
Citations
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How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective
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TL;DR: Mindfulness-based therapy is an effective treatment for a variety of psychological problems, and is especially effective for reducing anxiety, depression, and stress.
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Cognitive and emotional control of pain and its disruption in chronic pain
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Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity
TL;DR: This work investigated brain activity in experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls as they performed several different meditations to demonstrate differences in the default-mode network that are consistent with decreased mind-wandering.
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