Yoga and meditation mentioned as positive benefits

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Meditation associated with increased grey matter in the brain

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=33448

Meditation is known to alter resting brain patterns, suggesting long

lasting brain changes, but a new study by researchers from Yale,

Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology shows meditation also is associated with

increased cortical thickness.

The structural changes were found in areas of the brain that are

important for sensory, cognitive and emotional processing, the

researchers report in the November issue of NeuroReport.

Although the study included only 20 participants, all with extensive

training in Buddhist Insight meditation, the results are significant,

said Gray, assistant professor of psychology at Yale and co-

author of the study led by Sara Lazar, assistant in psychology at

Massachusetts General Hospital.

" What is most fascinating to me is the suggestion that meditation

practice can change anyone's grey matter, " Gray said. " The study

participants were people with jobs and families. They just meditated

on average 40 minutes each day, you don't have to be a monk. "

Magnetic resonance imaging showed that regular practice of meditation

is associated with increased thickness in a subset of cortical

regions related to sensory, auditory, visual and internal perception,

such as heart rate or breathing. The researchers also found that

regular meditation practice may slow age-related thinning of the

frontal cortex.

" Most of the regions identified in this study were found in the right

hemisphere, " the researchers said. " The right hemisphere is essential

for sustaining attention, which is a central practice of Insight

meditation. "

They said other forms of yoga and meditation likely have a similar

impact on cortical structure, although each tradition would be

expected to have a slightly different pattern of cortical thickening

based on the specific mental exercises involved.

Co-authors include Kerr, Wasserman Jeffery Dusek,

Herbert Benson and Metta McGarvey, Harvard; Greve,

Quinn, Bruce Fischl, Treadway and Rauch, Massachusetts

General Hospital, and , Massachusetts Institute of

Technology.

NeuroReport 16: 1893-1897 (November 28, 2005)

http://www.yale.edu