TUESDAY, Jan. 25 (HealthDay News) -- A mindfulness meditation
training program can trigger measurable changes in brain areas
associated with awareness, empathy and sense of self within eight
weeks, a new study has found.
Mindfulness meditation focuses on nonjudgmental awareness of
one's feelings, sensations and state of mind, which often results
in greater peacefulness and relaxation, the researchers
explained.
They used MRI to assess the brain structure of 16 volunteers two
weeks before and after they took the eight-week Mindfulness-Based
Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Center
for Mindfulness. The program included weekly meetings to practice
mindfulness meditation and audio recordings for guided meditation
practice. The participants were asked to keep track of how much
time they practiced each day.
The researchers also analyzed MRI scans of a control group of
people who did not meditate for comparison.
The meditation group participants spent an average of 27 minutes
a day doing mindfulness meditation exercises. The MRI scans taken
after the eight-week program revealed increased gray matter density
in the hippocampus (important for learning and memory) and in
structures associated with compassion and self-awareness.
The investigators also found that participant-reported
reductions in stress were associated with decreased gray matter
density in the amygdala, which plays a role in anxiety and
stress.
None of these brain structure changes were seen in the control
group.
"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," first author Britta Holzel, a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston and Giessen University in Germany, said in an MGH news release.
"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."
The study will be published in the Jan. 30 issue of the journal
Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.
More information
The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine has more about
meditation.