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The benefits of meditation have received newfound evidence from neuroscience in the last five years, as researchers are finding real physiological changes due to a sort of formally practiced introspection.
Recently scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital had 16 participants take an eight-week mindfulness meditation program. This sort of meditation focuses on nonjudgmental awareness of sensations and feelings. Subjects practiced for about 30 minutes a day.
Brain images were taken of each subject before and after the training. Scientists found increases in gray-matter density in the hippocampus—an area responsible for learning and memory. And they saw decreased density in the amygdala—which is responsible for our anxiety and stress responses.
One area that did not change is the insula, which is associated with self-awareness. The researchers speculate that longer-term meditation might be necessary to affect that area.
All this reminds us of two things: 1) The brain is much more plastic than scientists thought even just a decade ago and 2) the way we feel—calm or anxious—can be correlated with real structural indicators in our brains.
—Christie Nicholson
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50 Comments
Add CommentI wouldn't expect any change in self-awareness regions, ever. The concept of the self is just that - a concept. One among the string of others that come and go moment to moment. The notion of the self has no basis in reality. This is not to say it is to be dispensed with. This is a sort of Zen Koan.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm an English learner and I can't understand what "non-judgmental awareness of sensations and feelings" is like. I can't even draw a vague picture of it. If you don't mind, please tell me what it is like.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are several types of meditation, but here is what I think they are doing. Sit in a comfortable, quiet place. Pay attention to something -- it may be your breath (feel it go in and out your nose), it may be a mantra (some words, in your language or another -- it may not make sense to you), watch a candle flame, or a puzzle (koan). Thoughts will enter your mind. It may be problems, things you need to do, something that happened recently, anything, it doesn't matter. Notice it, do not force it out, do not react to it, but let it go and return to your meditation. Do not get upset that the thoughts are there. Do not chase them. They come, they go. Return to your meditation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've been learning English for 60 years now as my primary language and I don't know precisely what the author or any reader might interpret "non-judgmental awareness of sensations and feelings" to mean.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps its imprecision, producing imaginative attempts at interpretation, is its sole intended purpose...
tshilson has the right of it. If you need a blow by blow interpretation of "non-judgmental awareness of sensations & feelings" - here it is:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNon-judgmental - this means that you should not evaluate any thought or feeling that you experience or notice in your meditation as either 'good' or 'bad'. Just notice it but do not evaluate or judge it.
Awareness - you notice something - either a thought or emotion or physical sensation.
So - a non-judgemental awareness of a thought would be something like this: You are sitting in meditation watching/feeling your breath come in and out of your nose and this thought pops into your head: "I am really too busy to visit Mom in the hospital this week so I am not going to go see her." You are AWARE of the thought and then you might normally then immediately judge this thought to be selfish or bad, or to judge yourself for being selfish or bad. To be NON-JUDGEMENTAL of that thought would be to simply acknowledge that thought - you are too busy to visit mom in the hospital this week - and DO NOT EVALUATE OR JUDGE IT as either good or bad - it is only a thought. You then let it go and return your attention to your breath.
Likewise, any other thought, physical sensation (pain, pressure, heat, cold, or emotion, anger, happiness, sadness whatever you become aware of your thoughts, sounds, feelings, you just notice them, no judgement or evaluation of it, and return to paying attention to your breathing.
Hope this helps....
A difficulty with meditation is that implementing it does not experimentally change just one thing. Meditation is not a single behaviour but a combinatorial change in many behaviours. Which aspects of mindfulness-based techniques are crucial and which are not remain unknown as far as I'm aware.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe benefits are also difficult to demonstrate experimentally, as very few studies on meditation use proper control subjects. (I admit that proper controls are difficult to design, but this is only because the practice is often treated as a single variable and not many). Given what was reported about this experiment, it seems as though controls where not used. When they are, significant changes in physiological stress responses are often not found.
Long-term meditation may to lead to profound changes physiology, but I'm still skeptical of most studies done on the subject (a few years ago I tried to write a paper on the health benefits of meditation that turned into more of a critique than a recommendation!). Cheers
As someone diagnosed with an anxiety disorder ... I find meditation impossible to manage without drifting off.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if people like me would perceive a change in anxiety and whether the scan would match the reality of the person.
Also, did the brain scan matched how people felt/tested initially and afterwards as well.
hmm ... I clicked on the link and watched and noticed it was about attention not anxiety.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSurprisingly, I saw 8 and 5 (but I wasn't completely confident about the 5) and then went back and by looking to see if the numbers I saw were correct and found I saw them more easily and clearly.
Questions I had were did they know they were looking for numbers or not ahead of time?
The fact that the 2nd pass was so much clearer to me makes the study potentially useless.
PS Any possibility of a link to the research on-line?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNon judgmental awareness. You sit quietly. A thought or emotion arises. You note it, you observe it, you welcome it. You do not follow it, nor to you become overwhelmed by it. Then You let it go.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou realize that you are not your thoughts, not your emotions.
There is no suppression of any thought or emotion. They are just your frontal cortex or amygdala working, perhaps an emotion is an inherited
thing that once protected your ancestors. You observe them but do not judge them. They are neither right nor wrong, neither good nor bad. They just exist, like your breathing exists. Then they leave.
Those who answered my question, thank you very much.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow I think I grasp what the expression means.
The idea of just letting emotions go without judging whether they are good or bad sounds very fresh to me.
I'm rather of nervous temperament but this might help:)
Some helpful information seems to have not been included in the podcast. Some may be interested to know that the principal investigator on the research is Sara Lazar at MGH, http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~lazar/index.html, and that the research referred to in the news snippet will be reported in a paper to appear in the 30 January 2011 issue of "Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisChristie Nicholson you are a beauty! A redhead woman very sympathetic!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBUT where is the link to the research? How is good read an abstract complementarily to the podcast!
My point of view is that we can influence our thinks during meditation. Our minds do not function like an absent mind. It is said that we build a think named *the observer* while meditating that have the primordial obligation of observe our thoughts, but additionally we can influence the fluency of our thoughts also. Only observe is create a void that is not proper of human beings that we are.
For me when we reach that state very near of sleep our subconscious (or unconscious, if we prefer) is made accessible as if a door was ajar, and in that moment we can suggest a plan of action (or the intention of it) for our interior *I* (our subconscious, of course). In this state of mind, between sleep and awareness, the chance of a positive sentence be accepted is much intensified. A sentence like: I need stop drinking and I am totally resolved to stop drinking. Or any other positive sentence feasible.
To achieved that state of mind and take advantage of it we have to create three *entities* in our minds:
(01)*the Observer*, (02)*the controller* and (03)*the controlled*.
*The observer* is our conscious mind observing our thoughts.
*The controller* is our conscious mind given suggestions to our subconscious.
And *the controlled* is our subconscious receiving suggestions from our conscious mind.
In my point of view all that process that is named self suggestion is very, but very akin, with meditation. Because I think that meditation not has to be a thing nihilist and void of sense, but an action with a rational purpose.
It is my point of view and the way that I practice meditation. In other words I practice meditation for self-knowledge and to control (give commands to) my interior *I*.
There are a great number of sites that explain about meditation. I suggest this link:
http://viewonbuddhism.org/meditation_practice.html
In this link you can read *From Ani Tenzin Palmo, Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism:*, that somehow supports my point of view. In the site the Buddhist text is beside and below the picture of the Dalai Lama.
16 participants, no controls, this isn't science, it's little better than guess work. I am all for meditation and the hypothesis that it produces structural changes in the brain is consistent with current theories. I suppose I should be grateful that they didn't claim to have "proved" it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBefore anyone gets too upset let me suggest some of the ways that this data could be skewed. Non-representative sample; with 16 people it is impossible to cover a reasonable range of ages and ethnicities. Confirmation bias; experimenters, with all the good will and integrity in the world,still tend to find data to support their hypothesis. Publication bias; journals tend to publish positive results, 16 people no changes means no publication. Randomness means if you do the same study often enough (especially with 16 people)sooner or later you will get a correlation.
Still a headline like "Preliminary Study Finds Weak Evidence of Possible Correlation...." doesn't grab the eye quite the same way though, does it?
Do we know what kind of medidators were invovled, were ther any meditators practising TM?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are looking for understanding through study. There's a kind of deep understanding that comes through experience, not study. Words fail if those in discussion have not personally experienced that which is being discussed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA description of what is needed to put a wish into effect came to me via G I Gurdjieff, John Bennett, or some other source (i.e., I'm not certain of the provenance of these ideas).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn Wikipedia's entry on "Centers (Fourth Way)" it states, "There are three main centers: intellectual, emotional, and moving." These are similar, in my mind, to the three bodies in other traditions. The moving center ties to the physical body, the emotional brain to the psychic or astral body, the intellectual brain to the mental or causal body.
With this in mind, when one has a block that interferes with a "more perfect" life in one of the brain/bodies, one must call both the other brains/bodies into action. Either on its own is not powerful enough to overcome the block.
"non-judgmental awareness of sensations and feelings"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis means one takes an observer perspective on one's own thoughts, emotions, and sensations, watching them come and go. However, one observes, as much as possible, with the attitude of an impartial observer. Whether something is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, one watches without trying to control it, judge it, suppress it, or interfere with it. The thought, emotion, or sensation is allowed to come and go of it's own accord, without feeding into it and without trying to get rid of it. In Buddhist terms, the phrase "non-judgmental awareness of sensations and feelings" corresponds to mindfulness (awareness) and equanimity (non-judgmental).
This is not easy to do for most people. However, one does it to the degree one can, and with practice, the ability naturally increases. This generalizes to everyday life experiences, and allows us to better tolerate difficulties. We can still respond appropriately but we are not so debilitate by them.
This is not apathy. One still experiences normal emotions and can respond proactively. However, in developing this skill we reduce our own internal friction and function more efficiently. If action is called for, then it is more graceful and efficient. If action is not called for, then we have a greater capacity to rest and conserve our resources.
I have also been diagnosed with anxiety and have found meditation helpful. Like anything, it takes practice. Comment #3 from tshilson seems to sum up a meditation session perfectly. Give it a chance and do not be discouraged by a poor session! I have good sessions and bad sessions. Most of the first sessions were very poor, but I found after some time that they became much easier. Maybe start with ten minutes at a time and slowly build up to 30 minutes a day. Honestly, I still have my anxiety issues but am finding them easier and less scary to deal with the more I meditate. Good luck.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour Frontal Cortex is the rationalizing mechanism of your mind. Making inferences from past impressions for future possibilities - or you enter a dwelling state.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMeditation is entering the state of providing this rationalizing mind a space to relax and take a breather - just as our muscles need time to rejuvenate, our mind needs sleep on a primal level to recoop and meditation on a modern level to release modern stressors.
Non-judgmental awareness is the gap between thoughts when you're in a state of silent watchfulness, the space where you are not rationalizing the moment or verbalizing it rather you are simple witnessing it. If you'd like to learn more check out www.modernmeditation.ca
I did not read the details of the research study in question, but, if lack of control subjects is confirmed, much can be said about the scientific quality, or lack of it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell controlled scientific studies are out there, however. For a fairly recent review of these and a good explanation of Focused Attention (FA) and Open Monitoring (OM) types of meditation the following link might help.
http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/~lutz/Lutz_attention_regulation_monitoring_meditation_tics_2008.pdf
Also, a recent article in New Scientist talks about recent studies on the effects of these types of meditation on the brain.
Finally, you may Youtube Matthieu Ricard, a French molecular genticist turned Buddist monk.
I have been interested in the effects of meditation on brain structures and processes for quite some time. I found this quite interesting, as my own experience with meditation some years back had quite a profound impact on my life. I am surprised at the actual structural changes though, one would think its benefits would stop at the neurochemical level before effecting the actual density of grey matter in hippocampus and amygdala. Anyone still doubt neural plasticity?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPS a GREAT book for meditators: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
I have been interested in the effects of meditation on brain structures and processes for quite some time. I found this quite interesting, as my own experience with meditation some years back had quite a profound impact on my life. I am surprised at the actual structural changes though, one would think its benefits would stop at the neurochemical level before effecting the actual density of grey matter in hippocampus and amygdala. Anyone still doubt neural plasticity?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPS a GREAT book for meditators: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
I am an "English learner" therefore I can not understand the concepts that are not "English" orientated, because it in not in my nature to think outside the "English" box? What does meditation have to do with being English, or any other nationality? The study indicates that there are clear benefits of meditation and it is good for relieving stress and anxiety, so the best response is that, one can not understand because someone is "English"? No where in the article does it say that non-English people are more apt to use meditation, because they are non-English?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey need to change the name of Scientific American to Unscientific American. The Druids were better than some of the commentators here.
Old English. Middle English. Modern (Earth) English.
What some call meditation others might call reflective thought; the distinction would be degree of volitional activity;perhaps meditation is more akin to basic sensory awareness. When I meditate I am acutely aware of what others are saying as it relates to questions I've posed previously i.e. willingness to remain open to an answer
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll emotion is volitional, mediated through the limbic center; biofeedback provides good evidence
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTwo things:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) Like when I moved from LA to Iowa, I didn't realize how much stress I was in from that environment, until it was all removed. In kind, I didn't realize how chattery my brain was (non-stop monologue with itself) until I started meditating a few times a week. One day I noticed it had stopped; and there was this wonderfull silent calmness that filled in its place.
2) for proof (using the scientific method) of how meditation changes your brain, get a copy of "How God Changes Your Brain".
A good example might be: When sit in the normal position for meditation for the first time, it can be physically uncomfortable, and when you're subjected to discomfort for extended periods, you might feel frustration as a result. As you meditate, when you notice the physical discomfort and the frustration, you wouldnt react to them. You notice, accept them as truth, as simply existing, but without positive or negative judgement, and continue passively. What is..is.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes Michael Apollo (#20), that's the silence that filled the gap left by the on-going useless chatter, your "silent watchfulness" - it's marvelous.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNon judgmental simply means refusing to assess your opinions on the rightness, or the wrongness, or even the appropriateness of a thought, and idea, or even a picture that comes to you. Do not attempt to make a logical connect with the sequence of the ideas. Simply observe your mind at work from the starting point of your meditation. Sometimes a "brilliant" idea might surface out of nowhere. I keep a little notebook by my side to scribble down a memo, but treat the idea as a distraction and continue to follow your mind's guide through time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article is
Hölzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., et al. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36-43. (10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006)
There is an in-press version available on Lazar's lab's publications page:
http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~lazar/publications.html
It is currently located at the bottom of the articles section. If it moves, search on:
"Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density"
There is an in-press version available on Lazar's lab's publications page:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~lazar/publications.html
Search on "Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density"
I read this article in a longer form,and was intrigued by the possibilities. It seems that this method is useful for those with brain trauma also, (i.e.P.T.S.D.) It seems to work.Whether the Tricare folks will allow it for the Military, remains to be seen. Though with anything that challenges the status quo, especially where others money is concerned, there's always a big fight to impliment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe authors of this study did use a waiting list control group (N=17), but while random assignment to the treatment and control groups might be assumed, there is is no mention of this in their paper. The eight-week mindfulness meditation program (MBSR)is a group anxiety reduction program containing number of elements which are not specifically meditation techniques (group contact and support, stretching exercises etc). There was no control for these. These are fairly obvious points, which I would expect to be made in a Scientific American article. Regrettably, there were not.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt softens and the memememyglyia grows exponentially! :O)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisagree with all4kindness2all. with anxiety disorder it seems impossible to meditate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this> non-judgmental awareness of sensations and feelings <
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe idea is that while meditating you let stuff float in and out of your consciousness, but you don't analyse it or act on it.
In other words, you allow sensations (a sound, a taste, etc.) and feelings (a memory of something that happened earlier in the day, an image, etc.) to come into your awareness. You don't reject those sensations and feelings, but you don't 'think about them' either.
Does that make sense?
Yes, your comment makes sense, though greatly simplified. This form of meditation, (there are many,) is like watching your subliminal consciousness at work, by emptying your mind of left brain directed volition, (no calculating, analyzing, or goal directed thinking;) and also by ignoring right brain directed emotion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRandom assignment is a valuable approach, but not the only useful study design. Each participant was scanned before and after the intervention, thus serving as one level of control (within subjects design). In addition, a similar group (screened on factors likely to affect outcome), was screened before and after the study period to control for passage-of-time effects, thus serving as a second level of control (between subjects design).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBecause only so many things can be tested for at once without having extremely large participant groups, it is customary to list the factors to be checked in follow-up studies. The authors did list the factors you mentioned. It will be exciting to watch as they or others follow up on testing for possible moderating factors.
Hope this is helpful! :)
Excellent description!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislive, meditate, pray.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is an accurate description of the self in the Buddhist tradition--the self is the collection of our thoughts. The Vedic tradition has a different understanding of the self. In the Vedic tradition, the "self" is described as ranging from the individual experiencer, who thinks and acts, to a universal reality, called Atman, that underlies individuals. Research on meditations in the Vedic tradition do report distinct brain patterns that are associated with these different descriptions of self.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCome on Sci Am, where is the citation? A finding like this is so improbable as to be immediately suspect. The fact that neither the authors nor journal have been listed makes be think this is a junk finding.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI mean honestly, 28 hours of meditation over 2 months? You've got to be kidding.
Yeah, that hypothesized increase in hippocampal volume is a paltry effect size. I bet they can't replicate it. I mean look at the size of the confidence intervals relative to the magnitude of the actual difference in values. As for whole-brain analyses, even if they did correct appropriately, these kinds of studies are bound to turn up random effects all over the place. You have to wonder if they ignored significantly increased volume in control subjects in other brain regions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd of course, the kicker. All of the measurements are relative changes in volume or "grey matter concentration" (GMC). Alright, then, what was the initial GMC? Oh, I guess they don't report that. So in other words, a change in GMC of .015 (i.e. the largest magnitude change they show) could be a tiny fractional change in actual volume. So even if it turns out that this effect can be replicated and isn't measurement error, I'm willing to be that it represents virtually no actual difference in the size of these brain regions.
But hey, it's more reasonable to believe that 24 hours worth of meditation makes a big difference in brain structure than that someone would publish a rubbish finding, right?
You have a good point about citations. I wish the media would always include them. Meanwhile, there is a link to the paper in comment 31 of this thread.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt does sound pretty incredible. Based on what we learned a few years ago in school, it sounds almost impossible. Recent research into brain plasticity is painting a picture of a very nimble brain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe study under discussion here (see cite below) is building on five earlier peer-reviewed studies, which are listed in the paper.
Holzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., et al. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36-43. 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006)
I saw a similar study some years ago on Sci. Am. A few monks were being monitored as they prayed utilizing a CT scan on their brain. What it showed is, as the meditated, the glows on both hemispheres eventually connected both hemispheres, thus forming a circle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisztansfi, has made an academically correct criticism of the acceptability of this data, from a scholarly viewpoint. However, I doubt that the editor of this particular column could have presented the true rigor that guided the research in a magazine article, so at best our critic is simply calling for background to which he would not be entitled on this forum. Personally, I don't need research to prove to me that meditation occasions changes in brain structure, since the beneficial mental changes in meditation are obvious to any reasoning practitioner, and every physicalist believes that all mental changes are supervenient on physical change, ergo there must be physical changes. The task then becomes not one of proof, but of discovery, or proof of discovery, if you will. On that basis therefore I am willing to believe in the acceptability of the research, provided it can be proved to be controlled research, and not another case of desk top cold fusion fakery.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree that meditation is capable of stopping nerves and stress, but when it comes to changing more then just that I become doubtful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMeditation is means of relaxation, all you are doing in relaxing your body and mind, not changing it.
This sort of stuff is what I like to refer to as "mind-medicine". If you believe that meditation will help you then it will in your mind, but for people that don't believe in it they can sit there for however long they like and not feel any different.
It's true that meditation can reduce levels of depression, stress, anxiety and anger. I've been practicing Zazen meditation for a while, and have seen many of the benefits. I do notice when I stop meditating, that I start to sink back into my old pattersn. I appreciate this article. http://www.personaltrainerofchicago.com
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