Meditation benefits the brain, scientifically proven
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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People who regularly practice meditation can learn to "turn off" areas of the brain associated with dreaminess, anxiety, schizophrenia and mental disorders, according to scientists at Yale University.
Studies of the brain of experienced meditators showed less activity in the center, known as the "default mode," which is associated largely with self-centered thinking. Scientists suggest that by controlling and suppressing or "tuning" the thought "I", meditators develop a new default mode that begins to dominate the center.
A report on its findings should be published this week in the journal of the National Academy of Sciences.
Meditation can help cope with various health problems, from quitting smoking, fighting cancer, and ending with the prevention of psoriasis, scientists say. For this study, they further examined the neurological mechanisms that may be involved in this process.
The lead author of the work, Judson A. Brewer, associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University and colleagues, conducted a fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) brain scan both in beginners and in experienced meditators during three different forms of meditation.
The scientists found that experienced meditators, regardless of the type of meditation, could turn off the default mode network, which was associated with attention impairments and disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety.
In this part of the brain, which includes the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex, there is an accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers also found that when the default mode was activated by experienced meditators, other parts of the brain associated with self-control and cognitive control were also active. This was not observed in the case of newcomers.
MRI scans showed that the meditative activity of experienced meditators during meditation was the same as during rest or in any type of activity.
Thus, scientists came to the conclusion that, perhaps, meditating people with experience have developed a new default mode that focuses more on the present than on oneself.
This study seems to have uncovered some clues about the neural mechanisms underlying the processes of development of mental illnesses. Understanding more about them, we hope to explore a variety of diseases, Brewer said.
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