Meditation Can Improve Brain Function
A new research study suggests learning a meditation technique can improve brain connectivity.
The technique – integrative body-mind training (IBMT) – has been the focus of intense scrutiny by a team of Chinese researchers led by Yi-Yuan Tang in collaboration with University of Oregon psychologist Michael I. Posner.
IBMT was adapted in the 1990s from traditional Chinese medicine and is practiced by thousands of Chinese people.
It is now being taught to undergraduates involved in research on the method at the University of Oregon.
The new research – published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – involved 45 UO students (28 males and 17 females). Twenty-two subjects received IBMT while 23 participants were in a control group that received the same amount of relaxation training.
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The experiments involved the use of brain-imaging equipment in the UO’s Robert and Beverly Lewis Center for Neuroimaging.
A type of magnetic resonance called diffusion tensor imaging allowed researchers to examine fibers connecting brain regions before and after training. The changes were strongest in connections involving the anterior cingulate, a brain area related to the ability to regulate emotions and behavior.
The changes were observed only in those who practiced meditation and not in the control group. The changes in connectivity began after six hours of training and became clear by 11 hours of practice.
The researchers said it is possible the changes resulted from a reorganization of white-matter tracts or by an increase of myelin that surrounds the connections.
“The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation,” said Posner.
“The pathway that has the largest change due to IBMT is one that previously was shown to relate to individual differences in the person’s ability to regulate conflict.”
In 2007 in PNAS, Tang, a visiting scholar at the UO, and Posner documented that doing IBMT for five days prior to a mental math test led to low levels of the stress hormone cortisol among Chinese students. The experimental group also showed lower levels of anxiety , depression , anger and fatigue than students in a
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