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Related Experiment Videos

Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness.

Sara W Lazar1, Catherine E Kerr, Rachel H Wasserman

  • 1Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. lazar@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu

Neuroreport
|November 8, 2005
PubMed
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Extensive meditation practice is linked to thicker brain regions involved in attention and sensory processing. This structural brain plasticity may even counteract age-related thinning, especially in older adults.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroimaging

Background:

  • Long-term meditation practice is associated with lasting changes in brain activity, as evidenced by electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns.
  • Previous research suggests potential neurological alterations, but structural brain changes remained largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether extensive meditation practice is associated with measurable changes in brain structure, specifically cortical thickness.
  • To explore the relationship between meditation experience and cortical thickness in key brain regions.

Main Methods:

  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was employed to measure cortical thickness.
  • Twenty participants with extensive Insight meditation experience were compared to matched control individuals.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Cortical thickness was analyzed in brain regions associated with attention, interoception, and sensory processing.

    • Main Results:

    • Meditation practitioners exhibited significantly thicker cortices in regions like the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula compared to controls.
    • Differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were more pronounced in older participants, suggesting a potential mitigation of age-related thinning.
    • The thickness of two specific brain regions showed a positive correlation with the extent of meditation experience.

    Conclusions:

    • These findings provide the first structural evidence for experience-dependent cortical plasticity in the brain associated with meditation practice.
    • Meditation may induce lasting physical changes in the brain, particularly in areas crucial for cognitive functions.
    • The results suggest meditation could be a potential intervention to offset age-related structural brain changes.