Meditation Research Update

Brain changes that link mindfulness meditation withhealth-related benefits

New research from Carnegie Mellon University provides a window into the brain changes that link mindfulness meditation training with health in stressed adults. Published in Biological Psychiatry, the study shows that mindfulness meditation training, compared to relaxation training, reduces Interleukin-6, an inflammatory health biomarker, in high-stress, unemployed community adults.

The randomized controlled trial involved 35 stressed-adult-job-seekers; one group were exposed to an intensive three-day mindfulness meditation retreat program, the second group to a well-matched relaxation retreat program which did not have a mindfulness component.

Participants completed a five-minute resting state brain scan before and after the three-day program; and provided blood samples before the program and at a follow up four-months later.

The brain scans showed:

* mindfulness meditation training increased the functional connectivity of the participants' resting default mode network in areas important to attention and executive control (namely the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and had reduced IL-6 levels (inflammation levels)

* Participants who attended the relaxation training did not show these brain changes.

"We think that these brain changes provide a neurobiological marker for improved executive control and stress resilience, such that mindfulness meditation training improves your brain's ability to help you manage stress, and these changes improve a broad range of stress-related health outcomes, such as your inflammatory health," David Creswell, lead author and associate professor of psychology in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Meditation shown to reduce pain during breast cancer biopsy

Researchers, from the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, NC, publish their findings in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

A study of 121 women who needed breast biopsies where placed into three groups: guided meditation, music and a standard-care control group.

During the biopsy, the women in the meditation group listened to an "audio-recorded, guided, loving-kindness meditation," which focused on acquiring positive emotions and releasing negative ones.

You can view a video demonstration of the guided meditationused in the study here.

The women in the music group listened to relaxing music (a choice of instrumental jazz, classical piano, harp and flute, nature sounds or world music) and the control group received supportive words from the biopsy team.

Patients filled out questionnaires that measured nervousness and anxiety, and ranked their biopsy pain from 0-10.

'Results showed that the women in the meditation and music groups reported much greater post-biopsy reductions in anxiety and fatigue, compared with the control group, which reported increased fatigue.  Furthermore, the women in the meditation group experienced significantly lower pain during the biopsy, compared with the women in the music group'.

Shifting to the RIGHT

Also in our meditation class this week we discussed that in meditation we are shifting from 'thinking' brain to 'sensing' brain.

This is your brain talking!

Ok .. so the picture caught my eye .. and then I read the content of the article; and since I have been finding a lot of interesting articles naturally coming my way of late about meditation and what happens in our brain .. I thought I would share this one with you all as well.

Last week I posted a few different meditation + brain inspired posts here & here.

This one today is from Lifehacker ("Part technology guide, part productivity tool, Lifehacker helps you organise your workday and maximise your playtime") in an article titled What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate (And How it Benefits You). 

I thought the breakdown of what is happening in this picture might be of interest; what you are seeing his how the beta waves (shown in bright colors on the left) are dramatically reduced during meditation (on the right).  But what does this mean?

Frontal lobe

This is the most highly evolved part of the brain, responsible for reasoning, planning, emotions and self-conscious awareness. During meditation, the frontal cortex tends to go offline.

Parietal lobe

This part of the brain processes sensory information about the surrounding world, orienting you in time and space. During meditation, activity in the parietal lobe slows down.

Thalamus

The gatekeeper for the senses, this organ focuses your attention by funneling some sensory data deeper into the brain and stopping other signals in their tracks. Meditation reduces the flow of incoming information to a trickle.

Reticular formation

As the brain’s sentry, this structure receives incoming stimuli and puts the brain on alert, ready to respond. Meditating dials back the arousal signal.

Interesting isn't it .. 

Leftie or Rightie?

So loved this beautiful image that I found while wandering across the internet this week (I am unsure of the owner - so if you know please share so I can give credit where due).

Following on from my recent post about current research into meditation and the challenge science has in understanding a subjective, internal and contemplative experience; I was doing some further research and came across this amazing picture which represents what we most commonly understand to be the traits of our brain - and where we might be when meditating.

According to the theory of left-brain or right-brain dominance, each side of the brain controls different types of thinking. Today, neuroscientists know that the two sides of the brain actually work much more closely together to perform a wide variety of tasks than thought, and that the two hemispheres communicate through the corpus collosum. 

So we definitely have a left and right brain and there are common traits that are attributed to each hemisphere of the brain that can be interesting to note: 

The left brain is analytical and task-oriented. This is where most of us reside, most of the day ie.- most of us are left brain dominated in life.  The left-side of the brain is considered strongest in tasks involving logic, language and analytical thinking.  Here is where solutions are found and critical thinking happens, where numbers and language preside, where we access past and present experience to evaluate and decide on how to move forward. 

The right brain is our ‘wild child’ invoking creativity, free thought and expression .. where new ideas develop and intuitive thought flows.  The right-side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks, where we recognise colour, images, read and express emotions.  We often feel 'unbalanced' by not nourishing our right brain in life. 

SHIFTING TO THE RIGHT 

From ancient times and practices we have exercises that support us in shifting from left brain to right brain focus. You might like to try some of these exercises and notice how they might 'free' up your creativity and focus. 

1. Left Hand Focus: by bringing our awareness and focus to our left hand we tap into our right brain - the home of imagination and expansiveness.  I have also read that this also happens if you balance on your left foot for a short time. 

2. Breathe: By holding our right nostril and breathing for a few moments ONLY through the left nostril we are also tapping into our right brain (the yoga tradition believes that each nostril aligns with the opposite side of the brain). 

3. Writing with the ‘wrong hand’: so for me that means using my left hand for writing or easy tasks (not boiling cups of coffee) as this is controlled by the right side of my brain - read more here 

I would definitely recommend also watching this AMAZING Ted talk by Jill Bolte Taylor who experienced a stroke that flooded the left hemisphere of her brain, deteriorating her ability to process information, and tossing her into a right brain world "where inner peace was just a thought away".