| The Memory Issue | Autumn 2008 |
Think Nothing of It It’s clear that meditation—a concentrated focus on the present moment—can increase relaxation. But its benefits may not end there. “Meditation appears to have profound effects on attention and emotion,” says Lazar, who has practiced meditation for more than a decade. “It can color the entire way one sees the world.” A growing body of evidence supports this claim, showing links between regular meditation and increased empathy, attention, and focus. Such changes, Lazar’s team posited, should be evident in the physiology of meditators. “We suspected that meditation alters the very way the brain is wired,” she says. To investigate, they recruited 20 men and women who regularly practiced Insight meditation, a technique that employs mindfulness, the nonjudgmental awareness of the present. While previous studies have centered on Buddhist monks, who meditate for hours at a time, Lazar’s subjects were everyday people. They practiced an average of 40 minutes of meditation—in this case, paying attention to their breathing and physical sensations without trying to change them—on most days of the week. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers compared brain scans of the meditators to those of non-meditating matched controls. They found that brain regions associated with attention, interoception, and sensory processing—namely, the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula—were thicker in subjects who meditated than in those who didn’t. The study, published in NeuroReport several years ago, confirmed what Lazar already suspected: When it comes to the brain, she says, “it isn’t just ‘use it or lose it,’ it’s ‘use it—and it grows.’ ” Previous studies have shown that other types of regular practice, such as learning to juggle or playing a musical instrument, are also associated with increased brain volume. Much the way physical exercise builds muscles, so too does mental training help shape the brain. The significance of this brain growth is still unclear but may have implications for memory preservation, says Lazar, whose team is currently conducting a cross-sectional study of meditators with increased cortical thickness to determine how they fare in tests of memory and attention. A longitudinal study, in which subjects’ brains will be examined both before and after learning to meditate, is also in the works. The potential value of meditation may be greatest for age-related memory loss: Lazar points out that increased prefrontal cortical thickness was most pronounced in older study subjects. “The 50-year-olds who meditated had the same thickness as the 20- to 30-year-old meditators and controls,” she explains. “That suggests regular meditation may slow rates of the cortical degeneration that comes with age.” Whether that means doctors’ new mantra should be, “Meditate for 40 minutes and call me in the morning” remains to be seen. So does the effect of other types of meditation and yoga on brain structure, although Lazar believes they may have similar benefits. What is certain is that meditation has officially made the leap from the province of yogis, monks, and New Age enthusiasts to the research laboratory—with promising results. That’s worth our attention. Jessica Cerretani is assistant editor for the Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin. Photo: ©istockphoto.com/Inga Ivanova |
|