>
> The benefits of meditation: Neuroscientists explain why the practice helps
> tune out distractions and relieve pain
>
> May 5th, 2011 in Neuroscience
>
>
>
> Studies have shown that meditating regularly can help relieve symptoms in
> people who suffer from chronic pain, but the neural mechanisms underlying the
> relief were unclear. Now, MIT and Harvard researchers have found a possible
> explanation for this phenomenon.
>
> In a study published online April 21 in the journal Brain Research Bulletin,
> the researchers found that people trained to meditate over an eight-week
> period were better able to control a specific type of brain waves called
> alpha rhythms.
>
> “These activity patterns are thought to minimize distractions, to diminish
> the likelihood stimuli will grab your attention,” says Christopher Moore, an
> MIT neuroscientist and senior author of the paper. “Our data indicate that
> meditation training makes you better at focusing, in part by allowing you to
> better regulate how things that arise will impact you.”
>
> There are several different types of brain waves that help regulate the flow
> of information between brain cells, similar to the way that radio stations
> broadcast at specific frequencies. Alpha waves, the focus of this study, flow
> through cells in the brain’s cortex, where sensory information is processed.
> The alpha waves help suppress irrelevant or distracting sensory information.
>
> A 1966 study showed that a group of Buddhist monks who meditated regularly
> had elevated alpha rhythms across their brains. In the new study, the
> researchers focused on the waves’ role in a specific part of the brain —
> cells of the sensory cortex that process tactile information from the hands
> and feet.
>
> For this study, the researchers recruited 12 subjects who had never meditated
> before. Half of the participants were trained in a technique called
> mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) over an eight-week period, while
> the other half were told not to meditate.
>
> The MBSR program calls for participants to meditate for 45 minutes per day,
> after an initial two-and-a-half-hour training session. The subjects listen to
> a CD recording that guides them through the sessions.
>
> The first two weeks are devoted to learning to pay close attention to body
> sensations. “They’re really learning to maintain and control their attention
> during the early part of the course. For example, they learn to focus
> sustained attention to the sensations of the breath; they also learn to
> engage and focus on body sensations in a specific area, such as the bottom of
> the feet, and then they practice disengaging and shifting the focus to
> another body area,” says Catherine Kerr, an instructor at Harvard Medical
> School and lead author of the paper.
>
> The researchers did brain scans of the subjects before the study began, three
> weeks into it, and at the end of eight weeks. At eight weeks, the subjects
> who had been trained in meditation showed larger changes in the size
> (amplitude) of their alpha waves when asked to pay attention to a certain
> body part — for example, “left foot.” These changes in wave size also
> occurred more rapidly in the meditators.
>
> The study is a “beautiful demonstration” of the effects of meditation
> training, and of the ability to cultivate an internal awareness of one’s own
> bodily sensations, says Clifford Saron, associate research scientist at the
> Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California at Davis, who was
> not involved in the research.
>
> Subjects in this study did not suffer from chronic pain, but the findings
> suggest that in pain sufferers who meditate, the beneficial effects may come
> from an ability to essentially turn down the volume on pain signals. “They
> learn to be aware of where their attention is focused and not get stuck on
> the painful area,” Kerr says.
>
> The subjects trained in meditation also reported that they felt less stress
> than the non-meditators. “Their objective condition might not have changed,
> but they’re not as reactive to their situation,” Kerr says. “They’re more
> able to handle stress.”
>
> The researchers are now planning follow-up studies in patients who suffer
> from chronic pain as well as cancer patients, who have also been shown to
> benefit from meditation.
>
> This story is republished courtesy of MIT News
> (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT
> research, innovation and teaching.
> Provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>
>
> "The benefits of meditation: Neuroscientists explain why the practice helps
> tune out distractions and relieve pain." May 5th, 2011.
> http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-benefits-meditation-neuroscientists-tune-distractions.html
>
