>
>
>
> Evidence builds that meditation strengthens the brain, researchers say
>
> March 14th, 2012 in Neuroscience
>
> Earlier evidence out of UCLA suggested that meditating for years thickens the
> brain (in a good way) and strengthens the connections between brain cells.
> Now a further report by UCLA researchers suggests yet another benefit.
>
> Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro
> Imaging, and colleagues, have found that long-term meditators have larger
> amounts of gyrification ("folding" of the cortex, which may allow the brain
> to process information faster) than people who do not meditate. Further, a
> direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the
> number of meditation years, possibly providing further proof of the brain's
> neuroplasticity, or ability to adapt to environmental changes.
>
> The article appears in the online edition of the journal Frontiers in Human
> Neuroscience.
>
> The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of neural tissue. Among other
> functions, it plays a key role in memory, attention, thought and
> consciousness. Gyrification or cortical folding is the process by which the
> surface of the brain undergoes changes to create narrow furrows and folds
> called sulci and gyri. Their formation may promote and enhance neural
> processing. Presumably then, the more folding that occurs, the better the
> brain is at processing information, making decisions, forming memories and so
> forth.
>
> "Rather than just comparing meditators and non-meditators, we wanted to see
> if there is a link between the amount of meditation practice and the extent
> of brain alteration," said Luders. "That is, correlating the number of years
> of meditation with the degree of folding."
>
> The researchers took MRI scans of 50 meditators, 28 men and 22 women, and
> compared them to 50 control subjects matched for age, handedness and sex. The
> scans for the controls were obtained from an existing MRI database, while the
> meditators were recruited from various meditation venues. The meditators had
> practiced their craft on average for 20 years using a variety of meditation
> types — Samatha, Vipassana, Zen and more. The researchers applied a
> well-established and automated whole-brain approach to measure cortical
> gyrification at thousands of points across the surface of the brain.
>
> They found pronounced group differences (heightened levels of gyrification in
> active meditation practitioners) across a wide swatch of the cortex,
> including the left precentral gyrus, the left and right anterior dorsal
> insula, the right fusiform gyrus and the right cuneus.
>
> Perhaps most interesting, though, was the positive correlation between the
> number of meditation years and the amount of insular gyrification.
>
> "The insula has been suggested to function as a hub for autonomic, affective
> and cognitive integration," said Luders. "Meditators are known to be masters
> in introspection and awareness as well as emotional control and
> self-regulation, so the findings make sense that the longer someone has
> meditated, the higher the degree of folding in the insula."
>
> While Luders cautions that genetic and other environmental factors could have
> contributed to the effects the researchers observed, still, "The positive
> correlation between gyrification and the number of practice years supports
> the idea that meditation enhances regional gyrification."
>
> Provided by University of California - Los Angeles
>
>
> "Evidence builds that meditation strengthens the brain, researchers say."
> March 14th, 2012.
> http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-evidence-meditation-brain.html
>
