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> Compassion meditation may boost neural basis of empathy, study finds
>
> October 4th, 2012 in Psychology & Psychiatry
> The idea behind the compassion-based meditation is that "the feelings we have
> about people can be trained in optimal ways," says Lobsang Tenzin Negi, who
> developed the protocol.
>
> (Medical Xpress)—A compassion-based meditation program can significantly
> improve a person's ability to read the facial expressions of others, finds a
> study published by Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. This boost in
> empathic accuracy was detected through both behavioral testing of the study
> participants and through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans
> of their brain activity.
>
> "It's an intriguing result, suggesting that a behavioral intervention could
> enhance a key aspect of empathy," says lead author Jennifer Mascaro, a
> post-doctoral fellow in anthropology at Emory University. "Previous research
> has shown that both children and adults who are better at reading the
> emotional expressions of others have better relationships."
>
> The meditation protocol, known as Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, or
> CBCT, was developed at Emory by study co-author Lobsang Tenzin Negi, director
> of the Emory-Tibet Partnership. Although derived from ancient Tibetan
> Buddhist practices, the CBCT program is secular in content and presentation.
>
> The research team also included senior author Charles Raison, formerly a
> psychiatrist at Emory's School of Medicine and currently at the University of
> Arizona, and Emory anthropologist James Rilling.
>
> When most people think of meditation, they think of a style known as
> "mindfulness," in which practitioners seek to improve their ability to
> concentrate and to be non-judgmentally aware of their thoughts and feelings.
> While CBCT includes these mindfulness elements, the practice focuses more
> specifically on training people to analyze and reinterpret their
> relationships with others.
>
> "The idea is that the feelings we have about people can be trained in optimal
> ways," Negi explains. "CBCT aims to condition one's mind to recognize how we
> are all inter-dependent, and that everybody desires to be happy and free from
> suffering at a deep level."
>
> Study participants were healthy adults without prior meditation experience.
> Thirteen participants randomized to CBCT meditation completed regular weekly
> training sessions and at-home practice for eight weeks. Eight randomized
> control subjects did not meditate, but instead completed health discussion
> classes that covered mind-body subjects like the effects of exercise and
> stress on well-being.
>
> To test empathic accuracy before and following CBCT, all participants
> received fMRI brain scans while completing a modified version of the Reading
> the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). The RMET consists of black-and-white
> photographs that show just the eye region of people making various
> expressions. Those being tested must judge what the person in the photograph
> is thinking or feeling.
>
> Eight out of the 13 participants in the CBCT meditation group improved their
> RMET scores by an average of 4.6 percent, while the control participants
> showed no increase, and in the majority of cases, a decrease in correct
> answers for the RMET.
>
> The meditators, in comparison to those in the control group, also had
> significant increases in neural activity in areas of the brain important for
> empathy, including the inferior frontal gyrus and dorsomedial prefrontal
> cortex. These changes in brain activity accounted for changes in the empathic
> accuracy scores of the participants.
>
> "These findings raise the intriguing possibility that CBCT may have enhanced
> empathic abilities by increasing activity in parts of the brain that are of
> central importance for our ability to recognize the emotional states of
> others," Raison says. "An important next step will be to evaluate the effects
> of CBCT on diverse populations that may particularly benefit from enhanced
> empathic accuracy, such as those suffering from high-functioning autism or
> severe depression."
>
> Findings from the current study add to a growing database indicating that the
> CBCT style of meditation may have physical and emotional effects relevant to
> health and well-being. For example, previous research at Emory found that
> practicing CBCT reduced emotional distress and enhanced physical resilience
> in response to stress in both healthy young adults and in high-risk
> adolescents in foster care.
>
> Provided by Emory University
>
>
> "Compassion meditation may boost neural basis of empathy, study finds."
> October 4th, 2012.
> http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-compassion-meditation-boost-neural-basis.html
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