Effects of Long-Term Mindfulness Meditation on Brain's White Matter Microstructure and its Aging

Laneri, Davide; Schuster, Verena; Dietsche, Bruno; Jansen, Andreas; Ott, Ulrich; Sommer, Jens

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2015.00254

Cited by 52 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…This points to the AI's role in generating an interoceptive representation while affectively and empathically sharing another's embarrassing moments. Previous studies investigated structural changes in LTM practitioners and have suggested increased thickness [Lazar et al, ], increased cortical folding complexity [Luders et al, ], as well as increased connectivity of white matter within the insula cortex in meditators [Laneri et al, ]. These structural changes might constitute the architecture that underlies altered functioning of the AI cortex in LTM practitioners.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindfulness meditation regulates anterior insula activity during empathy for social pain

Laneri

Krach

Paulus

et al. 2017

Human Brain Mapping

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Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress, promote health, and well-being, as well as to increase compassionate behavior toward others. It reduces distress to one's own painful experiences, going along with altered neural responses, by enhancing self-regulatory processes and decreasing emotional reactivity. In order to investigate if mindfulness similarly reduces distress and neural activations associated with empathy for others' socially painful experiences, which might in the following more strongly motivate prosocial behavior, the present study compared trait, and state effects of long-term mindfulness meditation (LTM) practice. To do so we acquired behavioral data and neural activity measures using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an empathy for social pain task while manipulating the meditation state between two groups of LTM practitioners that were matched with a control group. The results show increased activations of the anterior insula (AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as well as the medial prefrontal cortex and temporal pole when sharing others' social suffering, both in LTM practitioners and controls. However, in LTM practitioners, who practiced mindfulness meditation just prior to observing others' social pain, left AI activation was lower and the strength of AI activation following the mindfulness meditation was negatively associated with trait compassion in LTM practitioners. The findings suggest that current mindfulness meditation could provide an adaptive mechanism in coping with distress due to the empathic sharing of others' suffering, thereby possibly enabling compassionate behavior. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4034-4046, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindfulness meditation regulates anterior insula activity during empathy for social pain

Laneri

Krach

Paulus

et al. 2017

Human Brain Mapping

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“…Such cerebral responses appear to be associated with a greater ability to self-regulate emotions and control attention (Bing-Canar, Pizzuto, & Compton, 2016;Davidson et al, 2003). However, it is important to emphasize that the effects of meditation on brain activity can be moderated by a wide range of factors, such as the type of meditation, amount of sensory information provided, one's ability to focus, and previous experience with meditation (see e.g., Brewer et al, 2011;Laneri et al, 2016). It has also been identified that the practice of meditation can impact upon the connectivity between frontal and temporo-parietal regions of the brain (Berkovich-Ohana, Glicksohn, & Goldstein, 2013;Taren et al, 2017).…”

Section: Psychophysiological Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of mindfulness on psychological and psychophysiological responses during self‐paced walking

et al. 2020

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The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of an audio‐guided mindfulness (MF) single session on psychological and psychophysiological responses during an outdoor walking task. Twenty‐four participants (12 females and 12 males; Mage = 23.6, SD = 3.9 years) were required to walk 200 m at a pace of their choosing. Two experimental conditions (mindfulness meditation and mindlessness [ML] meditation) and a control condition (CO) were administered. Electrical activity in the brain was measured by the use of a portable electroencephalography (EEG) system during walking. Fast Fourier Transform was used to decompose the EEG samples into theta (5–7 Hz), alpha (8–14 Hz), and beta (15–29 Hz) frequencies. Brain connectivity analysis between frontal and temporo‐parietal electrode sites was conducted to explore functional interactions through the use of spectral coherence. Affective and perceptual responses were measured by the use of single‐item scales and questionnaires. The present findings indicate that MF was sufficiently potent to reallocate attention toward task‐related thoughts, downregulate perceived activation, and enhance affective responses to a greater degree than the other two conditions. Conversely, ML was sufficient to increase the use of dissociative thoughts, make participants less aware of their physical sensations and emotions, induce a more negative affective state, and upregulate perceived activation to a greater extent than MF and CO. The brain mechanisms that underlie the effects of MF on exercise appear to be associated with the enhanced inter‐hemispheric connectivity of high‐frequency waves between right frontal and left temporo‐parietal areas of the cortex.

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“…For a complete list of those studies as well as for details on data processing and analysis, the reader is referred to the original publication . In close correspondence with the aforementioned findings in this field of research, the authors of study III reported that “in all ROIs, apart from right insula and left ACC, the relationship between FA and age in non‐meditators demonstrates a natural FA decline in aging adults which could not be detected in meditators.” Unfortunately, group‐specific correlation coefficients are not provided, but the two scatterplots from study III show negative slopes in controls and either positive slopes (left insula) or less steep negative slopes (right thalamus) in meditators. Testing for group‐by‐age interactions, significant effects were observed within all ROIs, with a stronger age‐related decline in controls in white matter adjacent to the left and right thalamus, left and right amygdala, left and right hippocampus, left insula, and right ACC.…”

Section: New Research: 2013–2016mentioning

confidence: 73%

“…Following up on these previous findings, three novel cross-sectional imaging studies were conducted [17][18][19] examining whether meditators show less age-related decline of brain tissue. Study I 17 and study II 18 used MRI and were based on T1-weighted data obtained on a 1.5-Tesla scanner.…”

Section: New Research: 2013-2016mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Searching for the philosopher's stone: promising links between meditation and brain preservation

Lüders

2016

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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In the context of an aging population and increased prevalence of dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases, developing strategies to decrease the negative effects of aging is imperative. The scientific study of meditation as a potential tool to downregulate processes implicated in brain aging is an emerging field, and a growing body of research suggests that mindfulness practices are beneficial for cerebral resilience. Adding further evidence to this notion, an increasing number of imaging studies report effects of meditation on brain structure that are consistent with our understanding of neuroprotection. Here, we review the published findings in this field of research addressing the question of whether meditation diminishes age-related brain degeneration. Altogether, although analyses are still sparse and based on cross-sectional data, study outcomes suggest that meditation might be beneficial for brain preservation-both with respect to gray and white matter-possibly by slowing down the natural (age-related) decrease of brain tissue. Nevertheless, it should also be recognized that, until robust longitudinal data become available, there is no evidence for causation between meditation and brain preservation. This review includes a comprehensive commentary on limitations of the existing research and concludes with implications and directions for future studies.

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Effects of Long-Term Mindfulness Meditation on Brain's White Matter Microstructure and its Aging

Cited by 52 publications

References 87 publications

Mindfulness meditation regulates anterior insula activity during empathy for social pain

Mindfulness meditation regulates anterior insula activity during empathy for social pain

Effects of mindfulness on psychological and psychophysiological responses during self‐paced walking

Searching for the philosopher's stone: promising links between meditation and brain preservation

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