I am always up for suggestions on how to improve brain function, whether this means Sudoku, videogames, exercise, diet, and so on. So I read with interest that a group of UCLA researchers are reporting correlations between gray matter volume and the practice of meditation [1].
I don't think meditation is compatible with caffeine...
I have never tried meditation. Perhaps the idea of sitting quietly for some period of time (the UCLA meditators averaged between 10 and 90 minutes per day) is not consistent with my caffeine habit and work and family responsibilities. My idea of relaxation is to go outside and mess around in my garden or take a walk with Mr. F around our neighborhood. But if the meditation results ever move from correlation to causation, I might be tempted to try.
Specifically, control subjects never showed larger gray matter volume in any area under study than the meditators, who had practiced meditation an average of 24 years. Larger volumes in the meditators were found in the hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, and inferior temporal lobe. The type of meditation practices apparently didn’t matter.
As the researchers acknowledge, this is not a situation where people were randomly assigned to groups that meditate or not. There is very likely a huge self-selection factor here. People who choose to meditate might have areas of larger volume prior to meditation–the current research provides no way to discount this.
Nonetheless, many articles have noted beneficial effects of meditation on concentration and other cognitive skills, such as visuospatial skills [2]. As I read some of these articles today, I was reminded by an article presented by some of my Sensation Perception students that mentioned the use of videogames as a cognitive “warm up” by flight controllers [3]. One wonders if videogames and meditation might have similar effects, as both require extreme focus. We mentioned in a previous post about how playing videogames improved women’s spatial skills for a period of at least 5 months.
If you’d like to give meditation a try, this site seems to have some interesting “how- to’s.”
1. Luders, E., Toga, A.W., Lepore, N., & Gazer, C. (2009). The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: Larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter. Neuroimage, 45(3), 672-678.
2. Kozhevnikov et al. The Enhancement of Visuospatial Processing Efficiency Through Buddhist Deity Meditation. Psychological Science, 2009; DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02345.x
3. Barlett, C. P., Vowels, C. L., Shanteau, J., Crow, J., & Miller, T. (2009). The effect of non-violent and violent computer games on cognitive performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 96-102.
11 Comments
NiroZ · May 13, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Seeing that medititationg is associated with a bigger brain means nothing. Autistic people have bigger brains, and brain scans of intelligent people have been found to have about normal mass, IIRC.
anhook · May 16, 2009 at 12:26 pm
That seems to be interesting research, but as you said, the people that choose to meditate may initially have a larger volume of gray matter. Maybe in future experiments, researchers can measure gray matter volume of people that are interested in beginning a practice of meditation, make the experiment into a longitudinal study and measure gray matter volume a number of years later.
Jenniferdonnelly · May 17, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I’ve never tried meditating before, it was never something that interested me. I wonder if this same sort of principle would work for other things that can be seen as relaxing, such as yoga? It would be interesting to research something like that.
ericabashaw · May 18, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I’ve always thought of meditation as being keenly aware of things around you, so in that way I’m meditative when I’m studying, cleaning, reading, listening, etc. Whether or not it “increases” gray matter, I find the practice of meditation to be useful in helping me focus. Once your mind drifts, you bring it back to the task at hand. How many of us realistically have 30 or so minutes to sit and focus on nothing else, anyway? Meditation can be active, too.
ljgarcia · May 19, 2009 at 7:32 pm
i think that is very interesting that meditating could increase gray matter. But i wonder if it is the meditating itself or the fact that they are in seclusion, and relaxing, and letting their brain relax and kind of just staying distant from every distraction there is with peace of mind- so my question is does it have to be meditating that increases gray matter ?
Kenneth · May 20, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Since we were just in the sleep section in class I guess I would like to draw a parallel. Could meditation be kind of like sleep in the fact that it helps the mind organize and develop? Perhaps not even in physical size but in efficiency? Like how after a nap you can think clearly if your tired. Could meditation have the same effect if you had a busy day of cramming midterm material in your head? (Of course we would use this to cram more material in our head)
averyzaninovich · May 20, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I have a hard time sitting in one spot for a long period of time without getting bored quickly and having to move. This makes studying difficult as well as activities such as yoga and meditation. Even at a “relaxing” time like right before I go to bed, my mind is still going crazy, mostly on everything but what I should be thinking about, like the test I have the next day, or an interview for a job. Maybe forcing myself to find a peaceful state would help me and others like me.
jeffcurry · May 21, 2009 at 9:27 am
The idea of meditating increasing the amount of gray matter in the brain may seem crazy to some people but I see it as extremely possible. Treat the brain for a second like a bicep. If you work your bicep hard and rest it, it will grow larger. In the same way of thought, we are thinking constantly, almost never giving our brain a rest, maybe an hour of meditation could be an equivalent to the rest period in between lifting the same body part twice. The article mentions video games as requiring intense concentration. If a study is done on gray matter and the amount of time playing a video game, I wonder if similar results to the meditation study would occur (I hope so, I spend a lot more time playing video games than meditating).
grubino · May 21, 2009 at 10:39 am
Since we just got done with the sleep section, I wonder what sort of brain waves would show up on an EEG while meditating. In a way you can think of it as an active nap. Although your eyes are closed and you are in a relaxed state of mind, you are still thinking of ways to be relaxed or what makes you relaxed. I wonder if there would be any correlation with a routine practice to put your brain in these brain waves for a period of time that correlates with the increase in gray matter. I also wonder if meditating improves our body like sleep does such as, restore our body and help our memory. That would also be something an additional study could look at on meditation and its effects on the body.
Sierrasmargon · May 21, 2009 at 2:29 pm
This interests me as well on the topic of sleep and wakefulness and i wonder what the EEG waves would show while hooked up to someone meditating. I personally have meditated before and when I am done i feel very very rested. It almost feels similar to a power nap, and I have heard that power naps do wonders for your attention span and wakefullness. Regarding Gray matter I’m not sure the benefits that you would get from having more gray matter, but i’m sure meditation wouldn’t hurt considering it is taking care of your body and increasing blood flow if you are also involved in deep breathing. Also as in one of the sleep theorys that it is a time for your brain to recycle out the unneeded input and keep the important, I know that meditation does this for me.
aseastrunk · October 30, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I found this topic very interesting. I took Psychology of Stress a few years ago. Our teacher raved about the positive effects of meditation on the body, especially emphasizing its ability to reduce stress. It does not surprise me that there may be positive effects on the brain as well. Also, some might argue that messing around in your garden is a form of meditation. I’ve found meditation very helpful in my life.
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