Mindfulness Changes Brain Structure in Eight Weeks
21 Jan 2011 | Science Daily
Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program
appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with
memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will
appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research:
Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General
Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the
first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the
brain's grey matter.
"Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense
of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long
claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological
benefits that persist throughout the day," says Sara Lazar, PhD, of
the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, the study's
senior author. "This study demonstrates that changes in brain
structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that
people are not just feeling better because they are spending time
relaxing."
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