The Effect of Meditation on Physiological and Neurological Functioning - Research Paper Example

? The Effect of Meditation on Physiological and Neurological Functioning Here s Here The Effect of Meditation on Physiological and Neurological Functioning As today’s global society has come to gain a multicultural nature, many “foreign” traditions and related behaviors have become of interest to the primarily Western-influenced knowledgebase of modern science. Among these customs is the ancient Eastern practice of meditation. Meditation has been present in various cultures for over 50 centuries, and continues to be held in high regards by students, experts, and admirers alike. The process of healing is often associated with meditative practices. It has been prescribed as an alternative medicine to address psychological, spiritual, and physical ailments in a variety of situations. Accordingly, this technique may have implications for multiple areas of study, but we are interested in the proposed neurological and physiological consequences of meditation. We will evaluate the current state of neurological/physiological research on meditation by reviewing five recent studies. Our goal is to determine if there is evidentiary support for or against neurological/physiological changes as a result of meditation. Meditation and Cardiovascular Changes A study by Zeidan, Johnson, Gordon, and Goolkasian examined the effects of brief periods of meditation on the cardiovascular system. The researchers also included mood as a dependent variable, but psychological results are not a focus in this review. Inexperienced subjects were led in brief sessions of Vipassana meditation (20 minutes) for three consecutive days. This type of meditation is based upon relaxed breathing focus. The study also included a sham meditation group. The sham group received training that was designed to be identical to the meditation training but without any effect (as determined from previous research). The results of this experiment indicate that heart rate is significantly reduced by brief meditation. This is only one of several cardiovascular variables that were studied by the researchers that were significantly altered, and so the complete evaluation of cardiovascular implications presents rather weak evidence for physiological change as a result of meditation. The authors suggest that the minimal findings could be a result of the failure to include a stressor. It is proposed that more expansive cardiovascular changes might be observable when meditation is used to counter higher amounts of stress. Meditation and Cerebral Blood Flow Meditation comes in many forms, some of which include vocalizations. Khalsa, Amen, Hanks, Money, and Newberg (2009) studied a form of chanting meditation known as Kirtan Kriya to examine the flow of blood in the brain during the task. Experienced meditators participated in this study, were scanned using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) during 12 minutes of varying mediation tasks. This technology allows for the observation of real-time blood flow. The meditative states were compared to resting states to determine if there was a significant difference in cerebral blood flow between the two conditions. The results revealed a significant increase in flood flow at the right temporal lobe and posterior cingulate gyrus. Additionally, the researchers found a significant blood flow decrease in the left parietotemporal and occipital gyri. The authors suggest that changes in the left parietal lobe may be related to the detachment that is often described in meditative experiences, while the equally common sense of a quiet mind may be associated with deactivation in the occipital lobe. The cingulate gyrus had previously been found to correlate with sadness, and so less activity here would suggest the experience of well being, matching meditation reports. These results provide evidence of physiological changes in the form of blood flow during chanting meditation. Cerebral blood flow has also been the dependent variable in studies that aim to evaluate the effectiveness of meditation as a medical treatment. In an experiment that was examining the probability of meditation being used to promote positive functional change in patients with memory loss due to conditions like Alzheimer’s disease (Newberg, Wintering, Khalsa, Roggenkamp, & Waldman, 2010), researchers used SPECT imaging to examine the effects of Kirtan Kriya meditation on blood flow within the brain. Subjects trained for 8 weeks on their own and their results were compared to subjects who were assigned to an 8-week music program. Changes in blood flow were found in several areas of the brain for meditation group subjects. The most significant changes were observed in frontal lobe regions and the right superior parietal lobe. Increased blood flow in these structures after the 8-week training course was unique to the meditation group, as completely different structures were found to change in the music group. The authors suggest that modifications to the brain due to meditation training might be positively related to improved cognitive functioning (specifically in memory). For our purposes, it is clear that meditation is shown to cause blood flow changes in the brain. Mediation and Neurological Changes The relationship between memory and meditation has also been the basis for purely neurological studies of the technique. Engstrom, Pihlsgard, Lundberg, and Soderfeldt’s 2010 experiment looked for changes in brain structure during meditation by moderately experienced meditators (2 years or less). The authors comment that evidence for neural alterations in the hippocampal region (related to memory) has come from evidence with those who have numerous years of meditation training, but not from less practiced subjects. This study employs functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe the brain before during and immediately following meditation. The subjects were from the schools of Acem or Kundalini yoga meditation, which involves the silent repetition of a mantra. The experimenters found that areas of the hippocampus were significantly activated during meditation when compared to other states. They go on to discuss the importance of the hippocampus in memory, and ultimately propose that these activations might be a result of memory consolidation processing. This study provides us with an example of neurological changes (increased electrical activity) associated with meditation by moderately experienced subjects. Tang, Lu, Geng, Stein, Yang, And Posner (2010) looked for evidence for neurological changes that may occur after only a short amount of training in meditative techniques. Specifically, the authors were interested in white matter structure. This study is said to have been spawned from a previous experiment by the researchers in which as little as three hours of a technique known as integrative body-mind training (IBMT) led to increased activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), but not gray or white matter alterations. IBMT is a meditation regimen devised from the traditional Chinese medicinal approach and includes relaxation instructions. The authors propose that eleven hours of IBMT will lead to measurable changes in the white matter of ACC regions. Diffusion MRI was used to measure white matter alterations through changes in water diffusion. The scans showed a noticeable change in white matter structure after eleven hours of IBMT training. These differences were most notable in regions of the ACC, as predicted. The researchers discuss possible forms of the changes, including myelination, tract reorganization, and an increase in ventricle size (though they identify the last option as highly unlikely). Regardless of the specificity of the changes, this experiment displays that neurological plasticity is associated with meditation. Conclusions Meditation has been used to gain spiritual insight, promote psychological calmness, and treat physical conditions. This review was executed with the intent of evaluating the evidence related to physiological and neurological changes and mediation. We examined five studies, each of which differed in various ways. All studies employed some form of meditation as the independent variable, but the type and teaching style varied. Some research evaluated the results during mediation, while others measured changes following an amount of training. While the terms of the experiments may have been varied, we can clearly see that meditation does lead to significant neurological and psychological changes. The fact that changes were observable across a variety of situations is a sign of the large impact that comes with meditation. Cardiovascular changes come in the form of heart rate reduction, activity in some brain areas increases while other areas become quiet (as revealed by both blood flow and electrical activity measures), and structural changes in the white matter of the brain have all been observed to be consequences of mediation. The five examined studies were far from the only articles of support for these findings, and it can be safely concluded that meditation leads to physical and neurological changes. The future of meditation research should move away from determining if mediation has measurable effects, and toward the specification of what forms of mediation lead to what forms of physical and/or neurological alterations. In these five studies we’ve seen a variety of physical and neurological measures related to a group of meditation techniques. With expanded experimental designs, it might be possible to further understand mediation’s effects upon the body so that it may be utilized in it’s various forms to treat a variety of conditions. Additionally, better control methods will need to be developed so that more possible confounds may be eliminated. It is essential that mediation be compared to a technique that is as similar as possible without producing the most salient effects of mediation, as well as to a control group that receives no training over the same time period. Improved techniques will provide clearer results that will allow meditation to be utilized to its highest potential in healthcare. References Engstrom, M., Philsgard, J., Lundberg, P., & Soderfeldt, B. (2010). Functional magnetic resonance imaging of hippocampal activation during silent mantra meditation. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(12), 1253-1258. Khalsa, D. S., Amen, D., Hanks, C., Money, N., & Newberg, A. (2009). Cerebral blood flow changes during chanting meditation. Nuclear Medicine Communications, 30(12), 956- 961. Newberg, A. B., Wintering, N., Khalsa, D. S., Roggenkamp, H., & Waldman, M. R. (2010). Meditation effects on cognitive function and cerebral blood flow in subjects with memory loss: A preliminary study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 20(2), 517-526. Tang, Y. Y., Lu, Q., Geng, X., Stein, E. A., Yang, Y., & Posner, M. I. (2010). Short-term meditation induces white matter changes in the anterior cingulate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A., 107(35), 15649-15652. Zeidan, F., Johnson, S. K., Gordon, N. S., & Goodkasian, P. (2010). Effects of brief and sham mindfulness mediation on mood and cardiovascular variables. The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, 16(8), 867-873. Read More