Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Export

@article{citeulike:608350, abstract = {Previous research indicates that long-term meditation practice is associated with altered resting electroencephalogram patterns, suggestive of long lasting changes in brain activity. We hypothesized that meditation practice might also be associated with changes in the brain's physical structure. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess cortical thickness in 20 participants with extensive Insight meditation experience, which involves focused attention to internal experiences. Brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls, including the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula. Between-group differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were most pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might offset age-related cortical thinning. Finally, the thickness of two regions correlated with meditation experience. These data provide the first structural evidence for experience-dependent cortical plasticity associated with meditation practice.}, address = {Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. lazar@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu}, author = {Lazar, Sara W. and Kerr, Catherine E. and Wasserman, Rachel H. and Gray, Jeremy R. and Greve, Douglas N. and Treadway, Michael T. and McGarvey, Metta and Quinn, Brian T. and Dusek, Jeffery A. and Benson, Herbert and Rauch, Scott L. and Moore, Christopher I. and Fischl, Bruce}, citeulike-article-id = {608350}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16272874}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=16272874}, day = {28}, issn = {0959-4965}, journal = {Neuroreport}, keywords = {meditation, prefrontal\_cortex}, month = {November}, number = {17}, pages = {1893--1897}, posted-at = {2009-10-30 01:30:54}, priority = {2}, title = {Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness.}, url = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16272874}, volume = {16}, year = {2005} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:608350 L3 - citeulike-article-id:608350 N2 - Previous research indicates that long-term meditation practice is associated with altered resting electroencephalogram patterns, suggestive of long lasting changes in brain activity. We hypothesized that meditation practice might also be associated with changes in the brain's physical structure. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess cortical thickness in 20 participants with extensive Insight meditation experience, which involves focused attention to internal experiences. Brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls, including the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula. Between-group differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were most pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might offset age-related cortical thinning. Finally, the thickness of two regions correlated with meditation experience. These data provide the first structural evidence for experience-dependent cortical plasticity associated with meditation practice. IS - 17 JF - Neuroreport SN - 0959-4965 AD - Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. lazar@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu EP - 1897 TI - Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. VL - 16 SP - 1893 KW - meditation KW - prefrontal_cortex AU - Lazar, Sara AU - Kerr, Catherine AU - Wasserman, Rachel AU - Gray, Jeremy AU - Greve, Douglas AU - Treadway, Michael AU - McGarvey, Metta AU - Quinn, Brian AU - Dusek, Jeffery AU - Benson, Herbert AU - Rauch, Scott AU - Moore, Christopher AU - Fischl, Bruce PY - 2005/11/28/ UR - http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16272874 ER -