Revista de Psicopatología y Psicología Clínica
August 12, 2026
Luis de Rivera, Estefanía Hernández‐Martín, Leonor de Rivera-Monterrey et al.
ABSTRACTObjective: Autogenic Training (AT) is a well-established psychophysiological method used in medicine and clinical psychology for stress reduction and emotional regulation. Traditionally viewed as a relaxation technique, it is now considered a form of meditation, with a unique “Dual Concentration” technique, which combines passive interoceptive focus with specific mental verbalizations....
Scientific Reports
April 25, 2025
Oscar Perez-Diaz, Sergio Elías Hernández, Lucy L Brown et al.
1 citation
Neuroscience research has associated meditation practice with effects on cognitive, motivational and emotional processes. These processes are mediated by several brain circuits, including the striatum and its associated cortical connections. The aim of this study was to focus on the striatum and test how its functional connectivity is affected in long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga...
PLoS One
March 28, 2024
Oscar Perez-Diaz, Daylín Góngora, José Luis González–Mora et al.
11 citations
OBJECTIVE: To study the white matter connections between anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and amygdala as key regions of the frontal-limbic network that have been related to meditation. DESIGN: Twenty experienced practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation and twenty nonmeditators matched on age, gender and education level, were scanned using Diffusion Weighted Imaging, using a 3T...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
March 16, 2021
Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Sergio Hernández, Yaqiong Xiao et al.
25 citations
Neuroscience research has shown that meditation practices have effects on brain structure and function. However, few studies have combined information on the effects on structure and function in the same sample. Long-term daily meditation practice produces repeated activity of specific brain networks over years of practice, which may induce lasting structural and functional connectivity (FC)...
PLoS One
December 28, 2020
Sergio Hernández, Roberto Dorta‐Guerra, José Suero et al.
23 citations
OBJECTIVES: Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the same...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
July 30, 2020
Sergio Hernández, Roberto Dorta‐Guerra, José Suero et al.
2 citations
preprint
Abstract Objectives Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the...
Neuroscience
February 10, 2018
Sergio Elías Hernández, Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Yaqiong Xiao et al.
Some meditation techniques teach the practitioner to achieve the state of mental silence. The aim of this study was to investigate brain regions that are associated with their volume and functional connectivity (FC) with the depth of mental silence in long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation. Twenty-three long-term practitioners of this meditation were scanned using Magnetic Resonance...
PLoS One
March 3, 2016
Sergio Elías Hernández, José Suero, Alfonso Barros et al.
Objectives: To investigate regional differences in grey matter volume associated with the practice of Sahaja Yoga Meditation. Design: Twenty three experienced practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation and twenty three non-meditators matched on age, gender and education level, were scanned using structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging and their grey matter volume were compared using Voxel-Based...