Effects of meditation on neural responses to pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of fMRI studies.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews July 1, 2024 Cheng Fan, Mengjiao Wu, Hong Liu et al.
A systematic review of 18 fMRI studies found that meditation alters brain activity in regions associated with pain, mood, and cognition. Activation of the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex was positively linked to pain relief, while activity in the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex was negatively correlated. Meta-analyses consistently implicated the insula, putamen, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and caudate nucleus. These findings suggest meditation relieves pain by acting on specific neural circuits involved in both sensory and emotional pain processing.