Effects of a 7-Day Meditation Retreat on the Brain Function of Meditators and Non-Meditators During an Attention Task
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience June 11, 2018 E. Kozasa, J. Balardin, J. Sato et al.
A 7-day Zen meditation retreat had distinct effects on brain activity in meditators and non-meditators during the Stroop Word-Color Task, even though both groups showed no differences in task accuracy or response time. Before the retreat, experienced meditators displayed reduced brain activation in attention-related regions (anterior cingulate, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, caudate, putamen, insula, posterior cingulate) compared to non-meditators. After the retreat, non-meditators showed reduced activation in these same regions, becoming similar to the meditators before the retreat, suggesting increased neural efficiency from just 7 days of intensive training. In contrast, meditators showed increased activation after the same training, possibly reflecting differences in expertise and neuroplasticity.