Regional Brain Activation During Meditation Shows Time and Practice Effects: An Exploratory FMRI Study†
Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine December 27, 2007 E. Short, S. Kose, Q. Mu et al.
Meditation engages brain regions involved in attention, including the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In a functional MRI study of 13 meditators, no significant whole-brain activations were found during meditation versus a control task using conservative thresholds. However, a region-of-interest analysis showed that DLPFC and ACC were statistically more active throughout meditation compared to the control. Long-term practitioners (over 10 years, n=5) displayed more consistent and sustained activation in these regions than short-term practitioners (n=8), suggesting that extensive meditation practice may be linked to better sustained attention and error monitoring.