PLoS One
August 15, 2012
Tatia M C Lee, Mei-Kei Leung, Wai-Kai Hou et al.
163 citations
Focused-attention meditation (FAM) and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) produce distinct patterns of brain activity during cognitive and emotional tasks. In a study of 44 male Chinese meditators, FAM practice was linked to expertise-related improvements in attention task performance and corresponding neural activation differences, while LKM did not carry over to attention performance. Both forms of meditation affected neural responses to affective pictures: during viewing of sad faces, FAM practitioners showed activation consistent with attention-related processing, whereas LKM experts showed responses more aligned with differentiating emotional contagion from compassion or emotional regulation. These findings provide the first report of distinct neural activity associated with these meditation forms during sustained attention and emotion processing.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
July 18, 2012
Mei-Kei Leung, Chetwyn C H Chan, Jing Yin et al.
145 citations
Long-term practice of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is linked to greater gray matter volume in specific brain regions involved in emotional regulation and empathy. Using magnetic resonance imaging, experts who had practiced LKM for at least five years showed more gray matter in the right angular gyrus and posterior parahippocampal gyrus compared to novices. The right angular gyrus finding is novel for meditation research and may relate to cognitive empathy. Greater gray matter also appeared in the left temporal lobe, consistent with studies of other meditation styles. These results suggest that LKM may influence brain structures underlying affective regulation, empathic response, anxiety, and mood.
Social Neuroscience
June 1, 2018
Mei-Kei Leung, Way K W Lau, Chetwyn C H Chan et al.
Awareness-based compassion meditation (ABCM) training reduced anxiety and right amygdala activity during negative emotion processing compared to relaxation training. Participants who practiced more compassion showed stronger reductions in right amygdala activity. These changes occurred while participants viewed emotional images in a non-meditative state, suggesting that the effects of meditation on emotional reactivity carry over into everyday life. The findings indicate that meditation practice may help manage stress by lowering distress responses even when not actively meditating.
Brain and neuroscience advances
January 1, 2018
Bolton K H Chau, Kati Keuper, Mandy M Lo et al.
After eight weeks of meditation training, healthy older adults rated both positive and negative affective images as more neutral, indicating a change in valence perception. This behavioral shift was linked to structural enlargements in a prefrontal network including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal sulcus, and inferior frontal junction. An active control group that completed relaxation training showed no such brain changes. A path analysis suggests meditation may trigger a series of prefrontal neuroplastic changes related to how emotional valence is processed. These findings point to meditation as a potential intervention to promote healthy aging by counteracting affective dysregulations common in older people.
Scientific Reports
November 18, 2015
Way K W Lau, Mei-Kei Leung, Chetwyn C H Chan et al.
Changes in awareness can moderate the relationship between brain activity and cortisol levels. In a longitudinal study, 21 Chinese participants practiced either Awareness-based compassion meditation (ABCM) or relaxation. Those who showed greater changes in awareness also showed stronger associations between hippocampal changes and cortisol changes. A negative link was found between plasma cortisol changes and resting-state synchrony of the right hippocampus and insular-frontal-operculum regions. These findings suggest that planned behavioral experiences, such as meditation, can influence how the brain regulates cortisol, potentially informing interventions for cortisol-related disorders.
Neuroscience Letters
March 17, 2015
Mei-Kei Leung, Chetwyn C H Chan, Jing Yin et al.
Meditation experts show stronger connections between the left amygdala and brain regions involved in emotion regulation and body awareness—specifically the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, premotor cortex, and primary somatosensory cortex—when viewing positive emotional stimuli, compared to novices. This suggests that long-term meditation practice may lead to neuroplastic changes in how the brain processes positive emotions.