Meditation-induced neuroplastic changes in amygdala activity during negative affective processing.
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.