Meditation reduces pain-related neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, secondary somatosensory cortex, and thalamus
Frontiers in Psychology December 16, 2014 Hiroki Nakata, Kiwako Sakamoto, Ryusuke Kakigi 72 citations
Meditation appears to reduce pain perception, but neuroimaging studies have produced paradoxical results: some show increased neural responses in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and insula during meditation, while others show decreases. Since activity in these regions typically correlates with pain perception, increases would seem to enhance rather than reduce pain. This review synthesizes previous findings on brain regions involved in meditation and anatomical changes from long-term training, then discusses pain-related neural activity during meditation. The authors hypothesize that meditation reduces pain-related neural activity in the ACC, insula, secondary somatosensory cortex, and thalamus, and suggest that the modulation's characteristics may depend on the type of meditation and years of experience, potentially explaining the paradoxical evidence.