Altered anterior insula activation during anticipation and experience of painful stimuli in expert meditators.
Neuroimage 2013 Antoine Lutz, Daniel R McFarlin, David M Perlman et al.
Experientially opening oneself to pain rather than avoiding it is said to reduce the mind's tendency toward avoidance or anxiety which can further exacerbate the experience of pain. This is a central feature of mindfulness-based therapies. Little is known about the neural mechanisms of mindfulness on pain. During a meditation practice similar to mindfulness, functional magnetic resonance...