Neural correlates of focused attention and cognitive monitoring in meditation.
Brain Research Bulletin April 29, 2010 Antonietta Manna, Antonino Raffone, Mauro Gianni Perrucci et al.
Meditation can be divided into focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM) styles, which involve different attentional and awareness processes. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, Theravada Buddhist monks expert in both FA and OM meditation, along with novices with 10 days of practice, were scanned. Expert meditators showed massive self-regulation of fronto-parietal and insular areas in the left hemisphere, depending on the meditation state. Anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices played opposing roles in executive control of attention. The findings resolve a controversy about whether meditation involves hypo- or hyperfrontality, and suggest that mental practice reorganizes brain activity patterns, especially in prefrontal cortex and insula.