Long-term Vipassana meditation practice is associated with changes in brain network organization. Using magnetoencephalography to compare meditators with non-meditators, the study found topological modifications in functional resting-state brain networks. In the theta frequency band, meditators showed a statistically significantly higher degree—a measure of connectivity—in the right hippocampus compared to controls. Given the hippocampus's role in memory and its involvement in Alzheimer's disease, the findings suggest meditation could contribute to preventive strategies against age-related cognitive decline.
Consciousness depends on the brain's ability to produce complex, variable patterns of activity after a perturbation, but measuring this directly is difficult. Using a whole-brain model, researchers found that such complexity only arises when spontaneous brain activity is highly fluid—meaning functional networks reorganize extensively. This fluid regime can be captured by a small set of dynamical systems metrics, which predict the effects of consciousness-altering drugs like Xenon, Propofol, and Ketamine. These predictions were validated in 15 subjects at different consciousness levels, showing agreement with established perturbational complexity measures but using a simpler, more accessible paradigm. The findings point to complexity properties underlying consciousness.