Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
March 24, 2012
Véronique A. Taylor, Véronique Daneault, Joshua A Grant et al.
317 citations
Experienced meditators with over 1000 hours of training show weaker functional connectivity between default mode network (DMN) regions involved in self-referential processing and emotional appraisal compared to beginners with no prior experience. They also show increased connectivity between certain DMN regions, such as the dorso-medial prefrontal cortex and right inferior parietal lobule. These resting-state functional connectivity changes suggest that extensive meditation training may strengthen present-moment awareness by altering how core DMN regions communicate, even when not actively meditating.
Resuscitation
July 2, 2009
Mario Beauregard, Jérôme Courtemanche, Vincent Paquette
65 citations
Near-death experiencers who mentally visualize and emotionally connect with the 'being of light' they encountered during their experience show distinct brain activity compared to visualizing a lamp's light. Functional MRI reveals activation in regions linked to positive emotions, visual imagery, attention, and spiritual experiences, including the right brainstem, orbitofrontal and prefrontal cortices, insula, and temporal areas. EEG recordings show greater theta, alpha, and gamma power at multiple electrode sites across frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions during the meditation condition. These findings suggest that recalling a near-death experience involves measurable neural changes in emotion and imagery networks.
Neuroimage
August 15, 2011
Véronique A. Taylor, Joshua A Grant, Véronique Daneault et al.
Experienced meditators with over 1000 hours of practice show distinct neural mechanisms for emotional regulation compared to beginners. During mindful awareness, experienced meditators deactivated default mode network areas (medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices) across all emotional picture types, while beginners down-regulated left amygdala activity. The mindful condition attenuated perceived emotional intensity from pictures for both groups. These findings suggest long-term meditation promotes emotional stability through acceptance and present-moment awareness rather than top-down control of emotional brain regions.
Pain
January 1, 2011
Joshua A Grant, Jérôme Courtemanche, Pierre Rainville
Practitioners of Zen meditation, compared to non-meditators, show reduced activity in brain regions involved in evaluation and emotion (prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus) during pain, while simultaneously activating primary pain-processing areas (anterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, insula) more robustly. The most experienced meditators exhibited the largest reductions in brain activity. Lower pain sensitivity in meditators was strongly predicted by decreased functional connectivity between executive and pain-related cortices. These findings suggest a functional decoupling of cognitive-evaluative and sensory-discriminative pain dimensions, allowing a more neutral perception of painful stimuli, challenging the view that emotion regulation requires increased frontal executive activation.
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
February 1, 2010
Joshua A Grant, Jérôme Courtemanche, Emma G Duerden et al.
Zen meditators show lower pain sensitivity than non-meditators, and this difference is linked to thicker gray matter in brain regions that process pain, including the anterior cingulate cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and anterior insula. In a structural MRI study of 17 meditators and 18 controls, meditators had thicker cortex in the dorsal anterior cingulate and secondary somatosensory cortex. More years of meditation experience predicted thicker gray matter in the anterior cingulate, and more hours of practice predicted thicker gray matter in somatosensory regions representing the lower leg and hand. The findings suggest that long-term meditation may alter brain structure, contributing to reduced pain sensitivity.