Long-term meditation practice reshapes functional connectivity patterns in large-scale brain networks, and the specific patterns depend on the type of meditation used. Using fMRI and multivariate pattern analysis, researchers found that connectivity patterns in key brain networks could predict both a meditator's expertise and age. Expertise-related patterns differed between Focused Attention (FA) and Open Monitoring (OM) meditation: FA involved networks for attention, while OM involved networks for cognitive control and emotion regulation. Age-related patterns were unaffected by meditation style. The findings indicate that intensive mental training induces neuroplastic changes in brain network connectivity that are specific to the form of meditation practiced.
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.