Your brain on art, nature, and meditation: a pilot neuroimaging study.
Beatrix Krause-Sorio, Sergio Becerra, Prabha Siddarth, Stacey Simmons, Taylor Kuhn, Helen Lavretsky
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2024 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1440177 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pilot functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 9 |
| Population | Healthy adults (mean age 29; range 19-42; 5 women) |
| Intervention | viewing AI-generated digital art |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Brain Emotion FMRI Nature |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Meditation on universal connectedness, compared to rest, viewing art, or nature videos, activated distinct brain regions including sensory, object processing, and memory areas. |
Abstract
Exposure to art, nature, or meditation, all transcending human experiences, has beneficial effects on health and wellbeing. Focusing inward or watching art and nature videos elicits positive emotions that can help heal stress-related conditions. In a pilot functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study, we explored the effect of watching digital art or nature videos compared to contemplating the universal connectedness (also known as transcendental meditation). The instructions were to meditate on the connection to a Universal Soul linked to a sense of expansion and universal connectedness ("one with everything"), which was prompted by a video of the galactic nebula that also controlled for the visual stimuli of the two other conditions. Nine healthy adults (mean age = 29; range = 19-42; 5 women) underwent a block design fMRI scan using a Siemens 3T Prisma scanner. The blocks included (1) nature videos, (2) AI-generated digital art ("machine hallucinations" by Refik Anadol), and (3) videos of NASA Webb-produced images of galactic nebulas. Brain oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) images were processed using FSL Version 6.0 and a general linear model (GLM) tested the contrasts between art, nature, and meditation blocks, using a cluster-corrected p-value of 0.05. Compared to rest, meditation led to BOLD increases in bilateral lateral occipital and fusiform gyri, as well as right postcentral gyrus and hippocampus. Compared to viewing AI-generated digital art, increased BOLD responses during meditation were observed in left parietal and central operculum, and right pre- and postcentral gyri, and compared to nature, in the left parietal operculum, bilateral postcentral and supramarginal gyri, and bilateral lateral occipital cortices. Meditation compared to rest showed brain activation in regions associated with object, sensory, and memory processing. Meditation compared to nature videos led to activity in bilateral sensory and object processing areas, as well as a left sensory integration region (error monitoring), while meditation compared to art showed activity in left sensory integration and right sensorimotor regions. Further studies are needed to delineate the distinct neural signature and therapeutic effects of inner contemplation using human connection to art, nature, or meditative transcendent practices, in the brain and its potential in clinical applications.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cites 13
- Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 23, 2011
- Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 28, 2007
- Mindfulness meditation training alters cortical representations of interoceptive attention Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience June 11, 2012
- Effects of the Transcendental Meditation Technique on Trait Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine October 9, 2013
- Focus on the Breath: Brain Decoding Reveals Internal States of Attention During Meditation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2020
and 8 more in the library