Brain-Heart Interactions Underlying Traditional Tibetan Buddhist Meditation.
Haiteng Jiang, Bin He, Xiaoli Guo, Xu Wang, Menglin Guo, Zhuo Wang, Ting Xue, Han Li, Tianjiao Xu, Shuai Ye, Daniel Suma, Shanbao Tong, Donghong Cui
Cerebral Cortex March 21, 2020 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz095 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Long-term Tibetan Buddhist monk meditation practitioners |
| Intervention | meditation |
| Topics | Default mode network Meditation Buddhism |
| Keywords | Ecg EEG Consciousness Neurovisceral integration |
| Citations | 40 |
| Key findings | Meditation modulates neural responses to heartbeats in the default mode network and induces large-scale EEG network reconfigurations, with theta-band temporal-frontal connectivity negatively correlated with meditation experience. |
Abstract
Despite accumulating evidence suggesting improvement in one's well-being as a result of meditation, little is known about if or how the brain and the periphery interact to produce these behavioral and mental changes. We hypothesize that meditation reflects changes in the neural representations of visceral activity, such as cardiac behavior, and investigated the integration of neural and visceral systems and the spontaneous whole brain spatiotemporal dynamics underlying traditional Tibetan Buddhist meditation. In a large cohort of long-term Tibetan Buddhist monk meditation practitioners, we found distinct transient modulations of the neural response to heartbeats in the default mode network (DMN), along with large-scale network reconfigurations in the gamma and theta bands of electroencephalography (EEG) activity induced by meditation. Additionally, temporal-frontal network connectivity in the EEG theta band was negatively correlated with the duration of meditation experience, and gamma oscillations were uniquely, directionally coupled to theta oscillations during meditation. Overall, these data suggest that the neural representation of cardiac activity in the DMN and large-scale spatiotemporal network integrations underlie the fundamental neural mechanism of meditation and further imply that meditation may utilize cortical plasticity, inducing both immediate and long-lasting changes in the intrinsic organization and activity of brain networks.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| AN ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDY ON THE ZEN MEDITATION (ZAZEN) Zen priests and disciples of Zen sects of Buddhism | 1966 | Observational study | n = 48 |
| “Thinking about Not-Thinking”: Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation Regular Zen practitioners and matched control subjects | 2008 | Observational cohort | |
| Individual Trait Anxiety Levels Characterizing the Properties of Zen Meditation Healthy adults who had not previously practiced any form of meditation | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Zen meditation, Length of Telomeres, and the Role of Experiential Avoidance and Compassion 20 Zen meditation experts and 20 healthy matched non-meditators | 2016 | Observational cohort | n = 40 |
| EEG dynamics of experienced Zen meditation practitioners probed by complexity index and spectral measure Experienced Zen meditation practitioners and matched controls | 2009 | Observational cohort | n = 46 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 17
- Biological mechanism study of meditation and its application in mental disorders General Psychiatry July 13, 2020
- Meditation in the third-person perspective modulates minimal self and heartbeat-evoked potentials. Neuroimage July 1, 2025
- Electrophysiological correlates of zen meditation: An investigation using in-monastery EEG acquisition Biological Psychology October 1, 2025
- Enhancing shooting performance and cognitive engagement in virtual reality environments through brief meditation training. Scientific Reports May 10, 2025
- Brain-heart interactions in novice meditation practitioners during breath focus and an arithmetic task medRxiv July 8, 2023
and 12 more in the library
Cites 23
- How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective Perspectives on Psychological Science October 14, 2011
- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Neuroreport November 7, 2005
- Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 23, 2011
- Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 8, 2004
- Physiological Effects of Transcendental Meditation Science March 27, 1970
and 18 more in the library