Resting State Functional Connectivity Associated With Sahaja Yoga Meditation
Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Sergio Hernández, Yaqiong Xiao, José Luis González–Mora, Katya Rubia
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience March 16, 2021 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.614882 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 46 |
| Population | Sahaja Yoga Meditation experts and healthy participants without meditation experience |
| Intervention | Sahaja Yoga Meditation |
| Topics | Default mode network Meditation |
| Keywords | Precuneus Resting State FMRI Insula Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex Functional connectivity Middle frontal gyrus Cognition Electroencephalography |
| Citations | 25 |
| Key findings | Long-term meditation practice increases functional connectivity between ventral and dorsal frontal regions and decreases connectivity between these regions and areas of the default mode network. |
Abstract
Neuroscience research has shown that meditation practices have effects on brain structure and function. However, few studies have combined information on the effects on structure and function in the same sample. Long-term daily meditation practice produces repeated activity of specific brain networks over years of practice, which may induce lasting structural and functional connectivity (FC) changes within relevant circuits. The aim of our study was therefore to identify differences in FC during the resting state between 23 Sahaja Yoga Meditation experts and 23 healthy participants without meditation experience. Seed-based FC analysis was performed departing from voxels that had shown structural differences between these same participants. The contrast of connectivity maps yielded that meditators showed increased FC between the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex but reduced FC between the left insula and the bilateral mid-cingulate as well as between the right angular gyrus and the bilateral precuneus/cuneus cortices. It thus appears that long-term meditation practice increases direct FC between ventral and dorsal frontal regions within brain networks related to attention and cognitive control and decreases FC between regions of these networks and areas of the default mode network.