Diminished Age-Related Decline of the Amygdala in Long-Term Meditation Practitioners.
Eileen Luders, Felipe A Jain, Florian Kurth
Psychosomatic Medicine DOI: 10.1097/psy.0000000000000913 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 100 |
| Population | Long-term meditators and healthy controls aged 24 to 77 years |
| Intervention | Meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Age-related volume loss of the amygdala is less pronounced in long-term meditators compared with non-meditators. |
Abstract
A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that meditation may slow brain aging. The amygdala-a heterogenous brain region known to decrease in volume with increasing age-seems to be involved in meditation and affected by meditation. Thus, we hypothesized that the age-related decline of the amygdala is diminished in meditation practitioners. We investigated whether correlations between age and gray matter volumes of the amygdala are significantly reduced in 50 long-term meditators compared with 50 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. Both the meditator and control groups included 44% women. The age of the participants ranged between 24 and 77 years, with mean (standard deviation) ages of 50.4 (±11.8) years in meditators and 51.4 (±12.8) years in controls. In addition to studying the amygdala as a whole, we investigated its centromedial, laterobasal, and superficial subregions using a well-validated approach combining imaging-based signal intensities and cytoarchitectonically defined probabilities. We detected significant group-by-age interactions for the whole amygdala and for its subregions. Follow-up analyses indicated negative age-related correlations in both meditators and controls (the older the participants, the smaller the volumes) but with significantly steeper aging trajectories in controls. Altogether, these findings suggest that the age-related volume loss of the amygdala is less pronounced in long-term meditators. This effect was particularly evident for the laterobasal subregion, which has been functionally linked to aspects of self-focused reflection.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Toward a Unified Model of Advanced Meditation, Human Development, Meditation Maps, and Transtradition Metaphors: Facing Impermanence, Suffering, and Death Mindfulness July 29, 2025
- Decoding meditation mechanisms underlying brain preservation and psycho-affective health in older expert meditators and older meditation-naive participants. Scientific Reports November 27, 2024
- Impact of meditation on brain age derived from multimodal neuroimaging in experts and older adults from a randomized trial Scientific Reports October 28, 2025
- Three potential neurovascular pathways driving the benefits of mindfulness meditation for older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2023
Cites 17
- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Neuroreport November 7, 2005
- Meditation effects within the hippocampal complex revealed by voxel-based morphometry and cytoarchitectonic probabilistic mapping Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- Reduced age-associated brain changes in expert meditators: a multimodal neuroimaging pilot study Scientific Reports August 25, 2017
- BrainAGE and regional volumetric analysis of a Buddhist monk: a longitudinal MRI case study. Neurocase April 2020
- Impact of short- and long-term mindfulness meditation training on amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli. Neuroimage July 7, 2018
and 12 more in the library