Right Broca's area is hyperactive in right-handed subjects during meditation: Possible clinical implications?

The right hemisphere counterpart of Broca's area, typically associated with language in the left hemisphere, may play a role in attention-focused meditation. In twelve healthy, right-handed male long-term meditators, positron emission tomography showed significantly greater activity in the right Broca's area during meditation compared to baseline, while left Broca's area activity increased only slightly. The authors propose that this right-hemisphere region could be important for attention and may have implications for understanding and treating attention deficits and language or speech disorders.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Broca's area, conventionally located in left (categorical) hemisphere of brain, is responsible for integrating linguistic and non-linguistic processing however, functionality of its right homolog remains partly understood and explored. This perception is based on the fact that in 96% of right-handed individuals, who constitute 91% of human population, the left hemisphere is dominant or categorical hemisphere. Here, we introduce novel scientific-based hypothesis that the right homolog of Broca's region which we observed hyperactive during attention focused meditation, might further play an important role in patients with attention deficits and language and speech disorders. Meditation includes self-regulation practices that focus on attention and awareness to achieve better control on mental processes. The positron emission tomography of brain in twelve (12) apparently healthy male, right-handed long-term meditators showed that the right Broca's area was significantly hyperactive (p = 0.002) during Meditation vs. Baseline while there was only a subtle increase in the activity of left Broca's area. Our results suggest that hitherto partly explored and understood right homolog of the Broca's area (referred to as right Broca's area) may have some important role, especially during meditation which needs to be explored further.