Regional Brain Activation During Meditation Shows Time and Practice Effects: An Exploratory FMRI Study†

Meditation engages brain regions involved in attention, including the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In a functional MRI study of 13 meditators, no significant whole-brain activations were found during meditation versus a control task using conservative thresholds. However, a region-of-interest analysis showed that DLPFC and ACC were statistically more active throughout meditation compared to the control. Long-term practitioners (over 10 years, n=5) displayed more consistent and sustained activation in these regions than short-term practitioners (n=8), suggesting that extensive meditation practice may be linked to better sustained attention and error monitoring.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Meditation involves attentional regulation and may lead to increased activity in brain regions associated with attention such as dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined whether DLPFC and ACC were activated during meditation. Subjects who meditate were recruited and scanned on a 3.0 Tesla scanner. Subjects meditated for four sessions of 12 min and performed four sessions of a 6 min control task. Individual and group t-maps were generated of overall meditation response versus control response and late meditation response versus early meditation response for each subject and time courses were plotted. For the overall group (n = 13), and using an overall brain analysis, there were no statistically significant regional activations of interest using conservative thresholds. A region of interest analysis of the entire group time courses of DLPFC and ACC were statistically more active throughout meditation in comparison to the control task. Moreover, dividing the cohort into short (n = 8) and long-term (n = 5) practitioners (>10 years) revealed that the time courses of long-term practitioners had significantly more consistent and sustained activation in the DLPFC and the ACC during meditation versus control in comparison to short-term practitioners. The regional brain activations in the more practised subjects may correlate with better sustained attention and attentional error monitoring. In summary, brain regions associated with attention vary over the time of a meditation session and may differ between long- and short-term meditation practitioners.