Differential engagement of anterior cingulate and adjacent medial frontal cortex in adept meditators and non-meditators.
Britta K. Hölzel, Ulrich Ott, Hannes Hempel, Andrea Hackl, Katharina Wolf, Rudolf Stark, Dieter Vaitl
Neuroscience Letters June 21, 2007 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2007.04.074 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 30 |
| Population | Vipassana meditators and non-meditators matched for sex, age, education, and handedness |
| Intervention | Mindfulness of breathing |
| Key findings | Meditators showed stronger activations in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex during mindfulness of breathing compared to non-meditators. |
Abstract
This study investigated differences in brain activation during meditation between meditators and non-meditators. Fifteen Vipassana meditators (mean practice: 7.9 years, 2h daily) and fifteen non-meditators, matched for sex, age, education, and handedness, participated in a block-design fMRI study that included mindfulness of breathing and mental arithmetic conditions. For the meditation condition (contrasted to arithmetic), meditators showed stronger activations in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex bilaterally, compared to controls. Greater rostral anterior cingulate cortex activation in meditators may reflect stronger processing of distracting events. The increased activation in the medial prefrontal cortex may reflect that meditators are stronger engaged in emotional processing.
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- Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 23, 2011
- Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2012
- A systematic review of neurobiological and clinical features of mindfulness meditations Psychological Medicine November 27, 2009
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