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Neuroimaging of meditation's effect on brain reactivity to pain.

David W. Orme-Johnson, Robert H Schneider, Young D Son, Sanford Nidich, Zang-Hee Cho

Neuroreport August 21, 2006 DOI: 10.1097/01.wnr.0000233094.67289.a8 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Controlled trial Peer reviewed
Population Long-term practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique and healthy matched controls interested in learning the technique
Intervention Transcendental Meditation technique
Duration 5 months
Topics Meditation
Key findings Transcendental Meditation practice reduces the brain's response to pain in the thalamus, prefrontal cortex, and total brain by 40-50%.

Abstract

Some meditation techniques reduce pain, but there have been no studies on how meditation affects the brain's response to pain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the response to thermally induced pain applied outside the meditation period found that long-term practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique showed 40-50% fewer voxels responding to pain in the thalamus and total brain than in healthy matched controls interested in learning the technique. After the controls learned the technique and practiced it for 5 months, their response decreased by 40-50% in the thalamus, prefrontal cortex, total brain, and marginally in the anterior cingulate cortex. The results suggest that the Transcendental Meditation technique longitudinally reduces the affective/motivational dimension of the brain's response to pain.

Comparable studies

Other non-randomized and open-label trials on meditation, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress, and Immune Parameters in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients Early-stage breast and prostate cancer patients 2003 Pre-post intervention study n = 59
Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Community sample 2010 Pre-post intervention study
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers Psychological Distress In Medical Students Second-year medical students 2003 Prospective nonrandomized cohort-controlled study n = 302
Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Retreat participants and matched controls 2011 Controlled trial with wait-list control group n = 60
The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents Children aged 8-12 with ADHD and their parents 2011 Within-group waitlist controlled trial n = 22

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