Medial profrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex in the generation of alpha activity induced by transcendental meditation: a magnetoencephalographic study.

Transcendental meditation (TM) increases frontal and central alpha activity in the brain. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) simultaneously on eight TM practitioners before, during, and after TM, researchers localized the sources of this alpha activity. The dipoles were mapped to both the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), suggesting these regions play an important role in brain activity induced by TM.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Previous EEG studies have shown that transcendental meditation (TM) increases frontal and central alpha activity. The present study was aimed at identifying the source of this alpha activity using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) simultaneously on eight TM practitioners before, during, and after TM. The magnetic field potentials corresponding to TM-induced alpha activities on EEG recordings were extracted, and we attempted to localize the dipole sources using the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm, equivalent current dipole source analysis, and the multiple spatio-temporal dipole model. Since the dipoles were mapped to both the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), it is suggested that the mPFC and ACC play an important role in brain activity induced by TM.