Medial profrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex in the generation of alpha activity induced by transcendental meditation: a magnetoencephalographic study.
Shin Yamamoto, Yoshihiro Kitamura, Norihito Yamada, Yoshihiko Nakashima, Shigetoshi Kuroda
Acta medica Okayama February 1, 2006 DOI: 10.18926/amo/30752 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 8 |
| Population | TM practitioners |
| Intervention | Transcendental meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | The medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex are suggested to play an important role in brain activity induced by TM. |
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.