Meditation and the brain: attention, control and emotion.

A philosophical and technical analysis of neuroimaging studies on two types of meditation—one-pointed concentration and compassion meditation—compares brain activity and connectivity between novice and expert practitioners. For one-pointed concentration, increased attention and concentration correlate with decreased activity in brain areas related to discursive thought and emotion. For compassion meditation, the limbic circuitry is important for emotion sharing. The conclusion identifies a common structure underlying how emotion is handled in these different meditative practices.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Meditation has been for long time avoided as a scientific theme because of its complexity and its religious connotations. Fortunately, in the last years, it has increasingly been studied within different neuroscientific experimental protocols. Attention and concentration are surely among the most important topics in these experiments. Notwithstanding this, inhibition of emotions and discursive thoughts are equally important to understand what is at stake during those types of mental processes. I philosophically and technically analyse and compare results from neuroimaging studies, produced by leading authorities on the theme, dealing with two types of meditation: "one-pointed concentration" and "compassion meditation". Analysing "one-pointed concentration", I show the differences between novice and expert meditation practitioners in terms of brain activity and connectivity, considering the relationship among increased attention and concentration and decreased activity in areas related to discursive thought and emotion. Analysing "compassion meditation", I show the importance of the limbic circuitry in emotion sharing. I follow the same strategy of comparing novice and expert meditation practitioners. The conclusion establishes a common structure to those different ways of dealing with emotion during meditation.