Short-term meditation modulates brain activity of insight evoked with solution cue.
Xiaoqian Ding, Yi-Yuan Tang, Chengyue Cao, Yuqin Deng, Yan Wang, Xiu Xin, M. Posner
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience January 1, 2015 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsu032 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractAfter five hours of meditation training, compared with the same amount of relaxation, participants showed greater brain activity in the right cingulate gyrus, insula, putamen, inferior frontal gyrus, and bilateral middle frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and superior temporal gyrus when presented with a solution to a problem they had failed to solve. The authors speculate that these regions may support detecting conflict, breaking mental set, restructuring problem representation, error detection, and the 'Aha' feeling of insight.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Interventions | Meditation training Relaxation |
| Dose | 5 h |
| Keywords | Psychology Medicine |
| Key finding | Meditation training, compared to relaxation, led to greater brain activity in regions associated with insight and problem restructuring when participants were shown a solution after failing to solve a problem. |
Abstract
Meditation has been shown to improve creativity in some situation. However, little is known about the brain systems underling insight into a problem when the person fails to solve the problem. Here, we examined the neural correlation using Chinese Remote Association Test, as a measure of creativity. We provide a solution following the failure of the participant to provide one. We examine how meditation in comparison with relaxation influences the reaction of the participant to a correct solution. The event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging showed greater activity, mainly distributed in the right cingulate gyrus (CG), insula, putamen, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and the bilateral middle frontal gyrus (MFG), the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and the superior temporal gyrus (STG). This pattern of activation was greater following 5 h of meditation training than the same amount of relaxation. Based on prior research, we speculate on the function of this pattern of brain activity: (i) CG may be involved in detecting conflict and breaking mental set, (ii) MFG/IFG may play an important role in restructuring of the problem representation, (iii) insula, IPL and STG may be associated with error detection, problem understanding or general attentive control and (iv) putamen may be activated by 'Aha' feeling.