Yoga meditation practitioners exhibit greater gray matter volume and fewer reported cognitive failures: results of a preliminary voxel-based morphometric analysis.
Brett Froeliger, Eric L Garland, F Joseph McClernon
Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012 DOI: 10.1155/2012/821307 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Yoga meditation practitioners and a matched control group |
| Intervention | pranayama |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Yoga meditation practitioners had greater gray matter volume in frontal, limbic, temporal, occipital, and cerebellar regions than controls, and reported fewer cognitive failures. |
Abstract
Hatha yoga techniques, including physical postures (asanas), breathing exercises (pranayama), and meditation, involve the practice of mindfulness. In turn, yoga meditation practices may induce the state of mindfulness, which, when evoked recurrently through repeated practice, may accrue into trait or dispositional mindfulness. Putatively, these changes may be mediated by experience-dependent neuroplastic changes. Though prior studies have identified differences in gray matter volume (GMV) between long-term mindfulness practitioners and controls, no studies to date have reported on whether yoga meditation is associated with GMV differences. The present study investigated GMV differences between yoga meditation practitioners (YMP) and a matched control group (CG). The YMP group exhibited greater GM volume in frontal, limbic, temporal, occipital, and cerebellar regions; whereas the CG had no greater regional greater GMV. In addition, the YMP group reported significantly fewer cognitive failures on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), the magnitude of which was positively correlated with GMV in numerous regions identified in the primary analysis. Lastly, GMV was positively correlated with the duration of yoga practice. Results from this preliminary study suggest that hatha yoga practice may be associated with the promotion of neuroplastic changes in executive brain systems, which may confer therapeutic benefits that accrue with repeated practice.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |
Citations in the library
Cited by 27
- Breath of Life: The Respiratory Vagal Stimulation Model of Contemplative Activity Frontiers in Human Neuroscience October 9, 2018
- What Has Neuroimaging Taught Us on the Neurobiology of Yoga? A Review Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience July 8, 2020
- Effects of Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya , a Multicomponent Breath-Based Yogic Practice ( Pranayama ), on Perceived Stress and General Well-Being Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine September 22, 2017
- Yoga and the Need of Its Integration in Modern Medicine Journal of the Association of Physicians of India December 1, 2022
- Long-term Ashtanga yoga practice decreases medial temporal and brainstem glucose metabolism in relation to years of experience EJNMMI Research May 14, 2020
and 22 more in the library
Cites 22
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Neuroreport November 7, 2005
- Intensive meditation training improves perceptual discrimination and sustained attention. Psychological Science June 1, 2010
- Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. Emotion February 6, 2012
- Investigation of mindfulness meditation practitioners with voxel-based morphometry Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience December 3, 2007
and 17 more in the library