Brain undergoes more activity during meditation--study
POSTED December 20, 2010 - 14:17 | POSTED BY neha gupta
Last edited by Silky Chandvani on December 20, 2010 - 16:43
Andrew Newberg, a proponent of neurotheology, witnessed a sudden surge in the brain’s frontal lobes during meditation including attention and concentration.
Neurotheology, also called spiritual neuroscience, is aimed at analyzing the neurological activity of the brain region during spiritual experiences.
Newberg said, "[We] evaluate what's happening in people's brains when they are in a deep spiritual practice like meditation or prayer.
"This has really given us a remarkable window into what it means for people to be religious or spiritual or to do these kinds of practices."
The study details
The study looked at the brain activity of a few Tibetan Buddhists.
The brain activity of the Buddhists was scanned by the researchers both before and during their meditation.
The researchers found a significant increase in the meditators' frontal lobe activity during meditation.
Andrew links the brain changes to the effects of their religious experience.
Newberg said, "For those individuals who want to go down the path of arguing that all of our religious and spiritual experiences are nothing more than biological phenomena, some of this data does support that kind of a conclusion.
"But the data also does not specifically eliminate the notion that there is a religious or spiritual or divine presence in the world."
Meditation can strengthen brain
A similar study conducted at the University of Oregon last month revealed that regular meditation can help in strengthening the brain region.
The study took the help of meditation novices who were then divided into 2 groups on a random basis.
While one group was enrolled in brain-training meditation sessions for half an hour daily for a month, the other was given 11 hours of coaching in basic relaxation techniques.
The brain connections of only the group which meditated strengthened up after 6 hours of practice, the study claimed.
The differences were clearly visible after duration of 11 hours.
The 'structural changes' witnessed were highest in the fibres which connect the anterior cingulated, the brain region responsible for regulating emotions and behavior.
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