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Mindfulness, or the practice of mindfulness, has been popular in the West for many years as a method of relieving stress and improving cognitive abilities. To briefly explain what it is, this is meditation devoid of a religious component.
Few people in Russia have heard of it yet, but popular science publications and thematic Telegram channels are actively writing about it. There is evidence that the practice of mindfulness will not only become more calm (and, of course, mindful), but also cure PTSD and a whole range of schizophrenic diseases. There are studies that prove these claims are true. How do scientists test the effect of meditation on the brain?
How can you?
Studying the influence of meditative practices on the human body is not an easy task, since it concerns the field of neurophysiology and psychology. Such studies have two aspects: objective (when the real change in the structure of the brain in people who have been engaged in meditation for a long time is checked), and subjective (evaluating their personal feelings).
Structural changes are checked using magnetic resonance imaging, which produces detailed images of the brain. However, there are other methods that help scientists "see" changes, such as increasing or decreasing the thickness of certain areas of the brain. The subjective feelings of meditators can only be learned through polls, and the hypothesis will be tested by establishing speaking correlations.
Sometimes the effect of meditation on the body is studied and not at all on humans, but on animals. For example, on mice.
On mice, how?
No, mice are not forced to meditate.
Since it is hardly possible to make a mouse meditate, in such experiments in animals, changes in the structure of the brain are artificially created, characteristic of meditators.
Many of these changes are associated with an increase in brain theta activity characteristic of REM sleep. To test this hypothesis, scientists at the University of Oregon used optogenetics to increase or decrease brain theta activity in mice for a month. Before and after the experiment, the animals were tested for the level of anxiety. After a month of stimulation of theta activity, anxiety in the mice decreased.
What results can you see?
What is the evidence that mindfulness practice actually changes how the brain works? There are many scientific articles out there that talk about this.
In one study, scientists took a group of participants in the amount of 20 people who have been practicing meditation for a long time, aimed at concentrating on inner feelings. In these people, the thickness of the cortex was checked by the MRI method. The areas of the brain associated with attention, interoception, and sensory processing were found to be thicker than usual in those who meditate frequently.
Image of the brain of mediators with thickened areas of the cortex.
In another study, scientists performed magnetic resonance imaging on people while they were practicing compassion meditation. Some of them were already proficient in this, others were less experienced, beginners. Also during meditation, the scientists turned on emotional and neutral sounds to test the response to stimuli in the participants in the experiment. It turned out that the response to emotional sounds, expressed by activity in some areas of the cerebral cortex, was stronger in the "experts". This is likely evidence that meditators tend to exhibit higher levels of empathy.
In another study, researchers tested the amount of gray matter in the brain in long-term practitioners of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a program that uses mindfulness practice to relieve stress. Sixty healthy participants had brain MRI scans taken before and after the eight-week program. Changes in gray matter concentration were investigated using voxel-based morphometry, and the results were compared with those of a control group of 17 people. The amount of gray matter in the MBSR group did indeed increase in the left hippocampus. They also have larger posterior parietal cortex, temporo-parietal node and cerebellum. These areas of the brain are responsible for learning and memory, emotion regulation, and perspective perception.
What results can you hear?
The following studies were conducted mainly using surveys and assessed the subjective feelings of the participants in the experiment, as well as indirect indicators of improving their well-being.
One study examined patients with schizophrenia disorders over a period of 24 months from six community-based hospitals in three countries (Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan). Three different therapies were used: psychoeducational, mindfulness practice, conventional psychoeducational, and TAU (Treatment As Usual). Benefits for mindfulness therapy were seen with readmission: the shortest for the group using this particular treatment. As a result of the study, it turned out that TAU showed itself as the least effective method.
Here is a chanterelle that catches Zen.
There are studies that show that mindfulness practice even has a positive effect on our rationality. At least on rationality in making economic decisions. A group of volunteer meditators was asked by the scientists to play the Ultimatum game. The essence of the game is that one of the participants is given a sum of money, and he must offer any share of it to another participant. If the second participant refuses the proposed share, then none of them will receive the money. The most profitable option for the first participant is to offer the second the smallest possible share of the amount. If people were always economically rational, the second participant would always agree to any size of the share.
In reality, according to statistics, if the proposed share turns out to be less than 30%, then the second participant, as a rule, refuses to take it, and both are left without money. A study on meditators found that they accepted unfair offers more than half of the time, in contrast to a control group in which participants agreed to small shares only a quarter of the time.
The MRI scans also showed that meditators and a control group activate different parts of the brain when making decisions. The former do not allow negative emotional reactions to influence their behavior.
And here is a meditating lemur.
American scientists have found evidence that the practice of mindfulness can relieve pain. As the study showed, during the practice of mindfulness in a person, areas of the brain are activated, in which a large number of opioid receptors are located. The authors found this out in a double-blind study that tested healthy volunteers who practice meditation.
Scientists watched their reaction to heat (no longer pleasant) and injected them intravenously with either an opioid receptor antagonist or saline solution as a placebo. Meditation in the group treated with the working solution significantly reduced pain intensity compared to the "saline" control group. The intensity of pain was tested using a visual analogue scale, on which the participants set values based on their feelings. Overall, the results of the study showed that meditation reduced pain independently of the opiodermic neurotransmitter mechanisms working. At least by subjective assessment.
Is everything that good?
Most of the articles on meditation talk about the positive impact of the practice on the health and mental state of a person. Such an avalanche stream of "good" research has been criticized many times.
For example, there are a number of studies examining the negative effects of meditation. The authors of one of them state that the main drawback of such scientific work is that scientists are focused on testing any one positive aspect of meditation practices and do not ask participants in experiments about side effects. And those are not inclined to voice them without a direct question.
The meditating monkey believes that the practice of mindfulness must be approached with a reasonable amount of awareness.
Among the negative consequences of meditation, psychoses, epileptic seizures, changes in perception, anxiety, fear, sleep disturbances, decreased sexuality, and so on are voiced. All of these problems were voiced by participants in a survey conducted among 60 practicing Buddhists. The results cast doubt on the unconditional benefits of MBIs (mindfulness-based interventions), mindfulness-based therapy. It seems that when using this approach to treat patients with serious mental illness, it is worth being more careful.
Unfortunately, for the hypotheses about the benefits of the practice of mindfulness and meditation, there is no methodological possibility of refutation by setting up one or another experiment. It is impossible to explain the manifested structural changes in the brain in people who practice meditation, only one given factor, it is impossible to interpret these changes as an absolute benefit.
The subjective feelings of the meditators, on the other hand, cannot be properly assessed and is not at all possible. However, despite such nuances, you need to agree with one thing: if people, practicing mindfulness, feel calmer, more concentrated, attentive and happy, then the application of this technique in life is good for them. And, probably, each of us should try this technique on ourselves, at least out of pure curiosity and a desire to change something in our life.
Few people in Russia have heard of it yet, but popular science publications and thematic Telegram channels are actively writing about it. There is evidence that the practice of mindfulness will not only become more calm (and, of course, mindful), but also cure PTSD and a whole range of schizophrenic diseases. There are studies that prove these claims are true. How do scientists test the effect of meditation on the brain?
How can you?
Studying the influence of meditative practices on the human body is not an easy task, since it concerns the field of neurophysiology and psychology. Such studies have two aspects: objective (when the real change in the structure of the brain in people who have been engaged in meditation for a long time is checked), and subjective (evaluating their personal feelings).
Structural changes are checked using magnetic resonance imaging, which produces detailed images of the brain. However, there are other methods that help scientists "see" changes, such as increasing or decreasing the thickness of certain areas of the brain. The subjective feelings of meditators can only be learned through polls, and the hypothesis will be tested by establishing speaking correlations.
Sometimes the effect of meditation on the body is studied and not at all on humans, but on animals. For example, on mice.
On mice, how?
No, mice are not forced to meditate.
Since it is hardly possible to make a mouse meditate, in such experiments in animals, changes in the structure of the brain are artificially created, characteristic of meditators.
Many of these changes are associated with an increase in brain theta activity characteristic of REM sleep. To test this hypothesis, scientists at the University of Oregon used optogenetics to increase or decrease brain theta activity in mice for a month. Before and after the experiment, the animals were tested for the level of anxiety. After a month of stimulation of theta activity, anxiety in the mice decreased.
What results can you see?
What is the evidence that mindfulness practice actually changes how the brain works? There are many scientific articles out there that talk about this.
In one study, scientists took a group of participants in the amount of 20 people who have been practicing meditation for a long time, aimed at concentrating on inner feelings. In these people, the thickness of the cortex was checked by the MRI method. The areas of the brain associated with attention, interoception, and sensory processing were found to be thicker than usual in those who meditate frequently.
Image of the brain of mediators with thickened areas of the cortex.
In another study, scientists performed magnetic resonance imaging on people while they were practicing compassion meditation. Some of them were already proficient in this, others were less experienced, beginners. Also during meditation, the scientists turned on emotional and neutral sounds to test the response to stimuli in the participants in the experiment. It turned out that the response to emotional sounds, expressed by activity in some areas of the cerebral cortex, was stronger in the "experts". This is likely evidence that meditators tend to exhibit higher levels of empathy.
In another study, researchers tested the amount of gray matter in the brain in long-term practitioners of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a program that uses mindfulness practice to relieve stress. Sixty healthy participants had brain MRI scans taken before and after the eight-week program. Changes in gray matter concentration were investigated using voxel-based morphometry, and the results were compared with those of a control group of 17 people. The amount of gray matter in the MBSR group did indeed increase in the left hippocampus. They also have larger posterior parietal cortex, temporo-parietal node and cerebellum. These areas of the brain are responsible for learning and memory, emotion regulation, and perspective perception.
What results can you hear?
The following studies were conducted mainly using surveys and assessed the subjective feelings of the participants in the experiment, as well as indirect indicators of improving their well-being.
One study examined patients with schizophrenia disorders over a period of 24 months from six community-based hospitals in three countries (Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan). Three different therapies were used: psychoeducational, mindfulness practice, conventional psychoeducational, and TAU (Treatment As Usual). Benefits for mindfulness therapy were seen with readmission: the shortest for the group using this particular treatment. As a result of the study, it turned out that TAU showed itself as the least effective method.
Here is a chanterelle that catches Zen.
There are studies that show that mindfulness practice even has a positive effect on our rationality. At least on rationality in making economic decisions. A group of volunteer meditators was asked by the scientists to play the Ultimatum game. The essence of the game is that one of the participants is given a sum of money, and he must offer any share of it to another participant. If the second participant refuses the proposed share, then none of them will receive the money. The most profitable option for the first participant is to offer the second the smallest possible share of the amount. If people were always economically rational, the second participant would always agree to any size of the share.
In reality, according to statistics, if the proposed share turns out to be less than 30%, then the second participant, as a rule, refuses to take it, and both are left without money. A study on meditators found that they accepted unfair offers more than half of the time, in contrast to a control group in which participants agreed to small shares only a quarter of the time.
The MRI scans also showed that meditators and a control group activate different parts of the brain when making decisions. The former do not allow negative emotional reactions to influence their behavior.
And here is a meditating lemur.
American scientists have found evidence that the practice of mindfulness can relieve pain. As the study showed, during the practice of mindfulness in a person, areas of the brain are activated, in which a large number of opioid receptors are located. The authors found this out in a double-blind study that tested healthy volunteers who practice meditation.
Scientists watched their reaction to heat (no longer pleasant) and injected them intravenously with either an opioid receptor antagonist or saline solution as a placebo. Meditation in the group treated with the working solution significantly reduced pain intensity compared to the "saline" control group. The intensity of pain was tested using a visual analogue scale, on which the participants set values based on their feelings. Overall, the results of the study showed that meditation reduced pain independently of the opiodermic neurotransmitter mechanisms working. At least by subjective assessment.
Is everything that good?
Most of the articles on meditation talk about the positive impact of the practice on the health and mental state of a person. Such an avalanche stream of "good" research has been criticized many times.
For example, there are a number of studies examining the negative effects of meditation. The authors of one of them state that the main drawback of such scientific work is that scientists are focused on testing any one positive aspect of meditation practices and do not ask participants in experiments about side effects. And those are not inclined to voice them without a direct question.
The meditating monkey believes that the practice of mindfulness must be approached with a reasonable amount of awareness.
Among the negative consequences of meditation, psychoses, epileptic seizures, changes in perception, anxiety, fear, sleep disturbances, decreased sexuality, and so on are voiced. All of these problems were voiced by participants in a survey conducted among 60 practicing Buddhists. The results cast doubt on the unconditional benefits of MBIs (mindfulness-based interventions), mindfulness-based therapy. It seems that when using this approach to treat patients with serious mental illness, it is worth being more careful.
Unfortunately, for the hypotheses about the benefits of the practice of mindfulness and meditation, there is no methodological possibility of refutation by setting up one or another experiment. It is impossible to explain the manifested structural changes in the brain in people who practice meditation, only one given factor, it is impossible to interpret these changes as an absolute benefit.
The subjective feelings of the meditators, on the other hand, cannot be properly assessed and is not at all possible. However, despite such nuances, you need to agree with one thing: if people, practicing mindfulness, feel calmer, more concentrated, attentive and happy, then the application of this technique in life is good for them. And, probably, each of us should try this technique on ourselves, at least out of pure curiosity and a desire to change something in our life.
