By: Aniya Hatten
Meditation is a contemplative practice that requires the body and mind to relax while your eyes remain closed. The origin of meditation has been dated as far back as 1500 B.C. in India and 6th Century B.C. in China. The main objective of this practice is to achieve emotional balance therefore, researchers have been studying the neurophysiological processes that occur in meditation.
In 2011, Massachusetts General Hospital was the first to study how daily meditation can alter the brain’s gray-matter density. 16 human subjects participated in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program and reported spending an average of 27 minutes per day meditating.
Participants completed a mindfulness questionnaire and an MRI scan of the brain structure prior to the study and were asked to complete another one following the study. They found that the questionnaire responses showed remarkable improvements and the MRI scans showed an increased gray-matter density in the hippocampus and a decreased gray-matter in the amygdala.
The hippocampus region of the brain functions to regulate memory, emotion and learning while the amygdala functions to develop fear and regulate anxiety responses in stressful situations.
Tiara Edge, Biology Major at Georgia State University, suggests that the increase of grey-matter density in the hippocampus is due to the learning improvements achieved by meditation.
“More neuron cell bodies are found in this area,” she said, “because during meditation, the body is learning different relaxing techniques and muscle memory that sends signals to the brain to increase the activity of the hippocampus region.”
Edge states that the amygdala showed a decrease in grey-matter density because the brain is receiving fewer signals of fear and stress to initiate activities.
Meditation practices often encourage participants to focus on their breathing, with deep inhalations through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. According to the University of Toledo’s Counseling Center, “Deep breathing and relaxation activate the other part of your nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system, which sends a signal to your brain to tell the anxious part that you're safe and don't need to use the fight, flight, or freeze response.”
Henry Perry, Georgia Southern Alumnus, was introduced to meditating in high school but made it an everyday practice once he took a yoga class in college. He claims that meditation has allowed him to become more in control of his emotions and less closed-minded. He mentions that he only participated in this practice at first because it was relaxing. Then he conducted some research and figured out how it was really altering his mind.
“When we meditate we create new neural pathways in our brain,” he said. “It's this idea that our reality, our thoughts and our feelings… all those things aren’t fixed so we create new ways of coping when we slow down and connect with all of our senses.”
According to Jessica Styles, Ph.D. Candidate in the Psychology Program at the University of Georgia, “Meditation helps with emotional dysregulation. It relaxes the body, decreases the heart rate and increases mindfulness,” she said. “It impacts the brain because you are training it. The things we consistently expose our brain to is what it will remember.”
Styles believes meditation is a good practice to help individuals work on staying present, but when doing her therapy session she feels that it is important to assess the patient's style. She finds often that a lot of people are turned off by the idea of mediation.
“You have to take into consideration culture, gender and the presenting concerns that the patient is having,” Styles said. “Also you have to think about people who have experienced trauma or PTSD… closing their eyes and relaxing may trigger some recurring memories. Closing their eyes may make them more hypervigilant… it reminds them of the negative experiences they had.”
Styles points out that although meditation increases awareness and suppresses stress, it is not something that she blindly recommends to all of her patients. The current research concludes that meditation has an overall positive impact on the brain. More research is being done regarding the underlying mechanisms that alter the brain through meditation.