health and safety: Meditation leads to a bigger brain

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Meditation leads to a bigger brain

Helps Areas Tied To Emotions Grow

New York: Push-ups, crunches and gyms are fine for building bigger muscles and stronger bones. But meditation seems to be the way to a bigger brain.
    A new study has established that certain regions in the brains of those meditating for a long period were larger than in a similar control group.
    A group of researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), used highresolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of people who meditate.
    Specifically, such people showed significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbitofrontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus-regions known for regulating emotions.
    "We know that people who consistently meditate have a singular ability to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability and engage in mindful behaviour," said Eileen Luders, study co-author and postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Lab of Neuro Imaging.
    Luders and colleagues examined 44 people, 22 control subjects and 22 who had practised Zazen, Samatha and Vipassana meditation, among others. They had devoted an average of 24 years to the practice.
    More than half of all the people who meditate said that deep concentration was an essential part of their practice, and most meditated between 10 and 90 minutes daily, said an UCLA release.
    The researchers used a high-resolution, three-dimensional form of MRI and two different approaches to measure differences in brain structure. These findings were published in NeuroImage. AGENCIES
Chemical may play key role in anxiety
    Achemical important for brain development may play a role in explaining why some people are genetically predisposed to anxiety and could lead to new treatments, US researchers said. They said rats bred to be highly anxious had very low levels of a brain chemical called fibroblast growth factor 2 or FGF2 compared with rats that were more laid back. But when they improved the anxious rats' living conditions, levels of FGF2 increased and they became less anxious. "The levels of this molecule increased in response to the experiences that the rats were exposed to. It also decreased their anxiety," Javier Perez of the University of Michigan, said. REUTERS