Short-term Sahaja Yoga meditation training modulates brain structure and spontaneous activity in the executive control network
File(s)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: While cross-sectional studies have shown neural changes in long-term meditators, they might be confounded by self-selection and potential baseline differences between meditators and non meditators. Prospective longitudinal studies of the effects of meditation in naïve subjects are more conclusive with respect to causal inferences, but related evidence is so far limited. METHODS: Here, we assessed the effects of a 4-week Sahaja Yoga meditation training on gray matter density and spontaneous resting-state brain activity in a group of 12 meditation-naïve healthy adults. RESULTS: Compared with 30 control subjects, the participants to meditation training showed increased gray matter density and changes in the coherence of intrinsic brain activity in two adjacent regions of the right inferior frontal gyrus encompassing the anterior component of the executive control network. Both these measures correlated with self-reported well-being scores in the meditation group. CONCLUSIONS: The significant impact of a brief meditation training on brain regions associated with attention, self-control, and self-awareness may reflect the engagement of cognitive control skills in searching for a state of mental silence, a distinctive feature of Sahaja Yoga meditation. The manifold implications of these findings involve both managerial and rehabilitative settings concerned with well-being and emotional state in normal and pathological conditions.
Date Issued
2019-01-01
Date Acceptance
2018-10-15
Citation
Brain and Behavior, 2019, 9 (1)
ISSN
2162-3279
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Brain and Behavior
Volume
9
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30485713
Subjects
Sahaja Yoga meditation
fronto-parietal executive control network
neural plasticity
resting-state fMRI
voxel-based morphometry
Adult
Attention
Cross-Sectional Studies
Executive Function
Female
Gray Matter
Humans
Male
Meditation
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Prefrontal Cortex
Prospective Studies
Self-Control
Yoga
Young Adult
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Article Number
ARTN e01159
Date Publish Online
2018-11-28