This Is Your Brain on Mindfulness

3D4 ME D ICA L . CO M/ SC IE N CE PHO TO LI B RA RY

Meditators say their practice fundamentally changes the way they experience life.
Michael Baime reports on how modern neuroscience is explaining this in

biological terms.

e d itator s f i n d tr u t h through carefully exploring their inner

subjective experience in what some people like to call first-person
investigation. Science looks to the external material world and relies
on third-person investigation and methodologies that lead to discoveries that can
be tested and replicated by peers in the scientific world. The ways that these traditions search for truth couldnt be more different, and yet it shouldnt surprise us to
find that the two truths are actually one.
Nevertheless, scientists have traditionally viewed meditators assertions with a
healthy skepticism, and meditators have often felt the same way about scientists
requirement for objective proof of meditations benefits. More recently, however,
there has been an explosion of both popular and scientific interest in the biology
and neuroscience of meditation. The National Institutes of Health has funded
D R . M i c h a e l B a i m e is

clinical associate professor of

medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania, and is based
at the Abramson Cancer
Center in Philadelphia. He
founded the Penn Program for
Mindfulness in 1992 and is
involved in a wide variety of
projects exploring the effects
of mindfulness and similar
practices.

Baseline

Meditating

Two functional brain scans of the authors brain: a baseline scan and one done while meditating.
These show metabolic activityred is most active, black is inactive. The one done while meditating
shows a different pattern of metabolic activity. This shows that meditation doesnt just affect our
mindit changes the way that the brain works, Michael Baime says.

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photo by da ni el o nta neda

Neuroscientists Amishi Jha of the University of Pennsylvania, and Britta Hlzel and Sara Lazar of the psychiatry department at Massachusetts General Hospital.

numerous research projects to explore the effects of meditation;

ongoing investigations are exploring the role of meditation and
mindfulness on health and healing; and neuroscientists have recorded brain waves and made pictures of brain activity in many
thousands of meditators, ranging from novices in urban practice
centers to monks in the secluded monasteries of Tibet.
There is no question that you can become a perfectly good
meditator without any complicated neuroimaging technology.
On the other hand, for those of us who are interested in practicing mindfulness and other related forms of meditation, the
modern science of meditation offers us a window into some
very interestingand importantareas of our practice and our
lives. Can the benefits meditators say they experienceincreased
calm, decreased stress, better attention, and so forthbe traced
to actual neural changes?

Scientific studies have found increasingly

concrete proof of the inseparability of
body and mind, and have even given us
a glimpse of the biological basis of the
illusion of self.

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In the last several decades, the scientific study of meditation

has provided increasingly concrete proof of the inseparability of
body and mind. It has also demonstrated ways we can literally
change ourselves and our world through practice; shown us the
observable changes in the systems and subsystems that govern
our attention as we progress from the focus of mindfulness to
the panorama of awareness; and even given us a glimpse of the
biological basis of the illusion of the self.
Changes in Regio ns of the Brain
One of the most interesting areas of research on the effects of contemplative practices has explored the possibility that the actual
structure of the brain is changed by meditation practice. Several
neuroscientists have shown that some of the brain regions activated
during meditation are actually different in people who meditate
regularly, and the most recent evidence suggests that the changes
can occur in as little as eight weeks. This finding is at odds with
what we think we know about brain structure in adults. We used
to believe that sometime shortly after twenty-five or thirty years
of age the brain was finished with growth and development. From
then on, the brain became progressively impaired by age and injury,
and it was all downhill from there. But recent meditation research
suggests that this glum outcome may not be inevitable. Meditation
practice is associated with changes of specific brain areas that are essential for attention, learning, and the regulation of emotion.
Maybe this shouldnt be such a surprise. When you exercise your
muscles in the gym, they become larger as well as stronger. Their
structure changes. In fact, almost any structure of the body changes

Areas that showed increase in gray matter concentration following eight

weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction.
A: posterior cingulate cortex and cerebellum,
B: temporo-parietal junction,
C: cerebellum and brain stem.

Brain scans of the hippocampus, showing the regions that were affected by
meditation.
Images adapted from Britta Hlzel, et al., Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Vol. 191 (1), January 30, 2011, pp. 36-43.

Cortical areas are thicker in meditators. Image Sara Lazar.

Images Britta Hlzel.

when it is used more often. It now seems that this is also true for the
brain. For instance, we know that when you learn to juggle, the part
of the brain involved with tracking objects in space becomes larger.
Meditation shouldnt be any different. Like all cutting-edge research,
this work on brain size is controversial, but it has already become an
area for deeper investigation by more researchers.
The first researcher to report the effect of meditation on brain
structure was Harvard neuroscientist Sara Lazar, a researcher in
the psychiatry department at Massachusetts General Hospital. She
performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to obtain highly
detailed pictures of the brains of twenty meditators recruited from
meditation practice centers near Boston, and compared them with
images obtained from a control group of twenty nonmeditators.
The meditators were experienced practitioners, but they were not
monks, nuns, or full-time retreatants. They had practiced for an
average of about nine years, and spent, on average, a little less than
an hour a day meditating. All were Westerners, living in the United
States and working in typical jobs. The nonmeditators were local
volunteers, matched to the meditators for characteristics like age
and gender, but with no experience in yoga or meditation.
Lazar was looking at the brains cortexthe outermost surface of the brain. This is the most evolutionarily recent part of
the brain. When the brain images of the two groups were compared, she found that some cortical areas in the brains of the
meditators were significantly thicker than the same areas in nonmeditators. The cortex atrophies with age; in Lazars meditating
subjects, however, these enlarged areas were the same thickness
as what was measured in nonpractitioners twenty years younger.

Previous work had already shown that these areas were more
active during meditation practice. One of the areas was in the
prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is farthest forward
inside the skull, closest to the forehead. The other area identified
by Lazar was in a different region of the cortex called the insula.
Although it is extremely difficult to isolate a specific mental
function to a particular brain region (and the results of efforts to
do so are controversial in the scientific community), the particular
areas that Lazar identified in the frontal cortex are essential for a
variety of critically important capabilities. The prefrontal cortex
manages higher cognitive executive functions like planning, decision making, and judgment, and keeps us out of trouble by facilitating socially appropriate behavior. It allows us to hold two concepts
or experiences in mind simultaneously so that we can compare and
evaluate plans, ideas, and memories. It also helps us to link memory
with sensory input so we can connect what we have learned from
the past with what is happening in the present moment.
The other major region identified by Lazar, the insula, seems
to integrate sensation and emotion, and to process social emotionssuch as empathy and love. It is thought to be essential for
the capacity for self-awareness. Although no region of the brain
is unimportant, the activities supported by these brain areas are
especially crucial for our effective functioning in the world.
This research is still viewed as preliminary, partly because it
contradicts a lot of what we thought we knew, and partly because
it studied only twenty meditators. Lazar says that among her scientific peers, some are enthusiastic while others are skeptical. Subsequently, however, Lazars work was confirmed by a researcher in
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Sensation flows from our body into brain regions associated with present-moment
awareness (blue), often activating a connected set of brain regions associated with
descriptions, narratives, and evaluations (red). Mindfulness training appears to
weaken this body/narrative association. Image Norman Farb.

seen after only eight weeks of practice in a Mindfulness-Based

Stress Reduction program.
Hlzel says her neuroscience research has been extremely
helpful in her own mindfulness practice. It helps me to refine
my practice, to be more aware of the processes that are going on
while Im practicing, Hlzel says. It also helps me to cultivate
patience and acceptance. You might think that it should be easy
to quiet your mind, but I know that neural systems take time to
change, and wandering is built into the system. That knowledge
allows me to accept how it is right now for me. Its not my fault
or my problem. It is simply the way that the brain is built and
how the system functions.
The benefit of this information for practitioners is confirmed
by Lazar. The thing that surprised me most about this research,
Lazar says, is how many senior practitioners and meditation
teachers say that it motivates them to practice during the times
when their meditation seems to be going nowhere. She says meditators often tell her, I used to think that I was wasting my time because my mind was all over the place. This helps to keep me on the
cushion because I remember how significant these changes are.

The most recent research suggests that a regular meditation practice can cause
beneficial structural changes in the brain in as little as eight weeks.
Germany, Britta Hlzel, who also found additional regions, hidden more deeply within the brain, that had increased gray matter
density in meditators. Gray matter is the part of the brain that
holds most of the actual brain cells; its increased density may reflect an increase in connectivity between the cells. Hlzel, who is
a meditation practitioner as well as a researcher, now works with
Lazar in Boston. The regions that Hlzel and Lazar identified are
areas that are associated with the kinds of psychological and behavioral changes reported by meditators for millennia.
One of these regions allows us to shift perspective, an ability
that supports a variety of skills and behaviors, including empathy
(when we take the perspective of another) and the management of
emotional upheavals (when we step out of our reactivity). This is
completely in keeping with what actually happens during mindfulness practice. The shift of perspective from automatic-pilot reactivity to a more aware and observant witness is a central component
of meditation training. Over and over, you practice shifting
from a dreamy nonawareness into the vividness of the present
moment. Lazar and Hlzel have also recently reported that the
region of the brain most associated with emotional reactivity
and fearthe amygdalahas decreased gray matter density in
meditators who experience less stress. The most surprising finding was that both of these types of structural brain changes were
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Increased Att ention

Another area of recent research on the effects of meditation deals
with the role of meditation in enhancing attentional performance.
Whether our practice focuses on the breath, a sound, or a thought
(for instance, a repeated phrase or a visualized image), attention
is always central to meditation. That may seem ironic, because
there is nothing like a long meditation session to demonstrate
how difficult it is to control the attention. Countless distractions
arise, seemingly out of nowhere, and hijack our awareness despite
our best intentions. Especially if you are relatively new to meditation, you might think your practice is actually making you more
distracted. Research, however, has shown that the distractions are
actually less common, but that with practice you are more likely to
notice them because your attention works better. You notice more
of everything, including wandering and distractedness. Laboratory testing can measure exactly how the mind becomes stronger
with practice, and it demonstrates significant improvements over
a relatively brief period of time.
Amishi Jha is a pioneer in this area of investigation. She has
applied sophisticated computer-based testing to measure attentional performance in meditators. Jha performed this type of testing on a group of medical and nursing students at the University
page 84

The Science of Meditation

The Mind & Life Institute, reports A n d r e a M ill e r , explores the intersection
of ancient meditative disciplines and modern science.

ph oto by Betty Jo nes / M i nd & L i f e Ins tit ut e

T h e r e i s n o co n tra d ictio n

between science and spirituality because each gives us valuable insights

into the other, says His Holiness the
Dalai Lama. With the ever-growing
impact of science on our lives, religion and spirituality have a greater
role to play by reminding us of our
humanity.
The Mind & Life Institute, founded
by the Dalai Lama, entrepreneur
Adam Engle, and the late neuroscientist and philosopher Francisco Varela,
is a pioneering nonprofit organization that brings together scientists
and contemplatives for the purpose
of understanding the nature of reality, and ultimately creating a healthier,
more balanced society.
The first Mind & Life conference
was held in 1987 in Dharamsala, India. It was structured as a five-day
dialogue between Buddhists and
specialists in cognitive sciences, and
Mind & Life Conference with the Dalai Lama in New Delhi, India, 2010.
was attended by the Dalai Lama, six
scientists, two interpreters, and a few
observers. Since then, Mind and Life has convened twenty-two Research fellows participating in the summer conference have
conferences, some by invitation only, others large public events. the opportunity to present studies theyve conducted, and, afterAbout three thousand people participated in the 2005 confer- ward, may apply for the Mind & Life Francisco J. Varela Research
ence in Washington, D.C., which focused on the scientific and Awards. So far, Mind & Life has distributed $1,175,000 dollars in
funding to support emerging scientists. The research areas of reclinical applications of meditation.
In addition to its landmark conferences, Mind & Life has research cipients have included mindful awareness practices for preschool
initiatives. Notable among them is the Mind and Life Summer children to improve attention and emotion regulation; the efResearch Institute (MLSRI), an annual weeklong program held at fects of mindbody interventions in supportive care for people
the Garrison Institute in Garrison, New York. At once a retreat and with cancer; and mindfulness training as both a way of treating
a scientific conference, MLSRI encourages collaboration among drug addicts and investigating the mechanisms involved in
behavioral scientists, neuroscientists, biomedical researchers, and addiction.
The theme of Mind & Lifes 2011 Summer Research Institute,
practitioners and scholars of the contemplative traditions, and
features presentations by some of the most progressive thinkers in being held at Garrison from June 12 to 18, is New Frontiers in the
those fields. Since 2004, more than 1,000 faculty and participants Contemplative Sciences. The focus is on unresolved challenges
for the advancement of contemplative neuroscience, contemhave attended through competitive application.
MLSRIs long-term objective is to advance the training of a new plative clinical science, and contemplative studies in light of the
generation of scientists and contemplative scholarpractitioners. progress made since MLSRIs inception.
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Your Brain on Mindfulness continued from page 48

of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia before and after an eight-week
mindfulness-based training course. The class was designed to
teach students to use meditation to manage stress, enhance communication, and cultivate empathy. (I also worked on this research
and designed and taught the meditation course.)
After only eight weeks of training, testing revealed that the students who were taught to meditate could intentionally direct and
focus their attention more quickly than a matched group of untrained students. Another study used similar tests to investigate
the effects of a monthlong intensive group meditation retreat at
Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado. These participants
had considerably more practice experience than the students, and
practiced for eight to ten hours each day during the retreat.
Interestingly, the more experienced retreat participants
did not demonstrate the increase in capacity to direct and focus attention that was seen in the novice meditators; they
were pretty good at that when the retreat started. Instead, the
retreat participants had a change in the nature of their attention. Their awareness became much more open and alert. This
finding seems to describe the transition from focused mindfulness to broader and deeper insight and awareness described
in traditional meditation teachings. As expected, the retreat
participants also had substantially less mental wandering, and
more insight into wandering and distraction when it occurred.
Other testing from Jhas lab has demonstrated that meditation
improves working (or short-term) memory as well as the ability
to resist distraction. This has very significant implications for improving our ability to accomplish our goals in everyday life. She
has found that even very short periods of regular practice, as little
as twelve minutes a day, are associated with significant improvements in working memory. More practice is associated with better
results, including both improved accuracy and reduced wandering.
A Different Experience of the Self
Another recent stream of research on meditation has explored the
way that practice affects the experience of the self. One recent set
of reports from the University of Toronto explores the way meditation affects the way we construct a self out of our experience and
the relationship between the narration we use to create a self and
our direct moment-to-moment experience. Two distinct neural
networks in different parts of the brain contribute to our experience of a self. Activity in one region is associated with a descriptive narrative: thoughts about what is happening and how we are.
The other region is associated with a more direct experience of
sensation and emotion in the present moment.
The two areas are linked so that activity in the presentmoment awareness region activates the storytelling region. So a
shift away from more direct sensory awareness into thinking is not
just random; it is literally built into the nervous system. This might
explain why the experience of nonconceptual mindfulness and
awareness is often so fleeting. A moment of nonthought jump84

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starts the storytelling areas of the brain.

In the study, participants were asked
to employ different types of focus, corresponding to the two distinct modes of
self-reference. Narrative focus calls for
elaborating mental constructs within our
minds, weaving a story as it were, which
reduces attention toward sensory objects
available in our immediate experience.
By contrast, experiential focus calls for
inhibiting our elaboration on any given
mental event in favor of broadly attending to the objects in our experience and
canvassing thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations without selecting any one
sensory object.
Narrative focus is associated with
ruminative thoughts about the self, while
experiential focus avoids rumination. It
disengages the brain networks that lead
to self-referential story-making. The researchers noted that while a focus that centers on experience in the present includes
a strong component of paying attention
to bodily sensations, meditation practice
is associated with developing moment-tomoment awareness of all available stimuli.
Accordingly, when participants were instructed to maintain an experiential focus,
they were encouraged to include internal
thoughts, emotions, and external sensory
events, in addition to bodily sensations. A
mindfulness-trained group was compared
with a novice group in how they performed
in working with these different types of
focus and, by extension, the two different
neural regions: the one associated with
story-making about the self and the other
associated with immediate experience.
The Toronto group demonstrated that
meditation practice enhances the ability to
disconnect these two regions and engage
more robustly in experiential focus. As a
result, the likelihood that an experience
of present-moment awareness will automatically be followed by a self-centered
monologue is reduced. Even the habitual
patterns that are deeply built into the body
can be changed with practice. Norman
Farb, the lead investigator of the study, says
that the work demonstrates how mindfulness changes the very ground of the way
that we experience the self.