Written by Advaith Nair.
Looked at by many as a way to “cleanse your soul” and how to “get in touch with the world around you”, the act of meditation is something that has long been believed to have tremendous beneficial effects on one’s focus and concentration. But what if the benefits of meditation and mindfulness extend far beyond making you feel at ease?
What if meditation can have tangible, measurable effects on one’s PHYSICAL brain structure?
In today’s blog, titled "Meditation and the Brain: How Mindfulness Practices Impact Neural Pathways", we are going to take a deep dive into the practice of meditation, what it entails, and what its implications are concerning the activity of your neurons. After all, saying that breathing a few times with your legs crossed can alter the structure of one of your prized internal organs sounds preposterous - right?
But before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s start with two key definitions - of the terms meditation and neuroplasticity
First, what is meditation? For those of us who do not know or are not entirely sure what the field of meditation encompasses, the Cleveland Clinic informs us that meditation “is a practice that involves focusing or clearing your mind using a combination of mental and physical techniques.”
Now, what does that look like? What exactly are said “mental and physical techniques”?
Well, simply put, meditation includes anything that allows you to foster a greater sense of relaxation and focus. This may look like deep breathing exercises, guided visualization, walking meditation, nature-inspired meditation, among many others.
Most common religious practices are also heavily associated with the act of meditation. Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam - the world’s major religions - all include some form of meditation. Common examples include the practice of yoga in India, or the common Buddhist principle known as the Eightfold Path, where meditation is an integral part.
Next, let's’ talk about neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity, according to the National Institutes of Health, is defined as “the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli”. Since the topic of today’s discussion is centered around the impact of external stimuli (meditation) on the nervous system, neuroplasticity is a very important concept to take into account.
In short, neuroplasticity refers to the brains’ ability to adapt to things that are happening around us.
There are 2 main types of neuroplasticity - structural and functional. Structural neuroplasticity primarily refers to the ability of the brain to alter its connections between or neurons or its own physical structure, while functional neuroplasticity revolves more around the brain's ability to alter the activity or behavior of its neurons.
Now, time for what you all are here for - how does meditation and mindfulness affect your brain’s neural pathways?
This article will delve into two main impacts of mindfulness practices on one’s neural activity.
The first impact of mindfulness on one’s neural pathways is a decreased rate of gray matter atrophy.
A 2015 study from the University of California, Los Angeles looked at the correlation between age and cerebral gray matter. The subjects of this experiment were from ages of 24 all the way until 77 years old, and found a negative association between both global and local gray matter as well as age, “suggesting a decline” (Luders, Cherbuin and Kurth et. al 2015)
But what exactly is gray matter responsible for? Why does it need to be preserved?
First, understand that your central nervous system (which consists of your brain and spinal cord) is made up of two different types of matter - one type is referred to as white matter, while the other is - you guessed it - gray matter! White matter is located in the center of your brain and the outside of your spinal cord, while its gray counterpart is in the OUTSIDE of your brain and the INSIDE of your spinal cord.
Now, onto the functionality of gray matter. Cleveland Clinic tells us that gray matter has
“a significant role in mental functions, memory, emotions and movement”
Therefore, if we continue to preserve and maintain the amount of gray matter that we have, intuitively we can understand that our cognitive functions have a much higher probability of staying intact, even as we age and our bodies start to slow down in a sense.
And our “intuition” is correct - countless amounts of research finds that a loss in gray matter is associated with a myriad of common neurological disorders, the most notable being the notorious Alzheimer’s disease and it’s close cousin, Parkinson’s disease.
So, to recap, we know that meditation has been proven to prevent the decline of gray matter in our brain, decreasing the chance of acquiring fatal age-associated neurological disorders.
Onwards!
The second of mindfulness on one’s neural pathways is decreased mind-wandering.
This one seems really obvious, right? Most people meditate and practice mindfulness in order to gain an increased sense of focus so obviously, meditation would decrease mind-wandering.
You would be half-correct. Meditation does decrease mind-wandering, but it is not just a mechanism where meditation automatically makes your neurons’ more “focused”.
A group of professors from Yale University in 2011 looked at neural activity in groups of two different types of people - people who meditated and people who knew nothing about it.
Their results found that “the main nodes of the default-mode network…were relatively deactivated in experienced meditators across all meditation types“ (Brewer, Worhunsky, Gray, Tang, Weber, and Kober et. al 2011).
For some clarification, the default mode network in your brain is just a cluster of regions that are active when we aren’t doing anything, but inactive when we ARE doing something, like taking a test.
The study furthers by saying that the changes they found in the DMN were “consistent with decreased mind-wandering” (Brewer, Worhunsky, Gray, Tang, Weber, and Kober et. al 2011).
Decreasing mind-wandering is beneficial, as many studies find that mind-wandering is associated with a negative mood. Pam Moore from the Washington Post finds that when mind-wandering occurs too often, it can lead to terrible ailments such as depression and anxiety.
By meditation and limiting the activity of our default-mode network, we can therefore decrease our mind-wandering (literally), steering us away from terrible mental disorders.
To conclude, meditation and mindfulness practices go beyond just the promotion of relaxation and focus - it has REAL effects on the PHYSICAL structure of the brain by impacting our neuroplasticity.
Meditation helps us in two key ways -
The first is through the prevention of gray matter atrophy, vital for cognitive function and dramatically decreases the risk of age-associated neurological disorders.
The second is through decreasing activity in the default mode-network, limiting mind-wandering and its adverse effects on one’s mood and concentration.
Meditation is something that proposes an abundance of benefits, and introducing it into our lives may create numerous benefits for not just ourselves, but our brain as well.
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