N*******n
发帖数: 348 | 1 Interesting story from abcnews:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/meditation-brain-rewire-study/stor
Sharon Salzberg said her mind might be very different if it weren't for
meditation, and new neurologic research suggests that she might be right.
Troubled by a traumatic, stressful childhood, Salzberg traveled to India as
a college student and discovered meditation. Not only did it help her deal
with her painful past, Salzberg said, but the practice helped change the way
her mind worked.
"I hadn't really looked within," said Salzberg, a co-founder of the Insight
Meditation Society and author of seven books on meditation. "I felt much
more presence, rather than being distracted. It felt like the whole world
opened up for me."
A new study from Yale University suggests that the brains of experienced
meditators like Salzberg may actually work differently than brains of those
who don't meditate. The study gives scientists a window into the meditating
mind, providing evidence that the practice appears to change the way the
brain works and could give meditators a leg up when it comes to dealing with
mental disorders.
Dr. Judson Brewer, medical director of the Yale Therapeutic Neuroscience
Clinic, and his colleagues asked 10 experienced meditators and 13 people
with no meditation experience to practice three basic meditation techniques:
concentration, loving-kindness, and choiceless awareness.
The team then used functional magnetic resonance imaging to observe the
participants' brain activity when they were practicing the meditative
techniques and when they were instructed not to think of anything in
particular.
In a report published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, Brewer and his team report that the experienced meditators had
decreased activity in an area of the brain called the default mode network,
a region that is usually at work when the mind wanders. Even when the
meditators weren't meditating, this region of their brain was much quieter
than in their inexperienced counterparts.
Getty Images/Image Source
A new study from Yale University finds that... View Full Size
Getty Images/Image SourceA new study from Yale University finds that the
brains of those that meditate function differently than those that don't
take part in the practice. Sign of the Times: Meditate to Happiness Watch
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Brewer, who has practiced meditation for 15 years, said experience with
meditation also seems to optimize the way the brain communicates with itself
. When the default mode networks of the experienced meditators were active,
so were brain regions associated with self-monitoring and cognitive control.
"These guys have a different default mode," Brewer said. "They're constantly
looking out for mind wandering."
Most people spend a lot of time in mind wandering or daydreaming, and
research shows that it comes with cognitive pros and cons. Scientists have
shown that daydreaming can be a good thing, providing a boost for creativity
, aiding in the processing of social functions, and refining other important
psychological processes.
However, recent studies have suggested that a wandering mind is also an
unhappy one. In 2010, one study found that people reported being
significantly less happy when their minds were wandering than when they were
engaged in the task at hand. Researchers suggest that this is because when
our minds are wandering, most of us are worrying rather than living in the
moment.
Brewer also notes that the psychological hallmark of many forms of mental
illness -- anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and
schizophrenia -- is a preoccupation with one's own thoughts, specifically
the negative ones. A series of studies have linked these disorders with
overactivity or faulty neurological wiring in the default mode network, the
brain region that was less active in experienced meditators.
"One of the things that meditation and basic mindfulness seems to be doing
is quieting down this region of the brain," Brewer said. "It absolutely
makes sense, given what we know about the default mode network."
Meditation isn't a cure for mental illness, Brewer said, but he said his
study suggests that there may be a neurological basis for the benefits that
many meditators report -- increased awareness, improved concentration, and a
better ability to deal with the cognitive and emotional stresses of modern
life.
Salzberg said she hopes that increased scientific study will continue to
document the benefits of meditation for easing a troubled mind.
"It's quite great that in our contemporary time where science is the
language of validation, there's evidence showing that in fact this is true,"
Salzberg said. | b**d
发帖数: 7644 | 2 俺觉得meditation的意义远大于此。这个实在是所有benefit中比较trivial的啦。 | T*******y
发帖数: 6523 | 3 Yes, very interesting.
I believe that everything we perceive and function has biological basis, and
there's an interaction between the soul and body. Hormones, brain ECG
activities, and even the symptoms of diseases are detectable cues of the
underlying emotions/thoughts/...
In a whole-some way, once one thing is changed, other things are changed, as
well.
【在 N*******n 的大作中提到】
: Interesting story from abcnews:
: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/meditation-brain-rewire-study/stor
: Sharon Salzberg said her mind might be very different if it weren't for
: meditation, and new neurologic research suggests that she might be right.
: Troubled by a traumatic, stressful childhood, Salzberg traveled to India as
: a college student and discovered meditation. Not only did it help her deal
: with her painful past, Salzberg said, but the practice helped change the way
: her mind worked.
: "I hadn't really looked within," said Salzberg, a co-founder of the Insight
: Meditation Society and author of seven books on meditation. "I felt much
| d*******r
发帖数: 3875 | 4 similar to my own feeling. i feel my brain much "lighter" after zhan4zhuang1
as
way
Insight
【在 N*******n 的大作中提到】
: Interesting story from abcnews:
: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/meditation-brain-rewire-study/stor
: Sharon Salzberg said her mind might be very different if it weren't for
: meditation, and new neurologic research suggests that she might be right.
: Troubled by a traumatic, stressful childhood, Salzberg traveled to India as
: a college student and discovered meditation. Not only did it help her deal
: with her painful past, Salzberg said, but the practice helped change the way
: her mind worked.
: "I hadn't really looked within," said Salzberg, a co-founder of the Insight
: Meditation Society and author of seven books on meditation. "I felt much
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