The brain during meditation

Science has proven that meditation can actually restructure your brain. Recent evidence shows that meditation – even in small doses – can affect the perception of the environment by changing the physical structure of the brain.

This was proven by Eileen Luders (University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine) using an MRI. “In the past, scientists believed that the brain reached its peak in adulthood and does not change – until it begins to decline in late adulthood,” says Luders. “Today we know that everything we do, and every experience we have, changes the brain.” In fact, Luders finds several differences between the brains of meditators and non-meditators

Meditators show more gray matter in the regions of the brain responsible for attention, emotion regulation, and mental flexibility. Increased gray matter typically makes an area of ​​the brain more efficient or more powerful in processing information. Luders believes that the increased gray matter in the brains of the meditators makes them able to control their attention, their emotions, and make mindful decisions.

 

More and more neuroscientists, such as Luders, assume that learning to meditate is no different than mental abilities like music or mathematics. Like anything else that requires exercise, meditation is a training program for the brain.

 

If you practice quiet acceptance during meditation, you will develop a brain that is more resistant to stress. And when you create feelings of love and compassion during meditation, the brain will develop to spontaneously feel more connected to others.

 

Further studies show that mediation can improve their alertness, reduce stress, and reduce anxiety.

For more information, follow the link: https://www.mindful.org/your-brain-on-meditation/

 

 

However, treating stress-related disorders requires accessing the brain’s emotional hub, the amygdala, which is located deep in the brain and difficult to reach with typical neurofeedback methods. This type of activity has typically only been measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is costly and poorly accessible, limiting its clinical use.

A study published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry tested a new imaging method that provided reliable neurofeedback on the level of amygdala activity using electroencephalography (EEG), and allowed people to alter their own emotional responses through self-regulation of its activity.

“The major advancement of this new tool is the ability to use a low-cost and accessible imaging method such as EEG to depict deeply located brain activity,” said both senior author Dr. Talma Hendler of Tel-Aviv University in Israel and The Sagol Brain Center at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, and first author Jackob Keynan, a PhD student in Hendler’s laboratory, in an email to Biological Psychiatry.

The researchers built upon a new imaging tool they had developed in a previous study that uses EEG to measure changes in amygdala activity, indicated by its “electrical fingerprint”. With the new tool, 42 participants were trained to reduce an auditory feedback corresponding to their amygdala activity using any mental strategies they found effective.

During this neurofeedback task, the participants learned to modulate their own amygdala electrical activity. This also led to improved downregulation of blood-oxygen level dependent signals of the amygdala, an indicator of regional activation measured with fMRI.

In another experiment with 40 participants, the researchers showed that learning to downregulate amygdala activity could actually improve behavioral emotion regulation. They showed this using a behavioral task invoking emotional processing in the amygdala. The findings show that with this new imaging tool, people can modify both the neural processes and behavioral manifestations of their emotions.

We have long known that there might be ways to tune down the amygdala through biofeedback, meditation, or even the effects of placebos,” said John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. “It is an exciting idea that perhaps direct feedback on the level of activity of the amygdala can be used to help people gain control of their emotional responses.”

The participants in the study were healthy, so the tool still needs to be tested in the context of real-life trauma. However, according to the authors, this new method has huge clinical implications.

The approach “holds the promise of reaching anyone anywhere,” said Hendler and Keynan. The mobility and low cost of EEG contribute to its potential for a home-stationed bedside treatment for recent trauma patients or for stress resilience training for people prone to trauma.

Source: Rhiannon Bugno – Elsevier
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Limbic Activity Modulation Guided by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging–Inspired Electroencephalography Improves Implicit Emotion Regulation” by Jackob N. Keynan, Yehudit Meir-Hasson, Gadi Gilam, Avihay Cohen, Gilan Jackont, Sivan Kinreich, Limor Ikar, Ayelet Or-Borichev, Amit Etkin, Anett Gyurak, Ilana Klovatch, Nathan Intrator, and Talma Hendler in Biological Psychiatry. Published online August 24 2016 doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.12.024

 

Through a sophisticated mathematic system, it is now possible to observe and train deep structures of the brain, such as the limbic system of the seat of emotions, with a LIVE EEG LORETA NEUROFEEDBACK. This opens up a whole new dimension in treatment for deppression, anxiety disorders or PTSD.
Loreta Neurofeedback (Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography) is a measurement method used to source localize brain activity. It was developed in Zurich by Roberto Pascal Marti (Key Institute). In contrast to the normal surface neurofeedback, it is possible to measure signals in the depth of the brain by means of a special calculation method and thereby locate the source in 3-dimensional space. This effective measurement allows Loreta Neurofeedback to specifically train deeper structures, resulting in faster success. In this type of training, a complete EEG with 19 electrodes is always derived. This makes it possible to train different networks of our brain, to train connectivity of different areas, and to train power values ​​(too much or too little). Training basis forms an extensive comparison database with norm values ​​of all age groups.

So far there are only a few therapists in Germany offering this training method. It is considered to be trailblazing for the future of neurofeedback therapy.

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