How Meditation Affects the Brain

Could meditation physically change our brain structure? To test this, a team of researchers taught a group of students a Chinese technique called "integrative body-mind training" and gave another group of students more general relaxation training. Then they scanned their brains to look at the fibers connecting different brain regions.

The results? In the group that had practiced IBMT, the team saw changes in connections involving the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain associated with our ability to regulate our emotions, behavior, and attention. The students appeared to have new connective fibers. And these changes were evident after only 11 hours of practicing the technique, which involves controlling thoughts gradually through things like mental imagery and breath control.

As Michael Posner, a psychologist at the University of Oregon, explains in a write-up of the research:

The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation. The pathway that has the largest change due to IBMT is one that previously was shown to relate to individual differences in the person's ability to regulate conflict.