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The Meditating Mind Captured in Action

Meditation is a thousand-year-old practice that is widely popular around the world with many known benefits. Within the last few decades we developed technology to dive into the human mind and actually see what is happening inside the brain. Technology, such as MRI, is now helping researchers study what actually happens during meditation. In her lecture, Dr. Grabowecky mentioned how she found meditating extremely helpful in her life and now aims to encourage others to meditate as well. The two most common types of meditation are focused attention and open monitoring or mindfulness. Focused mediation is characterized by focusing all attention at one point, while mindfulness meditation is simply allowing the mind to flow freely and be aware of emotions and sensations without reacting to them. Both types are actively studied around the world to determine the effects and benefits that they can offer. In her study, Dr. Grabowecky found out that open monitoring participants were more successful at focusing more effectively on unexpected stimuli than the focus attention group.

At the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, a team of researchers is studying the difference between the two meditation styles with the help of an MRI machine. The most surprising result of the study is that open monitoring meditation actually leads to higher neural activity than at a state of rest. In contrast, when the participants performed focused attention meditation the neural activity was nearly equal to a state of rest. The finding might be a reason as to why the open monitoring participants in Dr. Grabowecky’s study performed better than the focus attention group. A member of the Norwegian University’s team, Dr. Xu said, "I was surprised that the activity of the brain was greatest when the person's thoughts wandered freely on their own, rather than when the brain worked to be more strongly focused.” This helps us better understand what is happening during meditation. With each meditation study, we are stepping closer to unlocking the secrets of meditation and the neural mechanisms behind the ancient practice.

References:

Jian Xu, Alexandra Vik, Inge R. Groote, Jim Lagopoulos, Are Holen, Øyvind Ellingsen, Asta K. Håberg, Svend Davanger. Nondirective meditation activates default mode network and areas associated with memory retrieval and emotional processing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014; 8 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00086

Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008, March 10). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Cell Press Neuron, 12(4), 1-7

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). (2014, May 15). This is your brain on meditation: Brain processes more thoughts, feelings during meditation, study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 12, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140515095545.htm