Background Information

Recent research has uncovered fascinating insights into how meditation influences brain activity, particularly in individuals who have extensive experience with meditation. Studies have shown that when seasoned meditators engage in meditation, there’s a notable decrease in activity within certain areas of the brain associated with self-focused thoughts, known as the default mode network (DMN The default mode network (DMN) is a system of connected brain areas that show increased activity when a person is not focused on what is happening around them. such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering. It can also be active when the individual is thinking about others or themselves, remembering the past, and planning for the future.

Read More ). This network is often more active when we’re lost in thought or not focused on the external world.

Similarly, the wandering of the mind, often experienced as daydreaming or getting lost in one’s thoughts, activates the DMN (see, McVay, Kane, & Kwapil, 2009). Intriguingly, a quieting of the DMN during meditation sessions has been linked to improvements in attention and focus even outside of meditation practice.

The DMN is typically most active when

individuals are left to think to themselves undisturbed or during tasks involving self-related processing, and less active during tasks requiring cognitive effort.

Essentially, when our minds are wandering freely. However, this network becomes less active when we’re absorbed in tasks that require attention.

Previous investigations have also observed that individuals who practice meditation regularly exhibit differences in the activity and connectivity of the DMN, not only while meditating but also in a resting state. This raises an interesting point for research comparing meditation to rest: meditation could potentially alter the brain’s resting state into a state more reflective of meditation itself.

This study sets out to explore how meditation compares to engaging in another cognitive task, aiming to test the hypothesis that meditation leads to a reduction in DMN activity beyond what is observed during other cognitive tasks. Through this exploration, the researchers seek to understand the unique effects of meditation on the brain, providing insights into its potential benefits for attention and mental health.

What They Did

This study aimed to explore the effects of meditation on brain activity, specifically focusing on the DMN, a brain network implicated in self-referential thinking and mind wandering. The researchers compared experienced meditators to non-meditators (controls) while performing meditation and another active cognitive task to test the hypothesis that meditation leads to reduced DMN activity beyond the reductions observed during other effortful tasks. The participants consisted of 20 experienced meditators from the Insight meditation tradition, who had an average of 9,676 hours of practice over approximately 14 years, and 26 controls with no meditation experience, matched on demographics such as age and education.

Functional MRI (fMRI An fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) measures changes in blood flow related to neural activity in the brain, offering insights into brain function and activity patterns.

Read More ) scanning was utilized to measure brain activity during three standard mindfulness meditation practices (concentration, loving kindness, and choiceless awareness) and during an active cognitive task where participants made judgments about adjectives. The active task served as a comparison to identify whether meditation specifically reduces DMN activity compared to other types of cognitive engagement. Behavioral data on task performance and self-reported mind wandering were also collected to contextualize the fMRI results. This methodological approach allowed the researchers to investigate the neural correlates of meditation beyond simple rest, providing insights into how meditation might uniquely influence brain function and potentially offer benefits for attention and well-being by reducing habitual self-referential thoughts and mind wandering.

One Big Result

The study revealed a notable distinction between experienced meditators and control participants during meditation. Specifically, meditators displayed significantly reduced activity in key areas of the brain associated with the DMN, such as the anterior cingulate cortex and both the dorsal and ventral precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex, in comparison to an implicit baseline. This reduction in brain activity suggests that meditation fosters a unique state of mind, distinct from resting or engaging in other cognitive tasks.

Further examination of brain activity highlighted a clear pattern: during meditation, activity levels in the parts of the DMN decreased among meditators but increased when they performed an active control task. This contrast was not observed in the control group, indicating a specific modulation of brain activity through meditation practices.

meditation was found to be associated with relatively lower activity in regions of the DMN in meditators compared to controls during meditation compared to another active cognitive tas

Interestingly, control participants also showed reduced activity in parts of the DMN during both meditation and an active cognitive task, suggesting a decrease in self-related processing and mind wandering compared to resting periods. However, meditators exhibited an increase the same DMN activity during the cognitive task, possibly indicating enhanced self-related processing compared to the baseline. This change aligns with previous findings that meditators have altered functional connectivity within the DMN at rest compared to non-meditators. Specifically,

For meditators, this is consistent with the hypothesis that meditation may reduce self-related thinking and mind wandering more than another active task

This ability of meditation to specifically reduce self-referential thinking and mind wandering, beyond the effects of engaging in other active tasks, underscores a potential mechanism by which meditation exerts its beneficial effects. The reduction in DMN processing observed in long-term meditators may be central to understanding the cognitive and clinical benefits of meditation. Increased DMN activity has been linked to impaired cognitive performance and various mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and addiction. Conversely, meditation, associated with decreased DMN activity, has been shown to enhance attention, working memory, and overall well-being. These findings suggest that the practice of meditation could serve as a powerful tool in improving mental health and cognitive functions by reducing the tendency towards rumination and self-focused thought.

Miscellaneous Interesting Takeaways

Reduced DMN Activity Across Meditation Styles

The decrease in DMN activity during meditation is a consistent finding across various meditation practices, indicating a fundamental neural basis for meditation’s effects on the brain. This network, typically associated with self-focused thoughts and mind wandering, shows reduced activation not only in meditation practices that require focused attention but also in those that involve repeating phrases. This uniform reduction across different styles, including focused concentration, loving kindness, and choiceless awareness, suggests that meditation may universally influence brain function by mitigating habitual self-referential thoughts and enhancing mental focus.

Furthermore, the reduction in mind wandering reported by meditators across these practices supports the notion that meditation fosters an enhanced state of attention and presence. Meditators consistently reported fewer instances of mind wandering compared to controls, with significant differences observed across all meditation types studied. Specifically, during concentration meditation, controls reported a mind wandering rate of 4.5 (± 2.1), in contrast to 3.5 (± 1.4) reported by meditators. For loving kindness, the rates were 3.8 (± 1.8) for controls and 2.8 (± 1.4) for meditators, and for choiceless awareness, controls reported 4.4 (± 2.3) compared to meditators’ 2.7 (± 1.6). These data points underscore meditation’s capacity to cultivate a more focused and less distracted mind, potentially through the common mechanism of reducing DMN activity. This insight into the shared neural underpinnings of various meditation techniques highlights the potential for meditation to serve as a versatile tool in enhancing mental health and cognitive abilities by curbing the inclination towards mind wandering.

Citation

Garrison, K. A., Zeffiro, T. A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R. T., & Brewer, J. A. (2015). Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task. In Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience (Vol. 15, Issue 3, pp. 712–720). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 10.3758/s13415-015-0358-3