Contemplative Neuroscience
Reviewing Papers on Meditative States and Their Neurological Signatures

Biological and Health-Related Correlates

Beyond the mind, meditation can leave measurable traces in the body. This theme gathers research on how contemplative practices affect immune markers, inflammation, telomerase activity, and sleep. Together, they suggest that the health benefits of meditation may be rooted not just in psychology, but in physiology.

Papers in this Theme

  • Associations of meditation with telomere dynamics: a case–control study in healthy adults

    Can meditation slow aging at the cellular level? This study compared long-term meditators with non-meditators and found that those with a regular practice had significantly longer telomeres (the protective caps on chromosomes) as well as higher activity of the genes that help maintain them. The more years of meditation, the stronger the effect. These results suggest that consistent meditation may influence how we age by reaching all the way down to our DNA.

    Dasanayaka, N. N., Sirisena, N. D., & Samaranayake, N. (2023). Associations of meditation with telomere dynamics: a case–control study in healthy adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1222863

  • Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators

    Meditation can increase telomerase activity, which is associated with decreased health risks and diseases. This study found that participants in a three-month intensive meditation retreat showed increased telomerase activity, along with improvements in purpose in life, perceived control, and decreased neuroticism. The changes in telomerase activity were correlated with changes in psychological measures, suggesting that meditation can influence telomere length through psychological factors.

    Jacobs, T. L., Epel, E. S., Lin, J., Blackburn, E. H., Wolkowitz, O. M., Bridwell, D. A., Zanesco, A. P., Aichele, S. R., Sahdra, B. K., MacLean, K. A., King, B. G., Shaver, P. R., Rosenberg, E. L., Ferrer, E., Wallace, B. A., & Saron, C. D. (2011). Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. In Psychoneuroendocrinology (Vol. 36, Issue 5, pp. 664–681). Elsevier BV. 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.09.010

  • Altered anterior insula activation during anticipation and experience of painful stimuli in expert meditators

    Expert meditators experience less unpleasantness from pain than novices, despite similar intensity ratings. This difference is linked to enhanced activity in the brain's salience network during pain, suggesting that meditation can modify the emotional response to pain and facilitate quicker habituation to repeated pain stimuli.

    Lutz, A., McFarlin, D. R., Perlman, D. M., Salomons, T. V., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). Altered anterior insula activation during anticipation and experience of painful stimuli in expert meditators. In NeuroImage (Vol. 64, pp. 538–546). Elsevier BV. 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.09.030

  • Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation

    This study takes a group of untrained meditators and puts them through an 8-week course in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR). The study finds that the meditation group have brain activity implying a more positive emotional frame. Furthermore, the meditation group had a significantly stronger immune response to a flu vaccine than the non-meditators. The authors conclude that a short training program in mindfulness meditation has demonstrable effects on both brain and immune function.

    Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F., Urbanowski, F., Harrington, A., Bonus, K., & Sheridan, J. F. (2003). Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. In Psychosomatic Medicine (Vol. 65, Issue 4, pp. 564–570). Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). 10.1097/01.psy.0000077505.67574.e3

  • Deconstructing the effects of concentration meditation practice on interference control: The roles of controlled attention and inflammatory activity

    Meditation is known to boost attention, but how it achieves this isn't fully clear. This study explored how intensive meditation affects attention control and inflammation, revealing that participants on a three-month retreat significantly improved their ability to stay focused amid distractions. Surprisingly, meditation did not reduce automatic reactions to distractors, and participants with higher inflammation had weaker attention control. These findings underscore improved controlled attention as a primary benefit of meditation and suggest inflammation independently impacts cognitive function.

    Shields, G. S., Skwara, A. C., King, B. G., Zanesco, A. P., Dhabhar, F. S., & Saron, C. D. (2020). Deconstructing the effects of concentration meditation practice on interference control: The roles of controlled attention and inflammatory activity. In Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (Vol. 89, pp. 256–267). Elsevier BV. 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.06.034