Meditation Saves Brains?

Finals week is upon us, and we're all fighting to cram tons of information into our noggins. It's times like these that I wish I had a photographic memory, or a ridiculously high IQ. I need a bigger brain! As it turns out, there may be a simple way to increase brain size. Results from a collaborative study by researchers from Yale, Harvard and MIT in 2005 suggested that those who meditate have increased cortical thickness in brain areas associated with attention and sensory input. The study compared individuals that meditate around forty minutes a day with those who never meditate. Those who meditated had thicker gray matter surrounding sensory and attention structures (by 4 to 8 thousandths of an inch, but every bit counts!).

These participants practice Buddhist insight meditation, in which they focus on their sensations; the noises in their environment, the air blowing through their hair, or their own breathing. They don't actually consider these stimuli, they try to block out all outside thoughts and worry only about their pure, current experience. Further analysis showed that the years spent meditating correlated directly with cortical thickness; more experienced meditators had larger brains than rookies. In some brain areas, the increased thickness was even more pronounced in older meditators than younger ones, despite the expected thinning in these regions that occurs with age.

So what does this mean? At the moment, not much of anything. Further research is required to reveal whether or not there are any cognitive or behavioral effects associated with the increased cortical thickness in those who meditate. Could meditation reverse the thinning of grey matter that comes with age? Could it turn back the neural clock, so to speak? No doubt more data on this subject will emerge in the near future.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go meditate. When it comes to finals, every inch of brain cortex counts!

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2006/02/meditation-found-to-increase-brain-size/