for happiness, practice makes perfect

before and during meditation, tibetan monks displayed astoundingly increased brain wave activity, in particular in the left prefrontal cortex (lpc). this area is associated with many things, including positive affect. the longer they’d been meditating, the higher the levels.

the results of this study make a lot of sense. just like any other part of one’s body, if you train and use it regularly, it will perform in a different manner. until now, no one knew exactly what aspects of the brain monks were training.

chronically depressed individuals have lower activation in the lpc. in children, it’s silence has been implicated in attention deficit disorder – in fact, adderall stimulates the lpc, among other areas. its absence has even been implicated in turning a patient’s bipolar disorder into schizophrenia. this finding is a breakthrough - by practicing one may be able to increase its activity and possibly, therefore, reduce the above abnormalities naturally.

but perhaps i'm getting ahead of myself. a cautionary note comes from the researcher's own work. in a recent study (pdf), richard davison found no change in lpc activity when he trained students to meditate, which he attributes to the short duration and/or intensity of meditation. students did, however, show less anxiety and more blood antibodies.

thanks to john for the link!

Labels: neuroscience, well being