Harvard neuroscientists did a little experiment on 16 people who took an eight-week Mindfulness-based stress reduction course, or MBSR for short.
Research had suggested that MBSR yields good psychological results and relieves symptoms of many conditions.
BUT, these good-thinking researchers wanted to look under the hood and see if MBSR resulted in denser grey matter.
They did, in fact, find an increased concentration of grey matter in areas of the brain involved in and/or associated with:
- Learning, intelligence and memory (posterior cingulate cortex).
- Perception and processing. (temporo-parietal junction)
- Coordination (the cerebellum)
- Consolidating info from short-term to long-term memory (hippocampus)
Number 4 harmonizes with other studies that show larger hippocampal volume in long-term meditators – showing a direct if/then link between meditation and changes to the brain’s anatomy.
Mindfulness practices are a powerful way to upgrade your ability to learn, think, perceive, and remember. Plus, with enhanced coordination potential, you can be sure to stay much less clumsy than most female protagonists 1990’s Disney movies.
Dive Deeper
Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density
Hölzel, Britta K. et al.
Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging , Volume 191 , Issue 1 , 36 - 43
The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: Larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter
Eileen Luders, Arthur W. Toga, Natasha Lepore, Christian Gaser, NeuroImage, Volume 45, Issue 3, 15 April 2009, Pages 672-678, ISSN 1053-8119
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Mindfulness shows such incredible potential for improving the brain. What blows my mind is that this is ‘permanent’ physical change. Drugs can’t even do that. 🙂