The meditation-and-the-brain research has been rolling in steadily for a number of years now, with new studies coming out just about every week to illustrate some new benefit of meditation. Or, rather, some ancient benefit that is justnow being confirmed with fMRI or EEG. The practice appears to have an amazing variety of neurological benefits from changes ingrey matter volume to reduced activity in the me centers of the brain to enhanced connectivity between brain regions. Below are some of the most exciting studies to come out in the last few years and show that meditation really does produce measurable changes in our most important organ. Skeptics, of course, may ask what good are a few brain changes if the psychological effects arent simultaneously being illustrated? Luckily, theres good evidence for those as well, with studies reporting that meditation helps relieve our subjective levels of anxiety and depression, and improve attention, concentration, and overall psychological well-being.

Meditation Helps Preserve the Aging Brain

Last week, astudy from UCLA found that long-term meditators had better-preserved brains than non-meditators as they aged. Participants whod been meditating for an average of 20 years had more grey matter volume throughout the brain although older meditators still had some volume loss compared to younger meditators, it wasnt as pronouncedas the non-meditators. We expected rather small and distinct effects located in some of the regions that had previously been associated with meditating, said study author Florian Kurth. Instead, what we actually observed was a widespread effect of meditation that encompassed regions throughout the entire brain. Meditation Reduces Activity in the Brains Me Center

One of the most interesting studies in the last few years, carried outat Yale University, found that mindfulness meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN), the brain networkresponsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts a.k.a., monkey mind. The DMN is on or active when were not thinking about anything in particular, when our minds are just wandering from thought to thought. Since mind-wandering is typically associated with being less happy, ruminating, and worrying about the past and future, its the goal for many people to dial it down. Several studies have shown that meditation, though its quieting effect on the DMN, appears to do just this. And even when the mind does start to wander, because of the new connections that form, meditators are better at snapping back out of it.

Its Effects Rival Antidepressants for Depression, Anxiety

A review study last year at Johns Hopkins looked at the relationship between mindfulness meditation and its ability to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and pain. Researcher Madhav Goyal and his team found that the effect size of meditation was moderate, at 0.3. If this sounds low, keep in mind that the effect size for antidepressants is also 0.3, which makes the effect of meditation sound pretty good. Meditation is, after all an active form of brain training. A lot of people have this idea that meditation means sitting down and doing nothing, says Goyal. But thats not true. Meditation is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programs approach this in different ways. Meditation isnt a magic bullet for depression, as no treatment is, but its one of the tools that may help manage symptoms.

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7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change The Brain