Meditation mechanics

It is one thing to observe that something happens in the world and quite another to understand why. For instance, we know that the sun comes up but it took the work of Copernicus, enlarged upon by others like Newton, and finally proven by Foucault, to show that it does so due the rotation of the Earth. Just as the sun comes up we also know that meditation has a calming effect on people and can reduce anxiety. Now a new study has shown the Copernican mechanism by which it does it.

The researchers in this study recruited healthy volunteers with normal levels of everyday anxiety. The subjects had no previous meditation experience or pathological anxiety disorders. Each of the subjects took part in four 20 minute “mindfulness meditation” classes. The aim of these classes is to focus on breath and body sensations and to non-judgmentally evaluate distracting thoughts and emotions.

To establish brain activity in the participants both before and after the meditation training, the researchers used arterial spin labelling magnetic resonance imaging. Anxiety levels before and after meditation were also measured.

As expected the participants experienced reductions in anxiety levels after meditation…so the sun was rising as expected but what was the equivalent of the Earth’s spin?

The brain scans revealed that meditation activated a parts of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These are areas of the brain involved in high level brain functions that regulate, control and manage other cognitive processes. Indeed, during meditation there was more activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex which is the area that controls worry. Additionally, when activity increased in the anterior cingulate cortex (which governs thinking and emotion) they found that anxiety levels decreased.

So now we know that meditation reduces anxiety by activating these two parts of the brain’s cortex. This experiment may not have the spectacular quality of Foucault’s pendulum but now, just as we know why the sun rises, we also know why meditation reduces anxiety.