by IndiaVision
Washington - Is has been known for years that meditation can reduce anxiety, but how it works has been unclear – until now.
Now, scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have succeeded in identifying the brain functions involved in it.
“Although we’ve known that meditation can reduce anxiety, we hadn’t identified the specific brain mechanisms involved in relieving anxiety in healthy
individuals,” said Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow in
neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the
study.
“In this study, we were able to see which areas of
the brain were activated and which were deactivated during
meditation-related anxiety relief,” Zeidan added.
For the study, 15 healthy volunteers with normal levels of everyday anxiety were recruited for the study. These individuals had no previous meditation experience or anxiety
disorders. All subjects participated in four 20-minute classes to learn
a technique known as mindfulness meditation. In this form of
meditation, people are taught to focus on breath and body sensations and
to non-judgmentally evaluate distracting thoughts and emotions.
Both before and after
meditation training, the study participants’ brain activity was
examined using a special type of imaging – arterial spin labeling
magnetic resonance imaging – that is very effective at imaging brain
processes, such as meditation. In addition, anxiety reports were measured before and after brain scanning.
The majority of study participants reported decreases in anxiety. Researchers found that meditation reduced anxiety ratings by as much as 39 percent.
“This showed that just a few minutes of mindfulness meditation can help reduce normal everyday anxiety,” Zeidan said.
The study revealed that meditation-related anxiety relief
is associated with activation of the anterior cingulate cortex and
ventromedial prefrontal cortex, areas of the brain involved with
executive-level function. During meditation, there was more activity in
the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls
worrying. In addition, when activity increased in the anterior cingulate
cortex – the area that governs thinking and emotion – anxiety decreased.
“Mindfulness is premised on sustaining attention in the present moment and controlling the way we react to daily thoughts and feelings. Interestingly, the present findings reveal that the brain regions associated with meditation-related anxiety relief are remarkably consistent with the principles of being mindful,” Zeidan said.
Research at other institutions has shown that meditation can significantly reduce anxiety in patients with generalized anxiety and depression
disorders. The results of this neuroimaging experiment complement that
body of knowledge by showing the brain mechanisms associated with
meditation-related anxiety relief in healthy people, he said.
The study has been published in the current edition of the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
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