Differential engagement of anterior cingulate and adjacent medial frontal cortex in adept meditators and non-meditators

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2007.04.074

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 421, Issue 1, 21 June 2007, Pages 16-21

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2007.04.074 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study investigated differences in brain activation during meditation between meditators and non-meditators. Fifteen Vipassana meditators (mean practice: 7.9 years, 2 h daily) and fifteen non-meditators, matched for sex, age, education, and handedness, participated in a block-design fMRI study that included mindfulness of breathing and mental arithmetic conditions. For the meditation condition (contrasted to arithmetic), meditators showed stronger activations in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex bilaterally, compared to controls. Greater rostral anterior cingulate cortex activation in meditators may reflect stronger processing of distracting events. The increased activation in the medial prefrontal cortex may reflect that meditators are stronger engaged in emotional processing.

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Acknowledgement

We wish to express our gratitude to all participants for their cooperation.

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^☆: This study was supported by the Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene (Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health) in Freiburg, Germany.

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Differential engagement of anterior cingulate and adjacent medial frontal cortex in adept meditators and non-meditators☆

Abstract

Section snippets

Acknowledgement

Trends Cogn. Sci.

Neuropsychologia

NeuroImage

Med. Hypotheses

NeuroImage

NeuroImage

Physiol. Behav.

Onset of meditation explored with fMRI

NeuroImage

Studying the well-trained mind

Science