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Meditation makes positive brain change

Practicing a form of meditation - integrative body-mind training (IBMT) could help induce positive brain changes by increasing anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

Meditation makes positive brain change

Practicing a form of meditation - integrative body-mind training (IBMT) could help induce positive brain changes by increasing anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), an area that plays a role in the regulation of emotions and behaviour.

Previous studies have shown that only three hours of mental training increases ACC and improves self-regulation. To find out whether changes in white matter connectivity of the brain can result from small amounts of mental training, researchers studied 45 American students aged 20 years.  The students were randomly selected to be in either a study group that did integrative body-mind training (IBMT) or a control group that did relaxation training. Brain scan images of the students were compared before and after the training.

It was found that those students in the IBMT group had increased brain connectivity than the control group. The changes were strongest in connections involving the ACC. The boost in brain connectivity began after six hours of IBMT and became more apparent after 11 hours of practice. The researchers attributed meditation-induced changes to a reorganisation of white-matter tracts or due to an increase of myelin that surrounds the brain connections.

The study shows that meditation could help make structural changes in the brain network and help improve self-regulation and perhaps reduce or prevent various mental disorders.
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