A thicker brain helps fend off pain
February 25th, 2010 - 2:27 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Feb. 25 (ANI): Individuals can reduce their sensitivity to pain by thickening their brain with the help of Zen meditation, says a new study.
The study has been published in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion.
Researchers from the Université de Montréal made their discovery by comparing the grey matter thickness of Zen meditators and non-meditators. They found evidence that practicing the centuries-old discipline of Zen can reinforce a central brain region (anterior cingulate) that regulates pain.
“Through training, Zen meditators appear to thicken certain areas of their cortex and this appears to be underlie their lower sensitivity to pain,” says lead author Joshua A. Grant, a doctoral student in the Université de Montréal Department of Physiology and Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. “We found a relationship between cortical thickness and pain sensitivity, which supports our previous study on how Zen meditation regulates pain.”
To reach the conclusion, scientists recruited 17 meditators and 18 non-meditators who in addition had never practiced yoga, experienced chronic pain, neurological or psychological illness.
Grant and his team, under the direction of Pierre Rainville of the Université de Montréal and the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, measured thermal pain sensitivity by applying a heated plate to the calf of participants and followed by scanning the brains of subjects with structural magnetic resonance imaging.
According to MRI results, central brain regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in meditators compared to non-meditators.
“The often painful posture associated with Zen meditation may lead to thicker cortex and lower pain sensitivity,” says Grant, noting that meditative practices could be helpful in general for pain management, for preventing normal age-related grey matter reductions or potentially for any condition where the grey matter is compromised such as stroke. (ANI)
- Zen meditation reduces sensitivity to pain - Feb 25, 2010
- How Zen meditation controls pain - Dec 09, 2010
- Why meditation makes our brain smarter? - Mar 23, 2012
- Zen meditation can help ease pain - Feb 04, 2009
- How names of celebrities can help us remember - Dec 19, 2009
- Meditation can help reduce pain's emotional impact - Jun 03, 2010
- Meditate your pain away - Feb 04, 2009
- Myth 'debunked': The blind have more acute sense of smell - Apr 27, 2010
- Meditation helps decrease stress, suppress info overload - Apr 22, 2011
- New research may expand drug arsenal used to fight HIV - Mar 09, 2010
- Pathological gamblers 'more likely to commit suicide than non-betters' - Nov 24, 2010
- Kids take drugs and alcohol 'to look cool' - Sep 29, 2010
- Weight-loss pill on the anvil - Jan 27, 2010
- Parental monitoring may protect 'bad' boys from heavy drug use - Aug 18, 2010
- 'Emotions can alter how we react to pain' - Nov 11, 2009
Tags: american psychological association, brain region, brain regions, brains, chronic pain, cortex, doctoral student, grey matter, institut universitaire, magnetic resonance imaging, meditative practices, mri results, pain management, pain sensitivity, physiology, posture, psychological illness, rainville, training zen, zen meditation