Question: Is meditation good for my brain?
Dr. Amen's Answer: Decades of research have shown that meditation and prayer calm stress and enhance brain function. At the Amen Clinics, we performed a SPECT study on meditation in which we scanned 11 people after a meditation session.
For the meditation, the participants recited simple sounds known as the five primal sounds for two minutes whispering, four minutes silently, two minutes whispering, and two minutes out loud. The brain-imaging scans taken after the meditation showed marked decreases in activity in the left parietal lobes, which showed a decreasing awareness of time and space. A more surprising finding was that the scans indicated significant increases in activity in the prefrontal cortex, which showed that mediation helps people tune in, not out. We also observed increased activity in the right temporal lobe, an area
associated with spirituality.
A new study from UCLA used brain imaging to show that meditating gives you a bigger brain. The study found that long-term meditators had significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus, areas of the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus, and the inferior temporal gyrus — all of which are involved in regulating emotions. If you want a better brain, meditate. Just a few minutes a day is enough to enhance brain function.
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