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Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density - Article in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 11:48am
Abstract
Therapeutic interventions that incorporate training in mindfulness meditation have become increasingly popular, but to date little is known about neural mechanisms associated with these interventions. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), one of the most widely used mindfulness training programs, has been reported to produce positive effects on psychological well-being and to ameliorate symptoms of a number of disorders. Here, we report a controlled longitudinal study to investigate pre–post changes in brain gray matter concentration attributable to participation in an MBSR program. Anatomical magnetic resonance (MR) images from 16 healthy, meditation-naïve participants were obtained before and after they underwent the 8-week program. Changes in gray matter concentration were investigated using voxel-based morphometry, and compared with a waiting list control group of 17 individuals. Analyses in a priori regions of interest confirmed increases in gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus. Whole brain analyses identified increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum in the MBSR group compared with the controls. The results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.
Keywords: Meditation, Mindfulness, Voxel-based morphometry, Gray matter, Magnetic resonance imaging, Hippocampus, Posterior cingulate
Here's the link so YOU can read the whole thing and enjoy this esteemed and professional website.
www.psyn-journal.com/article/S0925-4927%2810%2900288-X/abstract
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Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
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Here's the thumbnail about the New York Times coverage of this research stufy, if you want to read about it from this esteemed news source.
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
Dr Paula King, well-known in Grand Junction in her time since moving here from Phoenix, Arizona where she had specialized in performance psychology, working with golf as one of the special niches, was a tremendous supporter of my work and that included providing information at Lumigrate at our formative year in video and then with written information. I'd asked her to provide a seminar about 'psychological resistance', which we'd videotape and provide in 2008 when we were laying out what to cover at Lumigrate for our launch. She walked into the recording studio space I rented for that year and did the first performace of "Strategies for Lasting Change", which went on to become one of her 'signature' topics.
She also has provided me for Lumigrate, after having it published in the Grand Junction Free Press, an article titled 'A Trying Game' which resides in the Forums at the following link:
www.lumigrate.com/forum/trying-time-making-weight-loss-or-any-change-keeps
In order to encourage you to go read, here's the first part of what's at the above link ....
A 'Trying' Time: Making Weight Loss or Any Change 'for Keeps'
For most people losing weight is a trying experience. Trying every diet that comes along, trying what each and every weight loss expert says you should do, trying to stay away from the “bad” foods, trying to exercise, trying to eat the ‘right” foods, trying to stick to the plans and goals you’ve set for yourself, trying again to lose the weight you regained after the last time you tried to lose it.
Yes, it’s about trying, trying, and trying some more. Many people who are "trying to lose weight" say they are doing so because they need to for health reasons, or they have to because their doctor told them so, or they should lose it because everyone tells them they should. Certainly there are times when your physician says your health, even your very life, is dependent on losing weight. When someone who is told this loses weight and keeps it off, it is because that person has had an internal shift of values and has decided their health is more important than their old relationship to food and exercise. They have stopped trying and started doing.
'Trying' is a word used to describe the period of time in which a person is experimenting with something to decide if they will commit and actually do what is necessary to behave in a new way. 'Commitment' is about doing something that is extremely important and for which the reasons underlying that importance can be clearly stated. Lasting change requires a commitment to action based on what you personally desire for your life, what you personally have determined to be of value. Commitment cannot be imposed as a 'should'.
In almost every situation the words should, have to, must, need to and got to are associated with trying, and are ultimately de-motivators, stopping lasting change from happening by immediately, or eventually, creating an inner rebelliousness that says, “No one can tell me what I have to do!” And, no one includes you saying these words in an attempt to get yourself to do something.
Rather, in order to stop trying to lose weight, and begin to do it for keeps, ask yourself what you value about changing your body and your health. (AND TO READ THE REST, FOLLOW THE LINK ABOVE ....
When I was laying out the original content to provide on Lumigrate, which was a complementary approach following integrative medicine concepts of body/mind/spirit, we included this tremendous video from Dr Paula King, which includes meditation and a guided imagery exercise to work with on making changes lasting. I noticed that it's had way over 1,000 people go and read about it, which is really rewarding as it lets us know what people are interested in when they come to Lumigrate!
(Updating this comment thread April 2015 -- more reads have occurred -- currently at 7,795! So it took from 2009 to 2011 to get 1,000 reads and has gotten at least 6,000 in the time since this comment was started 4 years ago. I like that type of growth 'curve' or line. Thank YOU for being part of it, since YOU are now one of the YOUsers too! Perhaps you've come back to this topic or from other topics at Lumigrate, I certainly like to know people come back just as much as having someone use Lumigrate for the first time.
Ultimately the 2008/9 method of downloading videos was something not many people knew how to do, wanted to take the time and disk space to do, and ultimately with only one not-too-techie cook in the kitchen, that being me/Mardy, the efforts went after launch to the more economical things that I could learn to do such as developing the content in the forums. But for your info, if you're interested, this is the link to that video information at our video tab (as of April 2015) at Lumigrate.
www.lumigrate.com/product/strategies-lasting-change-dr-paula-king
Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!