Meditation
Studies researching Tibetan Buddhist monks have shown them as having altered the structure and function of their brains due to practising meditation.
By Megan Jane, Featured Writer.
What is Meditation?
I think that every person has an idea of what meditation is – what the ‘end goal ‘of meditating hopes to bring them and why someone would like the idea of meditating through mindfulness and yoga to promote relaxation and develop an increased sense of self and wellbeing (Davidson & Lutz, 2008). The idea to take oneself outside of the here and now, holding control of emotions and recognising control of how you feel, is for me, the thing that makes meditation so appealing - but obviously that's my opinion – an academic definition can be provided by Austin (1999) who quotes below what I feel is a perfect explanation of what meditation aims to help an individual achieve.
“Meditation helps us retreat from all the wheels going around. It relieves us from self-inflicted trends of thought, trends driven by and loaded with the fossil fuel of ancient emotions. It returns us to the way we were, before the thundering trains came, back up playing the world, in that open, trackless landscape where life’s distractions are less intrusive.”
Pp 57, Austin, 1999
A (very brief) History of Meditation.
The timeline of meditation is very difficult to decipher; however, it is known that meditation originates from India as evidenced from wall arts in an Indian subcontinent that date from approximately 5000 years ago. The Buddha is a predominant figure in meditation and the history of Buddha is from the 6th century when Siddhartha Gautama decided to leave his life as a prince to seek Enlightenment. In doing this he learned about meditation and philosophy but felt dissatisfied at what he learned and so developed his own methodology, and in doing so, achieved enlightenment and became the Buddha. For the rest of his life, Buddha taught this philosophy, methods of meditation, and encouraged spiritual awakening to thousands of people, and the rest, shall we say, is history. (Austin, 1999; Cousins, 1996, & Dumoulin, 2007).
If you would like to learn more about the history of Meditation, then please do check out the links at the bottom of the article.
So what is Meditation again?
Meditation starts with practise and is to be treated exactly like the development of a new hobby - it's something that requires time and patience and is the training of your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts, as well as reduce stress and help increase concentration levels. The process of meditation usually involves an individual being in a seated position with eyes closed with as little distraction as possible – white noise can be beneficial to increase focus.
There are three different modes of meditation:
Focus Attention Meditation - This develops concentration and is the focus of attention on a single object that is either internal or external to that person.
Open Monitoring Meditation - This develops observation of the individual’s awareness of their feelings, thoughts or sensations that are present within their body.
Awareness - This heightens awareness to remain present and undistracted throughout (Austin, 1999; Davidson & Lutz, 2008).
There are many different websites available to help develop meditation skills including ‘Headspace’, ‘CALM’ and ‘Live and Dare’ (links to those will be provided at the end of this article).
So, what powers does meditation have?
Research has shown that meditation creates changes to physiological and neurological components of the individual. For the purpose of this article, the neurological elements are to be focused upon – however, the links provided below can provide further information on the physiological changes measured during and after meditation.
Before fully exploring the powers of meditation I do feel it's important to provide a definition of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a term that is used to describe changes in the brain that occur as response to experience. These different mechanisms of neuroplasticity range from the growth of new connections (neuron migrating), to the creation of new neurons (neurogenesis) and redundant neutral pathways being ‘deleted’ (pruning), (Davidson & Lutz, 2008). So, in simple terms, neuroplasticity could be seen as an ‘old brain learning new tricks’. Examples of increased neuroplasticity can be within individuals that have to learn new coping methods and can include stroke victims, people who have lost limbs, and people that have learning difficulties.
Studies researching Tibetan Buddhist monks, who are catagorised as long-term practitioners of meditation due to tens of thousands of hours practised, have altered the structure and function of their brains (Davidson & Lutz, 2008). This 2008 paper included results of an fMRI (brain scan) that showed minimal effort was required for the Tibetan Buddhist monks to sustain attentional focus and that little activation in the amygdala (part of the limbic system that allows recognition and emotional response) occurred when emotional sounds were played – all of which demonstrate that “advanced levels of concentration are associated with a significant decrease in emotionally reactive behaviours that are incompatible with stability of concentration” (Davidson & Lutz, 2008).
Austin (1999) has included in their book a section about the use of electroencephalograms (EEG – a test to measure brain activity via electrodes placed on the scalp) in measuring brain activity during meditation and states that “soft generalisations” (pp 88) can be made. Such generalisations include:
Increased amounts of Alpha activity (at beginning of meditation);
a. Alpha waves usually increase during a task that can be performed easily or automatically.
Increased Theta activity as short bursts;
a. Theta waves also occur during REM sleep.
Low voltage, fast Beta ripples (at the end of the meditation).
a. Beta waves usually occur when attention is directed towards a cognitive task – allowing alertness and decision making.
I feel it is fair to state that the research suggests that meditation enhances concentration, attention, and control of the self. Such research does require future work to further develop such potential in understanding the true power of meditation. But how can these findings relate to mental health?
Neuroplasticity and mental health
It is suggested that neuroplasticity can be either adaptive or maladaptive and can only really ‘work’ in terms of a direct neural pathway remodelling when activity level and demand for its occurrence is accentuated by the individual. It is therefore not surprising that “chronic stress, depression and illness had been associated with suppressed neurogenesis”, whereas, “exercise, learning, chronic administration of antidepressants, and other psychotropic medications have been associated with increased neurogenesis” (Kays, Hurley & Taber, 2012) – please note these results obtained in the mentioned 2012 study were from brain activity within adult male squirrel monkeys due to “limited human studies”.
However, this study did also include human participants and from those results it can be suggested that “chronic stress and some forms of mental illness have deleterious effects on the (human) brain, both structurally and functionally” (Kays et al., 2012). Still, it was uncertain whether this was due to predispositional differences (genetics) or environmental factors (life experiences) that led to a decreased level of grey matter within individuals suffering with a mental illness (Kays et al., 2012). However, it is interesting to note that there was increased cortical thickness in research conducted by Treadway and Lazar on long term meditators (in Baer, 2010).
Another study recognised the effect of an eight week mindfulness-based stress reduction programme (MBSR) to individuals who were new to meditation, and the results showed that there were changes in the individuals hippocampus (formation of new memories, as well as associated with emotions and learning) and inferior temporal lobe (essential for the recognition of patterns, faces and objects), as well as amygdala (perception of emotion) shrinkage in those who reported feeling less stressed (Holzel, Ott, Gard et al., 2008 in Baer 2010).
Can meditation be effective as a treatment for mental health?
The quick and simple answer to this is…Yes!
However, we all know a little research and referencing never did any harm. So, the emphasis of meditation through mindfulness techniques was developed from the traditions that Buddha created. These traditions have served as a primary source for mindfulness techniques which are, as stated by Baer (2010) “now incorporated into western psychotherapeutic practices such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)”. Reasons as to why meditation through mindfulness is an effective treatment method is because meditation, as mentioned previously, has been proven to change brain function and structure (Kays et al., 2012). Ultimately, changes occur in the individuals state effect (changes that occur whilst actively meditating) and trait-like effect (longitudinal changes resulting from continued meditation practise, resulting in neuroplasticity) allowing the individual to identify feelings stemmed from painful memories, allow better reflection on sudden emotional outbursts, and an increase in well-being (Baer, 2010).
So, what next?
Where do we go from here?
In terms of research – there have been suggestions that more clinical studies are needed to better differentiate between meditation styles and psychological treatment for specific disorders, as well as a better detection for meditation style for individual needs. As tends to be the case, there is a significant lack of longitudinal studies – something which occurs across the psychological field of research – but more specifically with individuals pre and post meditation inclusive psychological treatment with a comparison of clinical and neurobiological changes.
In terms of wanting to try meditation...Give it a go! There are many useful apps and online resources including the links below. Especially during these strange and uncertain times it is more important than ever to look after your mental health – starting meditation - from mindfulness to Buddhism - is a great method for developing insight into your emotions.
Interesting Articles and websites:
Brains of Buddhist monks scanned in meditation study – BBC News – 24/04/2011: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12661646
Dr Sara Lazar (PhD) – research on the effects of meditation and yoga on brain activity and changes on brain structure: https://theconnection.tv/sara-lazar-ph-d/
HEADSPACE: https://www.headspace.com/meditation-101/what-is-meditation
CALM: https://www.calm.com
LIVE AND DARE: https://liveanddare.com/what-is-meditation
References
Austin, J. H. (1999). Zen and the brain: Toward an understanding of meditation and consciousness. MIT Press.
Baer, R. (Ed.). (2010). Assessing mindfulness and acceptance processes in clients: Illuminating the theory and practice of change. New Harbinger Publications.
Cousins, L. S. (1996). The origins of insight meditation. In The Buddhist Forum (Vol. 4, pp. 35-58).
Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F., ... & Sheridan, J. F. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic medicine, 65(4), 564-570.
Davidson, R. J., & Lutz, A. (2008). Buddha's brain: Neuroplasticity and meditation [in the spotlight]. IEEE signal processing magazine, 25(1), 176-174.
Dumoulin, H. (2007). Zen enlightenment: Origins and meaning. Shambhala Publications.
Kays, J. L., Hurley, R. A., & Taber, K. H. (2012). The dynamic brain: neuroplasticity and mental health. The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 24(2), 118-124.
Lazar, S. W., Bush, G., Gollub, R. L., Fricchione, G. L., Khalsa, G., & Benson, H. (2000). Functional brain mapping of the relaxation response and meditation. Neuroreport, 11(7), 1581-1585.
Treadway, M. T., & Lazar, S. W. (2010). Meditation and neuroplasticity: Using mindfulness to change the brain. Assessing mindfulness and acceptance processes in clients: Illuminating the theory and practice of change, 186-205.