The Biology of Meditation

While there are a number of types of meditative techniques, all seek to reduce stress, improve concentration, promote self-awareness, and boost the process of thoughts and feelings.  One type is concentrative meditation, where the meditating person focuses attention on his or her breathing or on specific thoughts, and in doing so, suppresses other thoughts. The other type may be called nondirective meditation, where the person who is meditating effortlessly focuses on his or her breathing or on a meditation sound, but beyond that the mind is allowed to wander as it pleases. Jian Xu, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway) and colleagues explored how brain works during different kinds of meditation. Fourteen people who had extensive experience with the Norwegian technique Acem meditation, were tested in an MRI machine. In addition to simple resting, they undertook two different  mental meditation activities, nondirective meditation and a more concentrative meditation task.  The researchers observed that nondirective meditation led to higher activity than during rest in the part of the brain dedicated to processing self-related thoughts and feelings. When test subjects performed concentrative meditation, the activity in this part of the brain was almost the same as when they were just resting.  The study authors report that: “nondirective meditation, which permits mind wandering, involves more extensive activation of brain areas associated with episodic memories and emotional processing, than during concentrative practicing or regular rest.”