Maintaining Gray Matter is Black and White

Previously, a team from the University of California/Los Angeles (UCLA; California, USA) reported that people who meditate have less age-related atrophy in the brain’s white matter.  Eileen Luders and colleagues expand on their work, finding that meditation may also help to preserve the brain’s gray matter – the tissue that contains neurons.  Comparing 50 people who had mediated for years and 50 who didn’t, the researchers found that among those who meditated (practiced for 20 years on-average), the decline in the volume of gray matter was not as expansive, as compared to those who did not meditate. The study authors submit that: “these findings seem to suggest less age-related gray matter atrophy in long-term meditation practitioners.”