The Boston Globe (12/4) reports, “Since 2002, the government’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has funded about $57.7 million in scientific research into meditation, according to statistics provided by the office,” and “last April, the International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, a first-ever conference of researchers, scholars, and students in the field, drew 720 participants from all over the world.” While earlier research “focused on the health benefits of stress reduction from meditation,” recently “neuroscientists…have begun using magnetic resonance imaging to show that meditation can make actual structural changes in the brain.” For example, one imaging study conducted in 2005 found that people who meditate had more gray matter in areas of the brain involved in sensory processing and attention. A 2012 study found that meditation increases gyrification in the brain.
Related Links:
— “The effectiveness in meditation to treat an array of illnesses has led to studies of how meditation can change the brain, “Jan Brogan, Boston.com, November 25, 2012.