The Science of Meditation

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Increased brain volume & connectedness
of attention & executive control networks

Luders et al. 2012

University of California, Los Angeles
Increased gray matter Most significant difference in
density in brain stem of area that controls vagus nerve.
meditators.
Vestergaard-Poulsen et al. 2009
Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark
 Todays Agenda:
1. Where is the science headed now?
Changing the default
Positive emotion/approach motivation
2. A sample of meditation practices you
can integrate into your practice/life
 1 2 3 4 5
Exhale

Feel the
movement
of your belly
as you
breathe.
Mind-Wandering, aka the
Brains Default State
What does the default state do?
Time travel
Narrative self-reflection and memory
Problem-solving (and problem-finding)
Evaluation and comparison
Social cognition
Social judgment
Grey blocks represent focus task intervals

Van De Ville et al. 2012

University of Geneva
A Wandering Mind = An Unhappy Mind

2250 adults (58.8% male, 73.9% in U.S., mean age =

34) receive text messages at random intervals:
How are you feeling right now?
What are you doing right now?
Were you thinking about something other than what
youre currently doing?

People were less happy when their minds were

wandering than when they were not.
What people were thinking was a better predictor of
happiness than what they were doing.
Killingsworth & Gilbert 2010
Harvard University
 The DMN network shows abnormally high activity
in the depressed population, whereas FPN circuit
activity is diminished.

Brzezicka 2013
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
 239 women (age 49-66)

Mind-wandering tendency correlated with stress (r =.53,

p < .001) and depression (r =.45, p < .001), but only
mind-wandering predicted telomere length.
Epel et al. 2012
University of California, San Francisco
Can meditation help?
Hasenkamp, Wilson-Mendenhall, Duncan, & Barsalou 2012
Emory University
(Hasenkamp et al. 2012)
Experienced meditators got less lost in mind-wandering
and returned to breath focus sooner.
Pagnoni et al. 2008
Emory University School of Medicine
Compared placebo meditation to breath-
focused mindfulness meditation.

Zeidan et al. 2013

Wake Forest University
 Placebo stress/anxiety change Meditation stress/anxiety change

Stress relief correlated with quieting of default mode network.

 Escaping Rumination
57 women with history of recurrent
depression in mindfulness support group
Neutral rest followed by a negative mood
induction
Half practiced breath focus meditation after
negative mood induction
Half primed with self-referential statements
typical of default mode rumination

Keune, Bostanov, Hautzinger, & Kotchoubey 2013

Eberhard Karls University, Germany
(Keune et al. 2013)
 Interrupting the Default
Investigated brain activity in experienced
meditators and matched new meditators as
they practiced concentration, mindfulness, and
lovingkindness meditations.
All 3 meditations reduced activation of the
default-mode network.
DMN was more deactivated in experienced
meditators.
At baseline & during meditation: Stronger
functional connections between sensory regions
and attention network among experienced
meditators.
Brewer et al. 2011
Yale University
 An alternative default:
Embodied, present moment awareness

Farb et al. 2007

University of Toronto
The importance of mind training

Evaluation System

Experiential System
 Changing the Default
Examined resting state functional connectivity in
very experienced meditators (2500 hrs +) and less
experienced meditators (1000 hrs -)
Participants with more meditation experience
exhibited increased connectivity within attentional
networks (eg dlPFC) and self-awareness regions
(eg insula), and disruptions in usual default mode
connectivity.

Hasenkamp & Barsalou 2012

Emory University
 The Take-Away
Because altered connectivity of brain
regions was observed in a non-meditative
state, this may represent a transference of
cognitive abilities off the cushion into daily
life.
 A meta-analytic review of the effects of
mindfulness meditation on telomerase activity

Four studies (190 participants)

Overall effect size of d = 0.46 (increased
telomerase activity in immune cells)

Schutte & Malouff 2014

University of New England, Australia
 1 2 3 4 5
Exhale

Feel the
movement
of your belly
as you
breathe.
Mindfulness of suffering
 13 Zen meditators/13 matched controls

Do meditators and non-meditators process pain

in the same way?
(Grant, Courtemanche, & Rainville 2011)
More Less
activation in activation in
sensory/pain evaluative
regions regions

The greater the decoupling of two systems, the

higher a meditators pain threshold.
36 moderately Randomly Pre and post:
depressed assigned to Sad films in fMRI;
adults MBSR or wait list depression inventory

Farb et al. 2010

University of Toronto
After MBSR, .and
greater greater de-
activation in activation in
experiential evaluation
network. network.
The greater the increase in insula activation during
sadness, the greater the reduction in depression.
Westbrook et al. 2011
Pittsburgh Brain Imaging Research Center
Westbrook et al. 2011
getting caught up
Posterior Cingulate Cortex

Brewer, Garrison, & Whitfield-Gabrieli 2013

Yale University
Decreased activity: Focus, contentment, not efforting
Increased activity: Distraction, discontentment, and
efforting

Brewer, Garrison, & Whitfield-Gabrieli 2013

Yale University
 Lets practice again
Connect to breath as resource
Mindfully attend to sensations
Redirect attention to breath and
sensation when you experience mind-
wandering or getting caught up
Lovingkindness & Compassion
Meditation
 Immediate Benefits
93 participants (57% female; mean age 24)
randomly assigned to lovingkindness (for
stranger) meditation or control task.
Participants in the LKM group became more
positive (calm, happy, loving) and less negative
(angry, anxious, unhappy).
Felt more connected to the target of the
meditation and new strangers presented after
meditation.

Hutcherson, Seppala, & Gross 2008

Stanford University
 Training Effects
67 adults (66% female, mean age 41) took
workplace-sponsored 8-week stress reduction
course based on lovingkindness and compassion
meditation.
72 in waitlist control group
Training increased positive emotions, reduced
depression, and improved physical health and
relationships.

Fredrickson et al. 2008

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Practice effect: The effect size of 1 hr of
meditation on positive emotions tripled
from week 1 to week 7.
 15-Month Follow-Up
33/95 participants in meditation training
continued to meditate at least occasionally
(avg 5-32 min/day).
Continuing meditators reported more
positive emotion.
Average meditation time correlated (r = .25)
with positive emotion experience.

(Cohn & Fredrickson 2010)

 A Positive Experience of Suffering?

1. Look at one expert compassion meditators

brain during compassion meditation.
2. Teach non-meditators compassion meditation
and look for changes in the brain while
confronted with other peoples suffering.
3. Randomize 94 female non-meditators (age
18-35, avg = 24)to compassion training or
control training and look for changes in
previously identified areas.

Klimecki, Leiberg, Lamm, & Singer 2012

Klimecki et al. 2014
Max Planck Institute
(Klimecki et al. 2012; 2013)
The Reward System
 Contrary to our expectations,
compassion training increased positive
affect, but did not decrease negative
affect.

(Klimecki et al. 2012)

Stanford Compassion Cultivation Training
100 adults (age 21-68, mean = 43) randomized to 9-wk
compassion training (n = 60, 65% female) or waitlist
control (n = 40, 83% female).

Jazaieri, Jinpa, McGonigal et al. 2012

Stanford University
(r = .24, p < .05 with home practice time)
 Under review (not published)
A Wandering Mind is a Less Caring Mind:
Daily Experience Sampling During
Compassion Meditation Training
(Jazaieri, Lee, McGonigal, Jinpa, et al.)
Participants were pinged twice daily (AM/PM)
 Results: Mind-Wandering
The frequency of mind wandering (neutral,
pleasant, and unpleasant topics) decreased
from baseline (59.1% of occasions) to post-CCT
(54.5%).
Home meditation practice correlated with
decrease in mind-wandering to unpleasant
topics and increase in mind-wandering to
pleasant topics.
 Results: Caring
Caring behaviors for oneself increased from
baseline (67.8% of daily reports) to post-CCT
(81.9%).
A positive but non-significant trajectory was
observed for caring behaviors for others from
baseline (73.9%) to post-CCT (78.7%); less caring for
others at baseline corresponded with steeper
increases in caring for others over time.
Caring behaviors towards oneself and others not
correlated at baseline (r = -.05, p > .74), but
positively correlated post-CCT (r = .59, p < .001).
Mind-Wandering & Caring
Mind wandering to unpleasant and neutral
topics predicted less caring behaviors
towards oneself and others.
Lets Practice
 Resources
http://kellymcgonigal.com/vancouver
Or send email to getslides@gmail.com for
automatic response with link

Slides and supplemental handouts

Free meditation practice MP3s & yoga videos
Organizations/web resources