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Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - nest0r - 2011-04-25
In your face, Blahah.
Demystifying Meditation: Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain
“Meditation produces powerful pain-relieving effects in the brain, according to new research published in the April 6 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
‘This is the first study to show that only a little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation,’ said Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., lead author of the study and post-doctoral research fellow at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.”
Original: Brain Mechanisms Supporting the Modulation of Pain by Mindfulness Meditation
Abstract: The subjective experience of one's environment is constructed by interactions among sensory, cognitive, and affective processes. For centuries, meditation has been thought to influence such processes by enabling a nonevaluative representation of sensory events. To better understand how meditation influences the sensory experience, we used arterial spin labeling functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural mechanisms by which mindfulness meditation influences pain in healthy human participants. After 4 d of mindfulness meditation training, meditating in the presence of noxious stimulation significantly reduced pain unpleasantness by 57% and pain intensity ratings by 40% when compared to rest. A two-factor repeated-measures ANOVA was used to identify interactions between meditation and pain-related brain activation. Meditation reduced pain-related activation of the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify brain regions associated with individual differences in the magnitude of meditation-related pain reductions. Meditation-induced reductions in pain intensity ratings were associated with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, areas involved in the cognitive regulation of nociceptive processing. Reductions in pain unpleasantness ratings were associated with orbitofrontal cortex activation, an area implicated in reframing the contextual evaluation of sensory events. Moreover, reductions in pain unpleasantness also were associated with thalamic deactivation, which may reflect a limbic gating mechanism involved in modifying interactions between afferent input and executive-order brain areas. Together, these data indicate that meditation engages multiple brain mechanisms that alter the construction of the subjectively available pain experience from afferent information.
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - KMDES - 2011-04-25
But what kind of meditation did they use? ;D
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - nest0r - 2011-04-25
KMDES Wrote:But what kind of meditation did they use? ;Dhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha
They outline the ‘mindfulness-based mental training’ in the paper.
Edit: Specifically I believe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapanasati
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - KMDES - 2011-04-25
nest0r Wrote:Does that mean you can find better/worse results with different meditations?KMDES Wrote:But what kind of meditation did they use? ;Dhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha
They outline the ‘mindfulness-based mental training’ in the paper.
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - nest0r - 2011-04-25
I don't get the impression from the papers or overall research into the brain that a particular technique/style/etc. is essential. I think the researchers simply generally use a barebones, popular form that pertains to the various cognitive and affective elements discussed in the studies.
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - IceCream - 2011-04-25
meditation is actually quite interesting, isn't it!!!
i always kinda wrote it off before because i had only ever heard it was about visualising a sunset on a beach or thinking of nothing... things which would just bore me. I'm gonna read some more about it, i think...
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - Javizy - 2011-04-25
IceCream Wrote:meditation is actually quite interesting, isn't it!!!I had a similar thought last time this came up, so I bought Full Catastrophe Living, which is based on the 8-week course that this research was about. The first third of the book basically gives you everything you need to do the 8-week course by yourself, and the rest of the book discusses applications of mindfulness, such as a means of dealing with stress and pain.
i always kinda wrote it off before because i had only ever heard it was about visualising a sunset on a beach or thinking of nothing... things which would just bore me. I'm gonna read some more about it, i think...
I haven't managed to start the 45-minute stuff yet, although I intend to try the full 8-week course, but even 10-20 minutes of basic 'focus on your breathing while noting and letting go of distracting thoughts' style meditation can be a fascinating study of your mind. It's amazing how much insignificant crap runs through my mind and prevents me from experiencing what's actually happening in the present moment. I definitely recommend trying it.
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - HerrPetersen - 2011-04-25
A good startup might be the the following audio-lectures:
http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - bodhisamaya - 2011-04-25
HerrPetersen Wrote:A good startup might be the the following audio-lectures:This builds a good foundation
http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - zachandhobbes - 2011-04-25
In my trip to Japan we stopped by Eiheiji temple and did an intensive meditation thing for a couple days. I dreaded waking up in the morning at 4:30 AM to do what I thought was sitting and being stupid but after the meditation I felt surprisingly refreshed and awake at 6:30AM, which is way earlier than I usually get up, as if I had gotten a full nights sleep of 8 hours (I probably got to sleep at 12am)
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - kazelee - 2011-04-25
Mediation always helps calm the pain when I have intense fatigue related migraines.
Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain - Javizy - 2011-04-26
kazelee Wrote:Mediation always helps calm the pain when I have intense fatigue related migraines.You might be interested in learning about trigger points as well if you get headaches a lot.
![[Image: trigger_point1.png]](http://tomsmithhealth.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/trigger_point1.png)