Cortical thickness, mental absorption and meditative practice: possible implications for disorders of attention.

Mental training techniques rooted in meditation are associated with attention improvement, increased activation and cortical thickening of attention/executive-related brain areas. Interestingly, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with behavioural deficits, hypo-activation and cortical thinning of similar networks. This study assessed the relationship between prior meditative training, attentional absorption, and cortical thickness.

Impact of meditation training on the default mode network during a restful state.

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to promote emotional stability. Moreover, during the processing of aversive and self-referential stimuli, mindful awareness is associated with reduced medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) activity, a central default mode network (DMN) component. However, it remains unclear whether mindfulness practice influences functional connectivity between DMN regions and, if so, whether such impact persists beyond a state of meditation.

Impact of mindfulness on the neural responses to emotional pictures in experienced and beginner meditators.

There is mounting evidence that mindfulness meditation is beneficial for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, yet little is known regarding the neural mechanisms through which mindfulness modulates emotional responses. Thus, a central objective of this functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to investigate the effects of mindfulness on the neural responses to emotionally laden stimuli. Another major goal of this study was to examine the impact of the extent of mindfulness training on the brain mechanisms supporting the processing of emotional stimuli.

A non-elaborative mental stance and decoupling of executive and pain-related cortices predicts low pain sensitivity in Zen meditators.

Concepts originating from ancient Eastern texts are now being explored scientifically, leading to new insights into mind/brain function. Meditative practice, often viewed as an emotion regulation strategy, has been associated with pain reduction, low pain sensitivity, chronic pain improvement, and thickness of pain-related cortices. Zen meditation is unlike previously studied emotion regulation techniques; more akin to 'no appraisal' than 'reappraisal'.

Cortical thickness and pain sensitivity in zen meditators.

Zen meditation has been associated with low sensitivity on both the affective and the sensory dimensions of pain. Given reports of gray matter differences in meditators as well as between chronic pain patients and controls, the present study investigated whether differences in brain morphometry are associated with the low pain sensitivity observed in Zen practitioners. Structural MRI scans were performed and the temperature required to produce moderate pain was assessed in 17 meditators and 18 controls.

Brain activity in near-death experiencers during a meditative state.

Aim: To measure brain activity in near-death experiencers during a meditative state.

Methods: In two separate experiments, brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) during a Meditation condition and a Control condition. In the Meditation condition, participants were asked to mentally visualize and emotionally connect with the "being of light" allegedly encountered during their "near-death experience".

The neural basis of unconditional love.

Functional neuroimaging studies have shown that romantic love and maternal love are mediated by regions specific to each, as well as overlapping regions in the brain's reward system. Nothing is known yet regarding the neural underpinnings of unconditional love. The main goal of this functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to identify the brain regions supporting this form of love.

Vulnerability for apoptosis in the limbic system after myocardial infarction in rats: a possible model for human postinfarct major depression.

Objective: Major depressive disorder occurs in 15%-30% of patients who have had a myocardial infarction (MI), but the neurobiological mechanisms involved are not well understood. Previously, we found early intracellular signalling changes in the limbic system after acute MI in rats. The aim of the present study was to test the presence of behavioural deficits compatible with animal models of depression after acute MI in rats and to verify whether this is associated with apoptosis vulnerability markers.