Abstract
Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the same dataset, we investigated in more detail the regional differences in GMV associated with the practice of SYM, with a different statistical approach. Twenty-three experienced practitioners of SYM and 23 healthy non-meditators matched on age, sex and education level, were scanned using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Their GMV were extracted and compared using Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM). Using a novel ad-hoc general linear model, statistical comparisons were made to observe if the GMV differences between meditators and controls were statistically significant. In the 16 lobe area subdivisions, GMV was statistically significantly different in 4 out of 16 areas: in right hemispheric temporal and frontal lobes, left frontal lobe and brainstem. In the 116 AAL area subdivisions, GMV difference was statistically significant in 11 areas. The GMV differences were statistically more significant in right hemispheric brain areas. The study shows that long-term practice of SYM is associated with larger GMV overall, and with significant differences mainly in temporal and frontal areas of the right hemisphere and the brainstem. These neuroplastic changes may reflect emotional and attentional control mechanisms developed with SYM. On the other hand, our statistical ad-hoc method shows that there were more brain areas with statistical significance compared to the traditional methodology which we think is susceptible to conservative Type II errors.
Highlights
Meditation is a general term that includes a large variety of practices that mainly focus on the inner observation of the body and the mind
In the 116 AAL area subdivisions, grey matter volume (GMV) difference was statistically significant in 11 areas
In our previous structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study, we showed that 23 long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) compared to healthy controls had 6.9% significantly larger GMV in the whole brain [28] which represent, as far as we know, the highest GMV difference shown between groups of healthy volunteers
Summary
Meditation is a general term that includes a large variety of practices that mainly focus on the inner observation of the body and the mind. The western goal of most meditation techniques is to achieve an improved control of attention and emotions in order to live a more balanced, stress-free and healthier life. A higher state of consciousness called Nirvichara Samadhi was described, in today’s words Nirvichara could be translated as “mental silence” or “thoughtless awareness”. In this state, the mind has none thoughts and there is inner calm in a state of inner pure joy and the attention is focused on each present moment. Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) shares the goals of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras to achieve the state of Nirvichara or mental silence
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