title: Investigation of mindfulness meditation practitioners with voxel-based morphometry.
abstract: Mindfulness meditators practice the non-judgmental observation of the ongoing stream of internal experiences as they arise. Using voxel-based morphometry, this study investigated MRI brain images of 20 mindfulness (Vipassana) meditators (mean practice 8.6 years; 2 h daily) and compared the regional gray matter concentration to that of non-meditators matched for sex, age, education and handedness. Meditators were predicted to show greater gray matter concentration in regions that are typically activated during meditation. Results confirmed greater gray matter concentration for meditators in the right anterior insula, which is involved in interoceptive awareness. This group difference presumably reflects the training of bodily awareness during mindfulness meditation. Furthermore, meditators had greater gray matter concentration in the left inferior temporal gyrus and right hippocampus. Both regions have previously been found to be involved in meditation. The mean value of gray matter concentration in the left inferior temporal gyrus was predictable by the amount of meditation training, corroborating the assumption of a causal impact of meditation training on gray matter concentration in this region. Results suggest that meditation practice is associated with structural differences in regions that are typically activated during meditation and in regions that are relevant for the task of meditation.
authors.affiliation: Bender Institute of Neuroimaging, Justus-Liebig-University, 35394 Giessen, Germany. Britta.K.Hoelzel@psychol.uni-giessen.de
authors.forename: Britta K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Hölzel
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ott
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gard
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hempel
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weygandt
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morgen
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vaitl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D019122:Meditation; D009929:Organ Size