title: Short-term meditation increases blood flow in anterior cingulate cortex and insula.
abstract: Asymmetry in frontal electrical activity has been reported to be associated with positive mood. One form of mindfulness meditation, integrative body-mind training (IBMT) improves positive mood and neuroplasticity. The purpose of this study is to determine whether short-term IBMT improves mood and induces frontal asymmetry. This study showed that 5-days (30-min per day) IBMT significantly enhanced cerebral blood flow (CBF) in subgenual/adjacent ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), medial prefrontal cortex and insula. The results showed that both IBMT and relaxation training increased left laterality of CBF, but only IBMT improved CBF in left ACC and insula, critical brain areas in self-regulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX, USA ; Department of Psychology, University of Oregon Eugene, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Yi-Yuan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroinformatics and Lab for Body and Mind, Dalian University of Technology Dalian, China.
authors.forename: Qilin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroinformatics and Lab for Body and Mind, Dalian University of Technology Dalian, China ; First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University Dalian, China.
authors.forename: Hongbo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Rongxiang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oregon Eugene, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Michael I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Posner
keywords: anterior cingulate cortex; cerebral blood flow; frontal asymmetry; integrative body–mind training; positive mood