Neuroplasticity and Meditation

Two interesting new books are reviewed in the latest issue of Discover: Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, by Sharon Begley; and The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge. As the titles suggest, both books are concerned with our burgeoning awareness of the extent to which the adult human brain exhibits “neuroplasticity,” or the ability to alter its structure in response to new stimuli. It wasn’t all that long ago, of course, that we were confidently told that adult brains couldn’t grow new neurons, etc. etc. But now researchers are seeing more and more evidence of dramatic neural change in situations where the brain has to compensate for severe brain injuries. And in what is perhaps an even more exciting development for most of us, they are also seeing surprising levels of neural adaptivity in response to plain old “learning” as well, thus offering the possibility that you really can shape the brain you want, even long after the halcyon days of youth have fled. According to the review, Begley reports on the recent collaborations between neuroscientists and Buddhist monks—collaborations which have revealed that these monks show “neural activity that is off the charts, relative to meditation novices, in circuits that involve maternal love (caudate), empathy (right insula), and feelings of joy and happiness (left prefrontal cortex).” Yep, there’s our old friend the insula again, and it turns out that the insulas of these monks are actually significantly enlarged.

These findings are particularly interesting to me right now, since I recently completed a six-week Mindfulness and Meditation course. I have dabbled with meditation here and there in the past, but this is the first time I have ever had a regular practice for an extended period of time, and I’m finding it to be pretty powerful stuff. I plan to keep it up, and I’d like to learn more about specifically Buddhist meditative practices eventually....