Researchers from Harvard, Yale, and MIT report that people who meditate regularly show measurable increases in brain thickness in areas responsible for attention and sensory processing. These findings, detailed in The Harvard Gazette, suggest that meditation can alter the adult brain’s structure in ways we once thought were impossible.
The study compared scans from 20 experienced meditators with those from 15 nonmeditators. Participants practiced Buddhist “insight meditation,” a method focused on observing what’s going on around you rather than focusing on a mantra or your breath.
Meditation May Actually Help Keep Your Brain Thicker and Healthier
Meditators spent an average of 40 minutes a day practicing, with experience ranging from one year to decades. The preconceived notion is that the cortex thins with age. The scans revealed that the cortexes of meditators were thicker by 4 to 8 thousandths of an inch in key areas, with the thickening more pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might help counteract age-related cognitive decline.
“Our data suggest that meditation practice can promote cortical plasticity in adults in areas important for cognitive and emotional processing and well-being,” said the study’s lead author, Sarah Lazar, a Harvard psychologist.
The most pronounced effects were found in participants who were able to meditate more deeply, measured by slow breathing. This correlated with greater changes to the brain, supporting the idea that the practice itself caused the effects and had nothing to do with any pre-existing brain differences.
Overall, meditators reported several positive effects, including improved focus, reduced stress, and greater emotional resilience. By training the brain to observe thoughts and sensations without getting wrapped up in them, practitioners can regulate the occasional nests of worrying and be more attentive in their day-to-day lives.
The research team plans larger studies to track changes over time and explore how meditation might influence neural connections and cognitive aging.
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