Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 2:02am
Meditation can foster kindness: Study
A new study with Tibetan monks suggests people can train themselves to be compassionate and kind through meditation, which affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples' mental states, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study was part of the researchers' ongoing investigations with a group of Tibetan monks and lay practitioners who practiced meditation for a minimum of 10,000 hours, Newswise reported via UnknownCountry.com Thursday.
Sixteen age-matched controls with no previous training were taught the fundamentals of compassion meditation two weeks before brain scanning took place. Published March 26 in the Public Library of Science One, the study was the first to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The scans revealed that brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion meditation.
The research suggests individuals - from children who may engage in bullying to people prone to recurring depression - and society in general could benefit from meditative practices, said study director Richard Davidson, professor of psychiatry and psychology at UW-Madison and an expert on imaging the effects of meditation. Davidson and UW-Madison associate scientist Antoine Lutz were co-principal investigators on the project.
Sixteen age-matched controls with no previous training were taught the fundamentals of compassion meditation two weeks before brain scanning took place. Published March 26 in the Public Library of Science One, the study was the first to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The scans revealed that brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion meditation.
The research suggests individuals - from children who may engage in bullying to people prone to recurring depression - and society in general could benefit from meditative practices, said study director Richard Davidson, professor of psychiatry and psychology at UW-Madison and an expert on imaging the effects of meditation. Davidson and UW-Madison associate scientist Antoine Lutz were co-principal investigators on the project.