People practice meditation in order to somehow influence their own psyche, put emotions in order, and gain clarity of mind. It is clear that meditation must have a lasting effect on the brain, otherwise it would be pointless to practice it. Meanwhile, neuroscientists have observed changes in the brain many times during meditation, but rarely paid attention to its consequences.
Researchers from several scientific centers in the United States (in particular Boston University and Emory University) published an article in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, which describes how two different types of meditation affect the emotional world of a person. People who had no experience of meditation were invited to participate in the experiment. For eight weeks, they had to periodically train in two types of meditation: one was aimed at controlling their own emotions, thoughts, breathing, etc., the second (and less studied) was aimed at raising the level of compassion, benevolence, kindness towards yourself and others. The control group simply attended general medical courses.
Before and after the meditation educational program, the subjects were shown more than two hundred photographs with people in different situations that had a positive, neutral or negative emotional connotation. As the researchers emphasize, they took particular care to ensure that the participants in the experiment did not fall into meditation while viewing the pictures. At the same time, they were tested for depression and anxiety. Brain activity was monitored while viewing the photographs using an fMRI scanner. Most of all, scientists were interested in the amygdala, or amygdala. This zone is called the center of fear, but its role is much broader, since the amygdala takes part in any emotional reaction.
In the case of meditation aimed, roughly speaking, at self-knowledge and self-control, the researchers found that it increased emotional stability in the subjects. The activity of the right amygdala in such people was very restrained, regardless of what was shown in the photo. It is curious that among those who were engaged in increasing sympathy and kindness, the activity of the right amygdala was also low. But if these experimental subjects meditated more often, in response to negative emotions, their amygdala responded even more than ordinary people. At the same time, the symptoms of depression in those who practiced "altruistic" meditation were less pronounced, that is, participation in others helped to cope with their own mental problems.
However, it is worth noting that researchers still do not have enough material to draw far-reaching conclusions about the psychological consequences of meditation and the psychological differences between its different types (and at the same time about why meditation affects only the right amygdala and does not affect the left). Now we can only state (on a scientific level) that meditation really has a long-term effect on the brain, that it somehow reconfigures it, that it is akin to physical exercise: just as an athlete does not lose shape when leaving the training room, so does a meditating person keep what he needs. psychological state, coming out of trance.
Based on materials from Massachusetts General Hospital