What Zen meditators don't think about won't hurt them
New University of Montreal study shows how meditators don't ponder pain
2010-12-09
(Press-News.org) Montreal, December 8, 2010 – Zen meditation has many health benefits, including a reduced sensitivity to pain. According to new research from the Université de Montréal, meditators do feel pain but they simply don't dwell on it as much. These findings, published in the month's issue of Pain, may have implications for chronic pain sufferers, such as those with arthritis, back pain or cancer.
"Our previous research found that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity. The aim of the current study was to determine how they are achieving this," says senior author Pierre Rainville, researcher at the Université de Montréal and the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. "Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrated that although the meditators were aware of the pain, this sensation wasn't processed in the part of their brains responsible for appraisal, reasoning or memory formation. We think that they feel the sensations, but cut the process short, refraining from interpretation or labelling of the stimuli as painful."
Training the brain
Rainville and his colleagues compared the response of 13 Zen meditators to 13 non-meditators to a painful heat stimulus. Pain perception was measured and compared with functional MRI data. The most experienced Zen practitioners showed lower pain responses and decreased activity in the brain areas responsible for cognition, emotion and memory (the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus). In addition, there was a decrease in the communication between a part of the brain that senses the pain and the prefrontal cortex.
"Our findings lead to new insights into mind/brain function," says first author, Joshua Grant, a doctoral student at the Université de Montréal. "These results challenge current concepts of mental control, which is thought to be achieved by increasing cognitive activity or effort. Instead, we suggest it is possible to self-regulate in a more passive manner, by 'turning off' certain areas of the brain, which in this case are normally involved in processing pain."
"The results suggest that Zen meditators may have a training-related ability to disengage some higher-order brain processes, while still experiencing the stimulus," says Rainville. "Such an ability could have widespread and profound implications for pain and emotion regulation and cognitive control. This behaviour is consistent with the mindset of Zen and with the notion of mindfulness."
INFORMATION:
About the Study:
"A non-elaborative mental stance and decoupling of executive and pain-related cortices predicts low pain sensitivity in Zen meditators" was authored by Joshua A. Grant, Jérôme Courtemanche and Pierre Rainville from the Université de Montréal
Partners in research:
This study was funded by a grant from the Mind and Life Institute with support for Joshua Grant provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
On the Web:
Pain : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03043959
Université de Montréal: www.umontreal.ca/english
Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal: www.iugm.qc.ca/_home
Media contact:
Julie Gazaille
Press attaché
University of Montreal
Telephone: 514 343 6796
Email: j.cordeau-gazaille@umontreal.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/uMontreal_news
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2010-12-09
Large birds, such as storks, save energy on the flight to their wintering grounds by soaring through the air on thermal currents. Until now, however, we knew nothing about the flight patterns of small migrating songbirds, such as whether they flap their wings or soar and whether these styles of flight allow them to save energy. Now, a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Ben-Gurion-University of the Negev, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem have tracked the movement of European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) along the Africa-Eurasia ...
2010-12-09
New Rochelle, NY, December 8, 2010—As the prevalence of childhood obesity approaches epidemic levels, physicians on the "front line" need to become more involved in obesity prevention and weight management to reverse this dangerous trend among their young patients. But several obstacles discourage pediatricians and other primary care physicians from taking a more active role in managing childhood obesity. An expert panel identified these barriers and explored strategies for overcoming them in a Roundtable Discussion on "New Ways to Overcome Old Barriers: Engaging Pediatricians ...
2010-12-09
Neuroimaging—is it voodoo, new phrenology, or scientific breakthrough? See what the experts have to say in this special section on fMRI in Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Neuroimaging: Voodoo, New Phrenology, or Scientific Breakthrough? Introduction to Special Section on fMRI (http://pps.sagepub.com/content/5/6/714.full)
Ed Diener
In response to the widespread interest following the publication of Vul et al (2009) (http://pps.sagepub.com/content/4/3/274.abstract), Perspectives Editor Ed Diener invited researchers to contribute articles for a special section ...
2010-12-09
HOUSTON -- (Dec. 8, 2010) -- Physicists from Rice University and Princeton University have discovered how to use one of the information technology industry's mainstay materials -- gallium arsenide semiconductors -- as an ultrasensitive microwave detector that could be suitable for next-generation computers. The discovery comes at a time when computer chip engineers are racing both to add nanophotonic devices directly to microchips and to boost processor speeds beyond 10 gigahertz (GHz).
"Tunable photon-detection technology in the microwave range is not well-developed," ...
2010-12-09
The playground can be a daunting place for any kid trying to join in and be one of the gang. For kids with disabilities it's just as important to feel included, be accepted and valued – particularly by their peers.
In a study to understand the perspectives of children with disabilities around inclusion in physical activities during free play, recreational sports and recess, Dr. Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere, an adapted physical activity expert, in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, interviewed children with a range of disabilities ...
2010-12-09
Researchers have developed a statistical model for projecting how many people will get sick from seasonal influenza based on analyses of flu viruses circulating that season. The research, conducted by scientists at the National Institutes of Health, appears today in the open-access publication PLoS Currents: Influenza.
Building on other research that has shown that severity of infections with the Influenza A virus is related to its novelty (i.e., how much the virus has changed, or mutated, from prior seasons), the study evaluated the correlation between virus novelty ...
2010-12-09
Investigators have demonstrated for the first time that the most common malignant childhood brain tumor, medulloblastoma, is actually several different diseases, each arising from distinct cells destined to become different structures. The breakthrough is expected to dramatically alter the diagnosis and treatment of this major childhood cancer.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators led the international effort, which confirms that certain brain tumors and possibly other cancers regarded as the same disease; are in fact separate diseases with different origins. ...
2010-12-09
As primary caregivers, parents are often believed to have a strong influence on children's eating behaviors. However, previous findings on parent-child resemblance in dietary intakes are mixed. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reviewed and assessed the degree of association and similarity between children's and their parents' dietary intake based on worldwide studies published since 1980. The meta-analysis is featured in the December issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
"Contrary to popular belief, many studies ...
2010-12-09
A team of UCSF researchers has engineered E. coli with the key molecular circuitry that will enable genetic engineers to program cells to communicate and perform computations.
The work builds into cells the same logic gates found in electronic computers and creates a method to create circuits by "rewiring" communications between cells. This system can be harnessed to turn cells into miniature computers, according to findings that will be reported in an upcoming issue of Nature and appear today in the advanced online edition at www.nature.com.
That, in turn, will enable ...
2010-12-09
Raimund Muscheler is a researcher at the Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at Lund University in Sweden. In the latest issue of the journal Science, he and his colleagues have described how the surface water temperature in the tropical parts of the eastern Pacific varied with the sun's activity between 7 000 and 11 000 years ago (early Holocene). Contrary to what one might intuitively believe, high solar activity had a cooling effect in this region.
"It is perhaps a similar phenomenon that we are seeing here today", says Raimund Muscheler. "Last year's cold winter ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] What Zen meditators don't think about won't hurt them
New University of Montreal study shows how meditators don't ponder pain
