Hemodynamic responses on prefrontal cortex related to meditation and attentional task

Abstract

Recent neuroimaging studies state that meditation increases regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The present study employed functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to evaluate the relative hemodynamic changes in PFC during a cognitive task. Twenty-two healthy male volunteers with ages between 18 and 30 years (group mean age ± SD; 22.9 ± 4.6 years) performed a color-word stroop task before and after 20 min of meditation and random thinking. Repeated measures ANOVA was performed followed by a post hoc analysis with Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons between the mean values of “During” and “Post” with “Pre” state. During meditation there was an increased in oxy-hemoglobin (ΔHbO) and total hemoglobin (ΔTHC) concentration with reduced deoxy-hemoglobin (ΔHbR) concentration over the right prefrontal cortex (rPFC), whereas in random thinking there was increased ΔHbR with reduced total hemoglobin concentration on the rPFC. The mean reaction time (RT) was shorter during stroop color word task with concomitant reduction in ΔTHC after meditation, suggestive of improved performance and efficiency in task related to attention. Our findings demonstrated that meditation increased cerebral oxygenation and enhanced performance, which was associated with activation of the PFC.

Greater Cortical Thickness in Elderly Female Yoga Practitioners—A Cross-Sectional Study

“…When performing a yoga posture, muscles are engaged for a minimum amount of time in a state of attention (processed in the prefrontal cortex, PFC), similarly to what occurs in meditation (Kane and Engle, 2002;Koechlin et al, 2003). The meditative process (for which attention is essential) is associated with increased oxyhemoglobin concentrations in the PFC due to the increased blood flow to that region (Deepeshwar et al, 2015;Singh et al, 2016). Similarly, alterations in attention and cognition result in different degrees of electrical activity in the PFC (Aftanas and Golocheikine, 2001;Davidson et al, 2003;Lutz et al, 2004;Desai et al, 2015).…”

Survey on Om meditation: Its effects on the human body and Om meditation as a tool for stress management

“…Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) were used to compare and evaluate the effects of Om meditation by the following four studies. From the studies on neuroimaging (Bhargav et al, 2016;Deepeshwar et al, 2015) pre frontal cortex (PFC) area of the brain is seen to be affected wherein deactivation and oxygenation of PFC is observed which lead to the conclusion that the vibrations produced by Om meditation has relaxing effects. The authors (Bhargav et al, 2016) (Kumar et al, 2015) show that neural regions such as bilateral cerebellum, left dorsal medial frontal cortex and right supramarginal gyrus activate during listening to "Om" sound.…”

“…This paper is an attempt to systematically review the available studies on Om meditation, to determine how the studies have been done and to find the benefits of Om meditation so far explored. Many researchers have found the effects of Om meditation on human beings by analyzing various parameters such as Electroencephalograph (EEG), neuroimaging, Evoked Potentials and other methods (Bhargav et al, 2016;Das & Anand, 2012;Deepeshwar, Vinchurkar, Visweswaraiah, & Nagendra, 2015;Harne, 2014;Kumar, Guleria, & Khetrapal, 2015;Kalyani et al, 2011;Telles, Nagarathna, & Nagendra, 1995;Telles, Nagarathna, & Nagendra, 1998;Telles et al, 1994;Gurjar, Ladhake, & Thakare, 2009). This review could work as a platform holding analysis of the previous studies, as well as providing directions for future research in Om meditation.…”

Mindfulness Y Rehabilitación Neurocognitiva

“…Siguiendo a Quintana y Miro (2015) existe evidencia empírica suficiente que demuestra que aquellos tratamientos que han utilizado MF incrementan la irrigación cerebral en áreas corticales y subcorticales, (Khalsa et al, 2009;Deepeshwar et al, 2014), del mismo modo aumentarían la conectividad y la densidad neuronal (Malinowski, 2013). Otros autores como Taylor et al, (2013) subrayan también los cambios que se producen en la función cerebral activándose áreas como la atención, la regulación emocional o la consciencia corporal, entre otras.…”