| Is it possible to teach yourself to be more | | | | the initial evidence that meditation can change the |
| compassionate? A study whose results came out | | | | brain's structure. They did brain scans that |
| in 2008 makes just that seem possible. The | | | | showed that the part of the brain that handles |
| research was done at University of | | | | attention, focusing, and sensory input was larger |
| Wisconsin-Madison. This study employed functional | | | | than normal in meditators with a lot of experience. |
| magnetic resonance imaging. This imaging | | | | One part of the gray matter that was thicker |
| suggested that emotions like compassion could be | | | | was in a section where it becomes thinner with |
| learned. | | | | aging, but it was thicker in the older meditators. |
| The scans showed that the brain circuits that | | | | Sara Lazar, the studies leader stated, "Our data |
| detect emotion were extensively increased in | | | | suggest that meditation practice can promote |
| people that had meditated for many years. The | | | | cortical plasticity in adults in areas important for |
| director of the study, Richard Davidson, said that | | | | cognitive and emotional processing and well-being." |
| basically everyone could find meditation useful for | | | | (Harvard Gazette, William J. Cromie) |
| depression, to stop being a bully or for other | | | | It is interesting to not that she said "These |
| emotional reasons. Davidson is a professor of | | | | findings are consistent with other studies that |
| psychiatry and psychology. | | | | demonstrated increased thickness of music areas |
| The researchers have a continuing study going on | | | | in the brains of musicians, and visual and motor |
| of some Tibetan monks and lay adherents and | | | | areas in the brains of jugglers. In other words, the |
| this particular researcher is an arm of that work. | | | | structure of an adult brain can change in response |
| The people studied have to have at least 10,000 | | | | to repeated practice." (Harvard Gazette, William J. |
| hours of meditation practice under their belts. This | | | | Cromie) |
| particular study included 16 monks that have | | | | The comparison was made between 20 seasoned |
| developed compassion meditation practices. It also | | | | meditators and 15 people that didn't meditate. |
| involved 16 controls that learned compassion | | | | Some of the mediators had practiced for years |
| meditation for two weeks prior to the study. | | | | and others only about a year. |
| They requested that the controls focus on feeling | | | | It is amazing to find that the brain actually |
| compassion for their loved ones. When they had | | | | increases gray matter when people meditate, |
| gained a little practice they asked them to | | | | especially for decades. It is also fascinating to |
| cultivate the feeling of compassion towards | | | | learn that brain activity increases when people are |
| people in general. The scans showed an increase | | | | concentrating on compassion, but more so that |
| in the activity of the insula, which is part of the | | | | compassion can be cultivated. |
| frontal brain that is important in detecting feelings. | | | | We are just starting to understand what |
| It helps to map the body's reaction to feelings like | | | | meditation can do and how adaptable to the brain |
| blood pressure and heart rate. | | | | is and the wonders of the brain and meditation |
| In 2006 researchers at Harvard, Yale and the | | | | are yet to be fully discovered. |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered | | | | |