Imaging Cerebral and Sub-cerebral Correlates of Meditative States

Stress

Three groups of subjects are trained to practice mindfulness meditation, compassion meditation, or attend a health training control class. Individuals from each group will undergo structural and functional brain imaging before and after training. The hypothesis is that the compassion meditation group will show the largest changes in brain structure and function. In a second series of experiments, the subjects practicing a Tibetan meditation practice will be undergo MRI thermometry imaging to construct detailed three dimensional temperature maps of their bodies before, during, and after they perform this practice.

Structural (MRI) Imaging will be used to measure changes in cortical thickness in the pre and post training groups. Function (fMRI) Imaging will be used to measure changes in cortical and sub-cortical responses to a series of affectively controlled visual images, presented during scanning. MRI Thermometry Imaging will be used to construct three dimensional temperature maps of subjects while performing meditation in the scanner.

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