Can meditation change your brain? - Attention Regulation

Do you think meditation is merely hokum/nonsense? After all, how can just sitting still change anything?

Then why are people starting to talk so much about meditation?

Here, we will look at some of the neuroscience examining if meditation can actually change, not only your life, but your brain itself. Change my brain, you say? Surely that is hokum?!

Well neuroscience is actually finding that our brains can actually change. They call it ‘ neuroplasticity’. This is the finding that our brains can actually change. Not convinced, have a look at our article here.

It may come as no surprise that meditation has been found to significantly improve stress levels and reduce burnout[i][ii][iii]. But how this occurs has only recently been researched using neuroscience thanks to dramatic improvements in the technology that allows us to ‘see’ what is happening in the brain 

Scientists have proposed that meditation works through several mechanisms. In this article, we will focus on the first one called attention regulation. This is exactly what it sounds like, it is our ability to regulate our attention. This sounds simple, right? However, in our hectic worlds and our busy lives, there are so many things competing for our attention. We have smart phones ‘binging and bonging’ all day, at home we have TV or music playing the background or kids pulling on our sleeves for our attentions, at work we have co-workers, walking into our cubical to ‘borrow us for a minute, phones ringing, bosses calling us into their office to give us endless tasks, emails popping up on our screens and the list goes on. It is enough to make you feel stressed just thinking about it! So as much as we think we regulate our attention, even the best of us can find ourselves having little awareness, let alone control, over our attention.

This is where mindful meditation comes in. Meditation is often characterised by focusing on begin fully present and without judgement in an effort to not be overwhelmed or overly reactive to our surroundings[iv]. This is where we notice the distractions or when our minds wonder off and return our attention to a chosen focus such as object or our breath. You might think this is fine and dandy when we are meditation and sitting down but how does that help me in the noisy world of constant notifications?

In a previous article we spoke about neuroplasticity; how we can actually change our brains. Well, it turns out, that like a muscle that gets stronger with use, by practicing regulating our attention, we make the part of the brain that controls where our attention is ‘stronger’[v]. This part of the brain is called the anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC for short. Neuroimaging (taking pictures of the brain) has shown that the ACC helps to notice distractions and direct out attention[vi]. Essentially, it is one of our ‘attention muscles’ and it turns out that when we look at the brains of those of meditation regularly, this muscle is actually ‘stronger’[vii].

So if your life is full of things vying for your attention and this is causing you stress. Perhaps try meditation. Over time, it could help strengthen your attention muscle and help you focus on the things that are truly important to you.

[i] Montanari, K. M., Bowe, C. L., Chesak, S. S., & Cutshall, S. M. (2019). Mindfulness: Assessing the Feasibility of a Pilot Intervention to Reduce Stress and Burnout. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 37(2), 175-188.

[ii] Martín, A. A., Rodríguez, T. B., Pujol-Ribera, E., Berenguera, A., & Moix, J. Q. (2013). Effectiveness of a mindfulness program in primary care professionals. Gaceta sanitaria, 27(6), 521-528.

[iii] Pérula-de Torres, L. A., Atalaya, J. C. V. M., García-Campayo, J., Roldan-Villalobos, A., Magallón-Botaya, R., Bartolomé-Moreno, C., ... & Hachem-Salas, N. (2019). Controlled clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of a mindfulness and self-compassion 4-session programme versus an 8-session programme to reduce work stress and burnout in family and community medicine physicians and nurses: MINDUUDD study protocol. BMC family practice, 20(1), 24.

[iv] Mindful. (2015). What is mindfulness? Retrieved from https://www.mindful.org/what-is-mindfulness/

[v] Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., & Ott, U. (2011). How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on psychological science, 6(6), 537-559.

[vi] Pardo, J. V., Pardo, P. J., Janer, K. W., & Raichle, M. E. (1990). The anterior cingulate cortex mediates processing selection in the Stroop attentional conflict paradigm. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 87(1), 256–259. doi:10.1073/pnas.87.1.256

[vii] Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., & Ott, U. (2011). How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on psychological science, 6(6), 537-559.