Thicker brains fend off pain

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Thicker brains fend off pain

Universite de Montreal team continues to investigate positive effects of Zen

meditation

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/uom-tbf022410.php

Montreal, February 24, 2010 – People can reduce their sensitivity to pain by

thickening their brain, according to a new study published in a special issue of

the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion. Researchers from the

Université de Montréal made their discovery by comparing the grey matter

thickness of Zen meditators and non-meditators. They found evidence that

practicing the centuries-old discipline of Zen can reinforce a central brain

region (anterior cingulate) that regulates pain.

" Through training, Zen meditators appear to thicken certain areas of their

cortex and this appears to be underlie their lower sensitivity to pain, " says

lead author A. Grant, a doctoral student in the Université de Montréal

Department of Physiology and Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal.

" We found a relationship between cortical thickness and pain sensitivity, which

supports our previous study on how Zen meditation regulates pain. "

As part of this study, scientists recruited 17 meditators and 18 non-meditators

who in addition had never practiced yoga, experienced chronic pain, neurological

or psychological illness. Grant and his team, under the direction of Pierre

Rainville of the Université de Montréal and the Institut universitaire de

gériatrie de Montréal, measured thermal pain sensitivity by applying a heated

plate to the calf of participants and followed by scanning the brains of

subjects with structural magnetic resonance imaging. According to MRI results,

central brain regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker

in meditators compared to non-meditators.

" The often painful posture associated with Zen meditation may lead to thicker

cortex and lower pain sensitivity, " says Grant, noting that meditative practices

could be helpful in general for pain management, for preventing normal

age-related grey matter reductions or potentially for any condition where the

grey matter is compromised such as stroke.