Study: Meditation may thicken brain against pain sensitivity

A Université de Montréal team found that Zen meditation thickened the gray matter of the brain and reduced sensitivity to pain and emotion.

Researchers from the de Montréal compared magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of Zen meditators and non-meditators and found that the gray (also spelled "grey") matter of certain regions of the central brain that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in regular meditators. According to the website eMedicineHealth.com, gray matter consists of gray-appearing nerve cell bodies of the cortex of the brain. In contrast, white matter cells are longer myelinated nerve fibers, the eMedicineHeath glossary states. Another digital journalist reported on earlier research that suggested meditation could increase brain size. Lead author lead Joshua A. Grant, a doctoral student in the Université de Montréal Department of Physiology and Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (working under the direction of Pierre Rainville) said,

"We found a relationship between cortical thickness and pain sensitivity, which supports our previous study on how Zen meditation regulates pain."

Grant and his team applied a heated plate to the lower legs of 17 meditators and 18 non-meditators who had never practiced yoga or experienced neurological or psychological illness or chronic pain, and then scanned their brains. The MRI results showed the meditators had thicker brain cortices and lower thermal pain sensitivity, compared to the non-meditators. The team's findings have been published as the article "Cortical Thickness and Pain Sensitivity in Zen Meditators" in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion. Their study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and a Mind and Life Institute.