Short-term meditation increases blood flow in anterior cingulate cortex and insula

Abstract

Asymmetry in frontal electrical activity has been reported to be associated with positive mood. One form of mindfulness meditation, integrative body-mind training (IBMT) improves positive mood and neuroplasticity. The purpose of this study is to determine whether short-term IBMT improves mood and induces frontal asymmetry. This study showed that 5-days (30-min per day) IBMT significantly enhanced cerebral blood flow (CBF) in subgenual/adjacent ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), medial prefrontal cortex and insula. The results showed that both IBMT and relaxation training increased left laterality of CBF, but only IBMT improved CBF in left ACC and insula, critical brain areas in self-regulation.

Description

© 2015 Tang, Lu, Feng, Tang and Posner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Keywords

Integrative Body-Mind Training, Cerebral Blood Flow, Positive Mood, Frontal Asymmetry, Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Citation

Tang Y-Y, Lu Q, Feng H, Tang R and Posner MI (2015) Short-term meditation increases blood flow in anterior cingulate cortex and insula. Front. Psychol. 6:212. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00212

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