Graham English

People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don’t. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input.

I’m sure this isn’t big news to any meditator. Of course we alter the biochemistry of our brains through meditation practice. Take, for example, the left planum temporalus. It is an organ within the left temporal lobe which deals with nuances of word meaning. In my research on absolute pitch, I found an article published in Science magazine that people who have absolute pitch have a left planum temporalus that’s twice the size physically of that organ in other people. And absolute pitch is a skill that can be learned through practice.

But this news could be a good selling point for meditation.

Bigger = Better

My girlfriend did her Harvard thesis on meditation. I’m sure she could chime in on this.

I also found this the other day:
How to use everyday mindfulness or zazen to make your life more enjoyable.:

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Tags: Absolute Pitch, brain, Harvard, meditation, Science, zazen, zen

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 13th, 2006 at 12:25 pm and is filed under LifeHacks, Prose. You can leave a comment if you follow my Living Room Rules. If not, you can leave a trackback from your own site.