Canny Minds Blog

Meditation can Boost your Brain Power

Posted on 26. May, 2009 by Jenny in Articles, Brain Training

Meditation could make you more intelligent because it boosts the size of your brain, research suggests.

High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging showed their hippocampus – a key area of the brain associated with memory and learning – was bigger.

Other parts linked to emotion were also larger than in people who did not practice the ancient technique.

The finding was made by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, who published the results in the journal NeuroImage.

The authors said that previous research had “confirmed the beneficial aspects of meditation. In addition to having better focus and control over their emotions, many people who meditate regularly have reduced levels of stress and bolstered immune systems”.

But less was know about the possible links between meditation and brain structure which is thought to affect intelligence.

The team studied the brains of 44 people – half of whom have practiced various forms of meditation for between five and 46 years.

The researchers found significantly larger brain measurements in meditators compared with others, including larger volumes of the right hippocampus and increased grey matter in the right frontal cortex.

Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent, Daily Telegraph

Photo courtesy of adhiwus and alicepopkorn

Tags: brain training, meditation