Therapy involving mindfulness meditation has become increasingly popular, but to date little is known about brain mechanisms associated with this practice.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), one of the most widely used mindfulness training programs, has been reported to produce positive effects on psychological well-being and to reduce the symptoms of a number of disorders.
In a new study by German and American researchers, published in Psychiatric Research, scientists measured actual changes in brain gray matter concentration using magnetic resonance images from 16 participants, obtained both before and after they underwent the 8-week meditation program.
However, researchers are cautious with these preliminary results, and prefer to conduct more research before commenting further.