During loving kindness meditation (the cultivation of heartfelt feelings of selfless love), expert meditators demonstrated decreased brain connectivity related to self-reference and inner speech in addition to increased connectivity associated with an embodied feeling of loving kindness and emotional feeling/empathy.
Loving kindness is a form of meditation involving directed well-wishing, typically supported by the silent repetition of phrases such as “may all beings be happy,” to foster a feeling of selfless love. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural substrate of loving kindness meditation in experienced meditators and novices. We first assessed group differences in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal during loving kindness meditation. We next used a relatively novel approach, the intrinsic connectivity distribution of functional connectivity, to identify regions that differ in intrinsic connectivity between groups, and then used a data-driven approach to seed-based connectivity analysis to identify which connections differ between groups. Our findings suggest group differences in brain regions involved in self-related processing and mind wandering, emotional processing, inner speech, and memory. Meditators showed overall reduced BOLD signal and intrinsic connectivity during loving kindness as compared to novices, more specifically in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus (PCC/PCu), a finding that is consistent with our prior work and other recent neuroimaging studies of meditation. Furthermore, meditators showed greater functional connectivity during loving kindness between the PCC/PCu and the left inferior frontal gyrus, whereas novices showed greater functional connectivity during loving kindness between the PCC/PCu and other cortical midline regions of the default mode network, the bilateral posterior insula lobe, and the bilateral parahippocampus/hippocampus. These novel findings suggest that loving kindness meditation involves a present-centered, selfless focus for meditators as compared to novices.
Brain regions showing reduced BOLD signal during loving kindness meditation in meditators as compared to novices (P < 0.05 FWE, cluster corrected; slices displayed left to right).
Brain regions showing less intrinsic connectivity during loving kindness meditation in meditators as compared to novices (P < 0.05 FWE, cluster corrected; slices displayed left to right).
Brain regions showing greater functional connectivity with the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus during loving kindness meditation in novices than meditators (P < 0.05 FWE, cluster corrected; slices displayed left to right).
Brain regions showing greater functional connectivity with the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus during loving kindness meditation in meditators than novices (P < 0.05 FWE, cluster corrected; slices displayed left to right).
This study describes the neural substrate of loving kindness meditation in a large sample of meditators and novices. Multiple neuroimaging analysis methods were used to identify differences in BOLD signal and functional connectivity between groups. Our findings indicate that novices and meditators engage different brain regions during loving kindness meditation, and provide insight into differences in cognitive strategy between groups. Novices more strongly engage brain regions involved in empathy and social cognition, inner speech, and memory processes, as well as more generally regions involved in self-related processing or mind wandering. Meditators engage these brain regions less than novices, consistent with the perspective that loving kindness meditation involves a present-centered and selfless focus.
Garrison, K.A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R.T. and Brewer, J.A. (2014), BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation. Brain Behavior, 4, 337-347. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.219
About the Author
Matthew T. Wilson, PhD, has spent half of his life in Jacksonville, Alabama. He recently has moved back to the area, where he and his partner, Emma H. Wilson, PhD, are co-owners of Wilson Psychology Group, LLC. They have one son, Madison H. Wilson.
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M.T. Wilson, PhD
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