Resting State Functional Connectivity Associated With Sahaja Yoga Meditation

Abstract

Neuroscience research has shown that meditation practices have effects on brain structure and function. However, few studies have combined information on the effects on structure and function in the same sample. Long-term daily meditation practice produces repeated activity of specific brain networks over years of practice, which may induce lasting structural and functional connectivity (FC) changes within relevant circuits. The aim of our study was therefore to identify differences in FC during the resting state between 23 Sahaja Yoga Meditation experts and 23 healthy participants without meditation experience. Seed-based FC analysis was performed departing from voxels that had shown structural differences between these same participants. The contrast of connectivity maps yielded that meditators showed increased FC between the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex but reduced FC between the left insula and the bilateral mid-cingulate as well as between the right angular gyrus and the bilateral precuneus/cuneus cortices. It thus appears that long-term meditation practice increases direct FC between ventral and dorsal frontal regions within brain networks related to attention and cognitive control and decreases FC between regions of these networks and areas of the default mode network.

Keywords: Sahaja yoga meditation; attention; functional connectivity; mental silence; mind-wandering; resting state – fMRI; thoughless awareness.

FIGURE 1

Graphical representation of functional connectivity (FC) results: (A) FC differences between left insula and midcingulate, (B) FC differences between left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and (C) FC differences between right angular gyrus adn bilateral precuneus.

FIGURE 2

Functional connectivity results: (A) bilateral mid-cingulate, seed at the left insula, (B) right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, seed at left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and (C) right precuneus, seed at right angular.