Can mindfulness have long-lasting effects on your brain?
Hello everyone,
‘Mindfulness’ is discussed all over social media, blog posts and health websites. It claims to alleviate mental health conditions that many suffer from such as depression and anxiety, and it’s effects on our psyche and on our brains has been studied extensively. Are these effects long-lasting or do they only last as long as the mindfulness session? We asked 6 experts in neuropsychology, psychology and neurobiology, ‘Can mindfulness have long-lasting effects on your brain?’, here is what they said…
EXPERT CONSENSUS
Can mindfulness have long-lasting effects on your brain?
4 out of 6 experts say ‘Uncertain’
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is defined as a mental state which is achieved by focusing on the present moment. This mental state can be achieved in different ways, for example by meditation, yoga or tai chi.
What effects do mindfulness have on the brain?
Dr David Cregg, a psychology expert from Ohio State University in the USA, says “If done consistently over time, meditation will cause physical changes in the connections of neurons in the brain.” The effects of meditation on the brain have been studied using a variety of methods, including using electrodes attached to the head to measure electrical activity and functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) scanning to detect changes in blood flow in the brain.
Dr Alessio Matiz, a psychology expert from Udine University in Italy, says “Repeated practice of mindfulness meditation can affect practitioners’ brains on two levels: in the functioning of brain structures (during or outside meditation) and in the structure of the brain structures (in terms of cortical thickness or of grey-matter volume, density).”
Not every part of the brain is equally influenced by mindfulness. Dr Matiz explains that “The structures most associated with the practice of mindfulness meditation are some parts of the frontal lobe, the anterior cingulate and the insula (structures linked to attention, interception and emotion regulation).”
Are these effects long-lasting?
The brain is an extremely plastic organ that changes in response to most activities that we do routinely. Are the impacts of mindfulness long-lasting or do they revert when you stop meditating?
Professor Michael Posner, a psychology expert from Oregon University in the USA, highlights that studying long-term effects can be difficult – “One can instruct the person not to meditate, but if trained it may be that they spontaneously lapse into the meditative state; so, while one can find changes that last over months or longer it is not known whether these may depend in part of lapsing into the meditative state.”
Any long-lasting effects will also be situation dependent. Dr Yi-Yuan Tang, a neurobiology expert from Texas Tech University in the USA, says “It depends on how long you refer to. Some studies showed 2 months of mindfulness could have positive effects on behaviour for several months or longer, but inconsistent results were reported in the literature. Lasting effects on brain plasticity are also related to the dosage of mindfulness.”
Does mindfulness improve mental health long term?
Although there are some studies into how mindfulness causes physical changes in the brain, it is not always clear how these changes translate to how we feel. Perhaps a more important question is whether practicing mindfulness can improve mental health.
There is growing evidence that mindfulness-based interventions can help with common mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and stress. It has also successfully been used for addiction recovery and eating disorders. Whether these effects are long-term is not yet clear, partly because of the difficulties explained by Professor Posner and Dr Tang above.
The takeaway:
It is not clear whether mindfulness has long-lasting effects on the brain, but it seems like the more you practice mindfulness, the stronger the positive results.
May the facts be with you!
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