Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Hippocampal Activation During Silent Mantra Meditation
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Hippocampal Activation During Silent Mantra Meditation
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DOI：
10.1089/acm.2009.0706
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发表时间：
2010-12-01
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Soderfeldt, Birgitta
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Engstrom, Maria;Pihlsgard, Johan;Soderfeldt, Birgitta
目的：本研究的目的是调查是否有中度经验的冥想者激活海马和前额皮质在沉默的口头禅冥想，已经观察到在早期的研究对象与几年的实践。方法：根据昆达里尼瑜伽或Acem传统进行冥想练习不到2年的受试者在无声的口头禅冥想期间通过功能性磁共振成像进行检查，使用开关块设计。全脑以及区域的利益analyses.Results：最显着的激活被发现在双侧海马/海马旁结构。其他显著激活的区域是双侧中扣带皮层和双侧中央前皮层。没有激活前扣带皮层被发现，只有小激活集群观察到在前额叶cortex.Conclusions：总之，在这项研究中的主要发现是显着的激活在大脑皮层，这也一直与冥想在以前的几个研究非常有经验的冥想者。我们认为，海马体在适度的冥想练习后已经被激活，在不同的冥想模式中也是如此，包括放松。海马活动在冥想过程中的作用有待进一步研究，尤其是研究冥想相关的海马活动是否与记忆巩固有关。
Objectives: The objective of the present study was to investigate whether moderately experienced meditators activate hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex during silent mantra meditation, as has been observed in earlier studies on subjects with several years of practice.Methods: Subjects with less than 2 years of meditation practice according to the Kundalini yoga or Acem tradition were examined by functional magnetic resonance imaging during silent mantra meditation, using an on-off block design. Whole-brain as well as region-of-interest analyses were performed.Results: The most significant activation was found in the bilateral hippocampus/parahippocampal formations. Other areas with significant activation were the bilateral middle cingulate cortex and the bilateral precentral cortex. No activation in the anterior cingulate cortex was found, and only small activation clusters were observed in the prefrontal cortex.Conclusions: In conclusion, the main finding in this study was the significant activation in the hippocampi, which also has been correlated with meditation in several previous studies on very experienced meditators. We propose that the hippocampus is activated already after moderate meditation practice and also during different modes of meditation, including relaxation. The role of hippocampal activity during meditation should be further clarified in future studies, especially by investigating whether the meditation-correlated hippocampal activity is related to memory consolidation.